Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Matthew 10:39 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Mt 10:39 |
King James |
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it--another of those pregnant sayings which our Lord so often reiterates (Mat 16:25; Luk 17:33; Joh 12:25). The pith of such paradoxical maxims depends on the double sense attached to the word "life"--a lower and a higher, the natural and the spiritual, the temporal and eternal. An entire sacrifice of the lower, with all its relationships and interests--or, a willingness to make it which is the same thing--is indispensable to the preservation of the higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender the one for the sake of the other shall eventually lose both. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| He that findeth his life ... - The word "life" in this passage is used evidently in two senses. The meaning may be expressed thus: He that is anxious to save his "temporal" life, or his comfort and security here, shall lose "eternal" life, or shall fail of heaven. He that is willing to risk or lose his comfort and "life" here for my sake, shall find "life" everlasting, or shall be saved. The manner of speaking is similar to that where he said, "Let the dead bury their dead." See notes at Mat 8:22. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Findeth (εὑρὼν)
The word is really a past participle, found. Our Lord looked back in thought to each man's past, and forward to its appropriate consummation in the future. Similarly, he who lost (ἀπολέσας). Plato seems to have fore-shadowed this wonderful thought. "O my friend! I want you to see that the noble and the good may possibly be something different from saving and being saved, and that he who is truly a man ought not to care about living a certain time: he knows, as women say, that we must all die, and therefore he is not fond of life; he leaves all that with God, and considers in what way he can best spend his appointed term" ("Gorgias," 512). Still more to the point, Euripides:
"Who knows if life be not death, and death life ?" |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| He that findeth his life shall lose it - He that saves his life by denying me, shall lose it eternally; and he that loseth his life by confessing me, shall save it eternally. And as you shall be thus rewarded, so in proportion shall they who entertain you for my sake. Mat 16:25; Joh 12:25. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
He that findeth his life, etc. - i.e. He who, for the sake of his temporal interest, abandons his spiritual concerns, shall lose his soul; and he who, in order to avoid martyrdom, abjures the pure religion of Christ, shall lose his soul, and perhaps his life too. He that findeth his life shall lose it, was literally fulfilled in Archbishop Cranmer. He confessed Christ against the devil, and his eldest son, the pope. He was ordered to be burnt; to save his life he recanted, and was, notwithstanding, burnt. Whatever a man sacrifices to God is never lost, for he finds it again in God.
There is a fine piece on this subject in Juvenal, Sat. viii. l. 80, which deserves to be recorded here.
- ambiguae si quando citabere testis
Incertaeque rei, Phalaris liect imperet ut sis
Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,
Summum crede nefas Animam praeferre Pudori
Et propter Vitam Vivendi perdere causas
- If ever call'd
To give thy witness in a doubtful case,
Though Phalaris himself should bid thee lie,
On pain of torture in his flaming bull,
Disdain to barter innocence for life;
To which life owes its lustre and its worth
Wakefield |
25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.