Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Philosophy of life

In the bible, Matthew 10:39 says: "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

My problem with reading the bible is that sometimes I get carried away with one part of a verse but not the context it is written in, hence leading to a different interpretation. In this case, I used to interprete this verse as saying whoever dies for the gospel will receive eternal life, or something to that effect. The context of this verse is:

Matt 10:37 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Surely this verse is talking about what a person prioritizes in his life. If you seek to build a comfortable existence in life with your family members all nice and cozy around you, and if you shy away from any sufferings with Jesus, then when you find what you want in life you are going to lose it.

Two interesting things to note here:
1. Jesus says if you lose your life for his sake you will find it. He means finding eternal life. After all, what else would matter if you indeed die for Christ or for the gospel?
2. On taking up your cross and follow him. .. Jesus said that long before he literally carried the cross to Golgotha. An amazing prophecy, isn't it?

See also Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, and John 12:25. The message is similar but given in different context.

2 comments:

NKoh said...

Thanks Yit Meng

Interesting points raised by you.

If I might add in 2. 'taking up your cross' to me also means paying a price for the gospel sake eg. suffering persecution, being ridiculed or being made fun of, for being a Christian, suffering disdain from family memebers or friends etc.

The cross is uniquely central in the Christian faith. Unfortunately,this doesn't seem to be clearly evident in many cirles.

PTL and keep it up! Nelson

Mama said...

read your blog & noted times when they were penned! how many hours sleep do u have a day? i cracked up laughing at some entries. would love to hear that nursery song you sang into your sixth uncle's recorder. there are diff between your pen persona & your life person! let the real u out!!!
you are a great writer. keep writing. therapeutic! Kim koh