Matthew 10:39 Commentary and Bible Study

This verse is closely connected with the previous and the meaning is similar. In four of the places where this image is used in the Gospels it comes straight after the saying about bearing one’s cross. Is it about martyrdom? Is it about preserving or losing one’s life in that sense? In the most extreme case, it covers martyrdom also, but like the previous saying, it is not limited to how we die; it is about how we live also. This is apparent from the use of the word ‘findeth’; you would not speak of someone finding their life, who avoids martyrdom by disassociating from Christ; you would instead speak of them saving their livesThere is this present fallen world, and there is the glorious kingdom of Christ to come. To find your life now in this fallen world, is to find what the world thinks makes life worth living and to receive your reward from this world. It is to adopt the values of this world, to conform yourself to its mould, because those are the only terms on which it is prepared to reward anyone. The world resents those who reject its values. If you want your reward here and now, then you have no alternative but to please the world. But if you please the world you will displease Christ. You cannot please two such opposite masters at the same time. He hates the world’s values, its approval, and its rewards. He hates its values because the things that man approves are an abomination to God. He hates its approval, because to be approved by the world is to guarantee God’s disapproval. He hates its rewards because they are so small, so worthless, and so short-lived; they do not endure beyond this world, and yet the world speaks so highly of them. They are rewards that deprive us of God’s reward, for the world pays its reward in full now, and there is nothing left in the age to come, neither will God reward those who have served another master.But if we are prepared to lose our lives in this world, and forfeit what would be ours if we served mammon, then Christ will keep a reward for us as his faithful servants. We lived to please him. We remained loyal to him in a world that despised him, and we were not ashamed of him. Our loyalty to him costs us something, and showed him our greater love for him than for the world. And yes, if we are called to lay down our lives for the gospel, then we shall keep them forever; we shall find them in another place where they can never be taken from us again. We will be raised from the dead and receive life incorruptible.