Sources of Life || Matthew 16:25 || Manna for the Mind #74

Welcome to Day 74 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional series! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today’s passage is Matthew 16:25. It will feel very repetitious because all the verses I will use will say approximately the same thing. Still, they’ll approach it from different perspectives. Matthew, Luke, and John shared the same message. Still, their audiences were different, so they had to tailor their teachings to best understand their audience. Let’s begin with Matthew 16:25, which says:

25          If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

The possibility of physically losing their lives was a genuine fear that the disciples and Jesus had to worry about. That’s why Jesus wanted to make sure that they were still committed. Their response would show the genuine discipleship that they had in their hearts, pledging their whole existence to God’s service. Now, we (based on my American society and culture) don’t have the same risk of losing our physical lives because of our religion. Unfortunately, Christians often take the lives of others who don’t believe because of the different religious structures. However, what does this mean for us in the world today?

If we try to save our physical lives from death, pain, or discomfort, we take the risk of losing our eternal life. This sounds strange and harsh, but think about this with me. Suppose we try to protect ourselves from the pain that God calls us to suffer. In that case, we begin to die spiritually and emotionally. “Why would God call us to suffer?” I hear a lot of you asking that question verbatim. I don’t have a direct answer, but the Spirit said this to me. Often, our suffering is a result of a separation from God. We choose to live life our way and stray from the path God created for us. To get us back on that path, which is right and just, we would need to recognize that the path we’re currently on, which feels right and just, isn’t the correct one. It could result in suffering, job loss, relationship loss, arguments, anxieties and fear, and more. It comes from facing a situation that leads us to call on God to help us. God doesn’t want us to suffer at all, but he wants us to follow him and obey the commands he gives us without question. Because we don’t listen most of the time, he has to wait for us patiently to mess up and realize that trying to do life without him is complex and not worth continuing. When we give our lives to Jesus and serve him with all of who we are, we find the true purpose of living.

The remaining three passages will highlight those purposes. Let’s start with Matthew 10:39, which says:

39          If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

Clinging to the things about this life can cause us to lose the best that Jesus gives us in this world and our eternal lives. The more we focus on the different rewards we have in this life: leisure, power, status, financial security), the more we will find their empty blessings. They’ll often feel like it’s not enough, and we’ll continue striving for more and do things that we might feel guilty and ashamed about in getting there. How God calls us to enjoy life is to loosen our grip on those things and keep our focus on how to follow Jesus. To enjoy the best that God gives us, we need to let him free us from depending on the world’s rewards. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t work for a paycheck, have nice things, etc. It’s saying not to have them be an extreme focus of our lives. Our life should be focused on God while viewing everything else as a blessing from God. We’ll receive eternal life and begin to experience the benefits of following him when we do that.

Luke 17:33 says it this way:

33          If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.

Those who live for themselves show these common attitudes: materialism, believing that everything they earn is real and that unseen things are just dreams and ideas; individualism, believing that they determine their own standards and destiny. The wisdom they have comes from inside of them, and no one else can judge them for it. Skepticism is believing that everyone has an agenda and that they won’t trust anyone.

Having these attitudes may make them think they’re protecting themselves. Still, they’re actually cutting themselves off from finding the true meaning of life through a loving relationship with God through Jesus and the eternal life that comes with it.

I live with a variety of these lifestyles at times. I’m very protective over the things I have and earn. I struggle with discerning the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit and from my own logic. I have a hard time trusting others when it comes to their help. Yet, my relationship with God has grown stronger daily as I understand who God is and how I can be like Jesus.

John 12:25 says it this way:

25          Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

We must be so committed to living for Jesus that we do not care for our lives by comparison. It doesn’t mean that we want to die or that we need to be careless and destructive with the life God’s given us. It means we’re willing to die if doing so will glorify Christ. Dying to save someone who might have died themselves is a way to take care of your neighbor to the point of death. Dying to protect someone who is getting abused. It’s been willing to sacrifice your own well-being to share the compassion and love of Christ with them in whatever way possible.

We must disown the tyrannical rule of self-centeredness. We can serve God lovingly and freely by laying aside our wants to gain advantages over each other and finding security and pleasure. Releasing control of our lives and transferring control to Jesus bring us eternal life and genuine joy. It’s the one less thing we need to worry about. Releasing that control allows us to focus on what God is calling us to do, learn how to do it, and act on it in a way that glorifies him. When we do that, we will find new sources of joy and happiness from serving God in new and exciting ways.

Father God, thank you for the life you so graciously gave us. Help us release the control we try to hang on to so tightly. By releasing it, we trust that you are the ultimate provider of everything we need. The freedom in this release can lead us to do things for the kingdom and our neighbors’ benefit. Help us recognize where we can serve our neighbors to glorify you. It’s in your name, we pray. Amen.