Lovers Or Haters?

Lovers or Haters?

Read: John 12:23-26

“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.”

John 12:25

“A man’s greatest care should be for that place where he dwelleth longest; eternity should be his scope.”

—Thomas Manton

IN WORD Human nature wants it all. We want to live forever in God’s presence, but we’re reluctant to sacrifice anything in the meantime. We want heaven on earth as well as heaven in heaven. The fact that this is a spiritual impossibility doesn’t faze us. We want it anyway.

Jesus doesn’t offer His disciples an impossibility. He speaks in harsh realities. We must make a choice: Invest ourselves in this life—which is passing and subject to decay—or invest in the kingdom of God—which is eternal. There is no “all of the above” in Jesus’ gospel presentation. It’s either one or the other.

This is hard on us, especially those of us who have been trained to believe only what we see. We see this life; we want to be comfortable in it. We strive to regain Eden, creating our insulated lifestyles and filling them with conveniences and pleasures. It just isn’t within our human nature to forsake all that the world offers us for a kingdom we can’t even see. But Jesus never calls us to live according to our human nature; He calls us to die. The One who likens Himself to a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, only to produce more wheat in the long run, tells His disciples to do the same. He is the prototype; we are the followers. Just as He makes His choice between the Cross and this passing world, so must we. There is no middle ground. We have to pick sides.

IN DEED Can you honestly say that you hate your life in this world? Or at least that your hope in eternal life pales your here-and-now plans by comparison? If not, Jesus calls you to radically change your perspective. You cannot hang on to your visible life and your eternal life at the same time. One must be forsaken. Which will it be?