Are We Hating Our Lives?

As I was talking to the Lord the other day about living in these times, He led me to these two verses: John 12:25 —The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. *  and Luke 14:26–27 —“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. *And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. *  and I felt compelled to reflect on them, as they seemed to come into my heart with a special force this time. Because of that, I've continued to reflect on them since then and it's amazed me at how blind I've been all these years.  I understood before the basics of what these verses say, just as I'm sure we all do, but they hadn't settled down deep into my heart and soul.  The more I consider them, the more I understand that we're to actually hate our lives in this world, in comparison to the life He offers us.  It's not just that we're to hate our lives here though, it's just as important that we love the Life He is offering us, for if we only have the hate, all that will do is poison us.  It's the love for Him and the Life He gives us, that's will get us through this life without faltering.

Of course all through the Bible we're told to love God and hate evil, but this goes even further, telling us to hate our lives - the lives we're living right now, and instead, to long for real Life, the Life He offers us through our salvation.  

He actually showed me the verses I've printed above in the order I've given them.  For at first I was considering that I was only to hate evil, as His Word tells us too, and never considered the people in my life, especially not those I love.  After all, I'd just finished praying for the salvation of my loved ones and the loved ones each of you have asked prayer for.  How could I hate them???  Yet, He then showed me the verses in Luke.  I've always understood that He meant that we were never to place anyone above Him or before Him, but as I considered it in this context, I came to understand it more fully.  For I think I have often placed them before Him in various ways. I think we all do.  

It reminded me again that our hearts are deceitful and not to be trusted.  (Jeremiah 17:9; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Proverbs 28:26; Mark 7:21–23) That in order to truly determine our own motives, we must go to the Lord and ask Him for wisdom and to show us the Truth. For He is the only One who knows what's truly in our hearts, and only He can reveal any sin that is in us. Considering that, the Lord surprised me by reminding me of this scripture: Matthew 18:8–9 —If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. *And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. * 

We console ourselves and say that the Lord didn't really mean this literally, and often rush through the scripture, not looking at it closely, for it seems awfully harsh.  Yet it's there for a reason and it goes along with the fact that we're to hate our lives here and hate even our most loved ones if we're going to follow the Lord.  He's showing us, yet again, how very important the Life He has for us is in comparison to this life.  See, we think this life is the all in all, but it's not.  It pales greatly in comparison to Real Life - the Life He has for us.  This life is nothing compared to it!

In fact, there is nothing in this life, nothing- including our own bodies, that is worth losing the Life He offers us, or missing out on even one of the great rewards He has for us there!  That's why He goes so far as to tell us to cut off our foot if it's causing us to sin, and yet instead, we'd rather stop reading our Bibles and thinking about Him so that we don't have to deal with being convicted of whatever our pet sin currently is.  

Just after the above verses in Luke, the Lord goes on in Luke 14:28–33, to tell us that because of all of this, we should therefore count the cost of following Him before we start.  Jesus never said that life after salvation would be easy. How could it be "easy" if we're to hate this life and those we love compared to Him and the Life He has for us?  Instead, He tells us to count the cost and then, only if we think it's worth it, are we to take that step and ask to belong to Him.  For this life will be hard, harder than that of unbelievers, not easier.  

How many times and in how many ways does the Lord have to tell us that this life is going to be hard; that the unsaved are going to hate us - not "dislike us", not "just tolerate us", but hate us, before we believe Him? And that includes our loved ones.  How often I complain because it's hard, actually thinking I deserve better!  Why should my life be any easier then my Lord's life here was?  His own family, His mother, brothers and sisters, ridiculed Him and didn't believe Him until after He died and rose again! So why do I bewail the fact that some in my family are the same way, and feel upset, when in fact, He told us it would be this way!  Why do I cling to my loved ones or my possessions, (remember how Jesus told the young man to sell all had and follow Him?) or my sin, when they can't hold a candle to what He has for me?  It's like wanting a handful of dirt instead of a handful of diamonds!

Jesus finishes His talk about the cost of following Him by again saying:  Luke 14:33 —In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. * After which He reminds us that we shouldn't start what we don't intend to finish.  Luke 14:34–35 —“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? *It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” * This reminds me of when He warned us that we cannot serve 2 masters.  We can't love this life and look forward to the next.  Instead He says to hate this life, hate possessions, people, including loved ones, even ourselves and our bodies - anything and anyone that comes between us and Him, and put Him, His Word, and the Life He has for us as the only things worth living for. He says this life will be hard, but it will be more then worth it!

I can't speak for anyone else, but looking at my own life, it certainly doesn't look anything like this.  Suddenly, it seems that I have an awful lot of possessions that I don't need and that actually do hinder my life in Him. Yet, all the while, I'm wanting "more."  It seems that there are people in my life that shouldn't be as well as things; and desires I give in to that I shouldn't.  Suddenly too, I seem to feel very blessed, whereas before I was whining about what I didn't have and wanted.  He's certainly given me a lot to consider!

