A popular verse to quote to those who want to ‘find themselves’ as they mature is Jesus’ comment immediately following His teaching on worthiness. He said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The quote is usually given at face value to those who are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. The intention behind giving it is to gracefully note that all they really need to do is find Jesus, and the impact and significance of their lives will become clear (making their existential search moot). Yet to quote it with this intention is to lift the words of Jesus out of context. Jesus isn’t talking here to those who haven’t found Him. In fact, this verse is in the middle of His commissioning of the twelve disciples. Jesus is speaking this quote to those who do know Him, have committed themselves to Him, have left everything behind to follow Him and are preparing to go on a missionary journey for Him.
The context is that Jesus is speaking about His own worth. That knowing Him and following Him and obeying Him – even unto suffering and death – is worth losing everything else. Recall how He just said, “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; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Seen in context, the meaning of His statement about loosing our lives for His sake becomes clearer.
The reader must then ask, “Why would Jesus say that to those who have left everything to follow Him?” The answer to that question is hidden in the wider context of the full text of Matthew’s Gospel. In 4:20 we read of Simon and Andrew, “At once they left their nets and followed him.” In 4:22 we read of James and John, “…immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” So we know that the disciples have left their careers, and in some cases their families, so that they could follow Jesus. Yet it is not until chapter 19 that Peter could confidently say, “We have left everything to follow you!” Here in chapter 10 they are not there yet.
The reality is that we really haven’t left everything until we have literally left everything. Leaving something significant to follow Jesus is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning. To leave family and business and career behind is but the first step.
To walk on further with Jesus you will have to cross your internal reluctance barrier, and bring the Gospel (which is within yourself) to those who do not have it yet. To do that you have to leave your insecurity behind. You have to leave your fear behind. You have to leave your comfort behind. You have to leave all the security your own culture gives you behind, and go.
Jesus was preparing His disciples for missionary service. To do that effectively, they’d have to step forward in faith in ways they had not done before.
The application of that lesson to our lives is as obvious as the day is long. Jesus’ comment hangs ever before us. Are we ready for the next step in following Him? Because to take that next step, we first have to loose something of ourselves.
True freedom is freedom to be my true self, as God made me and meant me to be. But God made me for loving, and loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself, and give myself in love for God and others. In order to be free, I have to serve. In order to live, I have to die to my own self-centredness. In order to find myself I have to lose myself in loving. I have read somewhere that Michelangelo put it beautifully in these words: ‘When I am yours, then at last I am completely myself.’ For I am not myself until I am yours.
John Stott
APPLICATION: Intentionality
Read John Stott’s quote again. Let that idea sink into your soul, that today you might live more for Christ than you ever have before.