Read Matthew 10 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
Matthew 10:16-42 Chiastic Structure
He who finds his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake shall find it. Mat 10:39
When I was young, this Scripture always puzzled me. If you find your life you shall lose it? If you lose your life you shall find it?
But this is where we learn an important key of Biblical interpretation: that context is king. All manner of Scriptures can be twisted to mean all manner of things that Yeshua or God never said, when we lift the Scripture out of its context.
Here the context is of being brought before councils and kings because of our testimony of Yeshua. The context is being delivered up even by family because of our testimony of Yeshua. The context is persecution for the Gospel’s sake, and possibly even death because of it.
The context is telling us, that if, in order to preserve our life from being delivered up, from being persecuted, from being hated by all, and from being at odds with even our own family, we water down the Gospel message to make it acceptable to the world, then we will have ultimately lost our life when the Son of Man comes. We have preserved the comfort of our life and body on this side of heaven at the expense of the eternity of our soul on that side of heaven.
But if, in order to preserve the full strength of the Gospel of the kingdom, and our testimony of Yeshua, we do not deny Yeshua before men, and all of the above persecution ends up happening to us, we have preserved the eternity of our soul on that side of heaven at the expense of the comfort of our life and body on this side of heaven.
The Gospel of Messiah Yeshua is radical, and the kingdoms of this world, where satan is king, do not like it. It calls them to give allegiance to the True King, forsaking their own self, pleasures, and power. We should not be surprised when persecution arises because of the Word’s sake.
If there are questions, this is a good resource:
Matthew 10, In the service of the King – Christine Miller
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