Eternal Reward and Eternal Life

I was reading Mark today and thought you all might enjoy this. But since I've already really covered the subject on these two studies (and others as well) The reasons for the rapture, the tribulation & the Millennium
Are you ashamed of Jesus?

I'll just paste what the commentary says here. This is one of my favorite teachers and I love how he writes, and I thought you all might enjoy hearing from someone else besides me lol I'm not going to paste the entire commentary on it as it's quite long and I doubt if anyone would read it all, so I'll just post some of it.

Mark 10:35–45 (NIV84) — Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

It really helps to read both the one in Mark and the passage in Matthew to get the full meaning of the passages...but I'm only gong to post the one here.

John and James Seek Favors (Matthew 20:20–28; Mark 10:35–45)

The question put by the two brothers was very perceptive, for they had come to recognize that a believer’s eternal reward is not going to be measured in possessions, but rather in status and glory. They were right, for our Lord did not correct them in any way, thus confirming both that status in the eternal Kingdom is a major element in the believer’s reward, and that reward is somehow related to His glory.

Our Lord explained that John and James would indeed be baptized in the Holy Spirit (this happened at Pentecost) and would also drink the cup of service.

Jesus explained that the two most prestigious positions in His Kingdom will be awarded by His Father, not Him, and will be awarded to the two souls whom God has predetermined will occupy them. This predetermination is based on God’s foreknowledge (Rom 8:29)—foreknowledge of how they and the rest of saved mankind will perform in the use of their independent volition.

He explained that position in the Kingdom of God will be determined by service on this earth (Mark 10:42–45). The more a believer serves on earth, the higher will be his status in God’s eternal Kingdom. This is quite the converse to the worldly pattern (v. 42), but this is the principle in the Church. Study vv. 43–44 carefully, for it actually depicts three categories which encompass the whole Church. The generic plural ‘you’ represents the whole Church, then there are ‘servant’ and ‘slave’; our Lord assures us that the servant on earth will be ‘great’ in the eternal Kingdom, but the slave on earth will be even ‘greater.’ This is the formula for success in the eternal Kingdom of God: self-denying service on earth. The apostles believed this and delighted in the title ‘slave,’ as all the named writers of the epistles attest.

We cannot escape the fact that our Lord taught that in His Kingdom there will be a broad mass of people: those who were essentially content to be ministered to on earth without ministering to others in turn. Then, on a higher plane, there are those who involve themselves in the ministry of the Church (consider Eph 4:12—God intends all saints to be involved in the ministry [service] of the Church). And, finally, on a still higher plane, there are those who have of their own volition resigned all personal rights and have become slaves to Christ—who do His bidding without thought of their own desires, whose dedication to their Lord is pure and complete. They are His slaves on earth, and will enjoy the highest status eternally. Heaven and the New Earth to come are not a classless society; there will be three main classes, just as there were three classes in the temporal society our Lord described in v. 42: commoners, rulers, and great ones (princes).

Your position in that eternal society will not be determined by accident of birth, chance, or happenstance, but on how diligently you serve your Lord on this earth during this life by becoming involved in the affairs of His Kingdom here on earth in the here and now!

This is where the riddle of ‘many who are first will be last, and the last first’ fits (v. 31), for God’s standard for judging each individual is perfect, being based entirely on the individual’s ability and capacity to serve. So many who appear to man to be great achievers for God will be found to have been working beneath their capacity or with the wrong motives and will thus not receive elevated status in eternity, while others, whose gifts were humble but who used them to the full, will be elevated eternally. Nothing could be fairer; no more could be done to encourage you to put your best foot forward for your Lord. You have God’s unbreakable word that He will remunerate you eternally, and His explanation that the only things you do on earth which have any lasting consequence are those things which you do in His service. What are you going to be in glory—a commoner, a ruler, or a prince? The answer lies entirely in your hands!

Eternal Reward and Eternal Life (Matthew 19:24–30; Mark 10:24b–31; Luke 18:24b–30)

This section teaches that the love of riches is a serious hindrance to saving faith, and that it compromises a believer’s eternal status. This section also teaches that God’s eternal recompense makes it impossible to sacrifice for Him......

Jesus concluded this teaching with the assurance that no sacrifice by a believer for Him would go unrewarded in eternity. We will be overcompensated in eternity for any temporal loss. Think on this—you lose something for a lifetime, say seventy years, yet you receive one hundred times more forever, for all eternity, not for a mere seventy years. This must be the best deal any camel trader ever heard of! What did the rich young ruler, who, by the world’s standards, had everything going for him, lose? He had been invited to join Jesus’ apostles, and had he done so he would have sat on a throne judging (ruling) one of the tribes of Israel eternally (Matt 19:28). He would have been the supernumerary to fill Judas’ place after that unworthy disciple’s defection; indeed, he may well have fulfilled the function Paul was called to fill. His riches kept him from eternal honor and reward. How sad!

Mills, M. (1999). The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record (Mt 20:20–Mk 10:45). Dallas, TX: 3E Ministries.