JUNE 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

 

JUNE 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#19  

“For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, 

and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, You are forever “Teaching” us of the Kingdom and leading us

 in paths of righteousness but Lord also keep us aware that these are done

 for “His name’s sake” and all that we do should be directed toward

 pleasing God by our obedience as You were Obedient,

 even unto death. 

Lord Jesus, the world is always pulling us into temptation by drawing

 our attention to ourselves so Lord keep reminding us 

to turn our eyes to You for You Lord always point us to the Father.

 Remind us daily that only God has created “eternal souls” 

and that it is God alone that will “judge” all souls 

and determine where that soul will dwell in eternity. 

Thank you Jesus for keeping the kingdom ever before us 

to open our spiritual eyes to the Truth of God 

and blind us to the lies of the world.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has “lived” each Lesson that He has Taught His disciples 

and Jesus uses Questions to reveal the 

“Truth of God” 

by introducing terms and phrases that are “universal” 

in our understanding of things we EXPERIENCE in our day-to-day existence. 

Jesus knows all things so His Questions are His Way to get us to turn

 our attention to things we know from the “physical” world 

and relate them to things Jesus is Teaching about the 

“Spiritual” world —

Jesus asks Questions but the reason they make so much sense is that 

Jesus has lived out the Truth of each Lesson 

and now He is opening our 

“spiritual” eyes to Kingdom Truth 

by drawing our attention to the 

“Way” 

He lived His Life before men. 

With JQ#19 Jesus uses the term “soul” 

and He has set the term “soul” 

against the term “profit” and the phrase “gain the whole world” 

as He Masterfully gets our mind to consider something our hearts 

have desired from the world — “profit” —

 and as we are considering that with which we are familiar, 

Jesus hits us with a reality Question like 

“OK, let’s say you ‘gain’ the ‘whole world’, but once you ‘possess’ 

all the wealth in the world, will you still have ‘enough’

 to keep from losing your soul?” 

One always thinks about what we could buy if we won the lottery

 and Jesus is saying here that instead of thinking about “physical” 

things that we can “buy with money” that 

we should think about the “spiritual” things 

that money cannot buy! 

The Truth of God is that everything was created by God, 

including money and wealth, but what we miss is that God

 has also created “Value” and that is why Jesus has 

warned us repeatedly against accumulating

 “worldly treasures” (Matthew 6:19) 

and encourages us to 

“seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” 

(Matthew 6:33).  

Jesus Teaches that

 in God’s eyes we have “Spiritual value” 

and since 

God is Spirit (John 4:23-24) that 

Jesus is Teaching us to consider our “value” 

from the “spiritual” viewpoint (see Matt 6:25-26 and 10:31)

 and therefore we should consider why Jesus keeps 

directing our thoughts to our “soul”?

 Jesus has previously taught; 

{1} “It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, 

and a servant like his master. (Matthew 10:25) 

{2} “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

 But rather fear Him who is able to destroy 

both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) 

{3} “Then [His disciples] understood [Jesus was teaching] … 

beware the doctrine of the 

Pharisees and the Sadducees [men]” (Matthew 16:12) 

Therefore in order to really 

“understand” the “value” of the “soul” to God 

we should not only listen to what Jesus Teaches about the 

“soul”

 but we should look at the 

“Way”

 Jesus lived

 HIS TIME IN THE FLESH (John 1:14)

to understand

 “Spiritual Truth”, ——— 

or do you have a better “retirement” plan 

or insurance policy for the afterlife 

than the one being presented by 

God’s Only Begotten Son?       

JUNE 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#19 “For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

 

JUNE 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#19  

“For what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world, 

and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord Your Mercy is given new to us every morning and Your Grace 

is sufficient to take us through everything that we will encounter

 on our daily journey to the Kingdom. 

Lord Jesus, I do not know what trials, what tribulations, what temptations, 

or what mountain top victories that You have planned for us today 

but I do know that You have promised to never leave us nor forsake us 

and that You will take us “through” every valley, trial, and temptation safely 

so that we may have confidence that every thing works to our good

 if we but Love the Lord.

 Jesus, to You be the Glory and all Honor for Worthy is the Lamb of God 

that was slain, that we could be called the children of God!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus knows how to get our attention and I am sure that the 

“attention-getter” word above is “profit” ——— 

and everyone must deal with “profit” in our daily world 

and the necessity of “earning a living” in what “profiteers” 

call a “dog-eat-dog” world. 

These are the “ways” of the world and it is because that we have been taught

 for generations that “mammon is king” that we now look

 at this term “profit” as “money” and that as we read the verse, 

we think only in terms of how big our bank account is. 

There is a reason that Jesus used the term “profit” and even in my limited intellect

 I can see the advantage of Jesus using a “universal” term 

to gain “universal” attention to Teach a “universal” lesson. 

The lessons that we miss though are the really important ones 

that are overlooked when we lazily settle for the “low hanging fruit” 

for we have also been taught by the world that “instant gratification” 

is the Holy Grail of getting “more” so we grab that which is most easily reached

 and can quickly be consumed so that we, like locust,  can consume

 as much as our voracious appetites for “more” demands. 

Jesus, being the Master Teacher therefore puts a “universally” known term 

into the Question along with terms lesser known by the world

 in order to get our attention away from the “physical world” 

to focus on the “spiritual world” 

and in the comparison Jesus shows us the “True Value” 

of what we desire to possess. 

To make His point, Jesus uses the term “profit” at the beginning of the Question

 but the way the Question is asked we must start comparing 

the term “profit”

 with the term “soul”! 

In our daily lives we are always thinking about how we are going to “pay” 

for things like food, clothing, shelter, and the “really” important things

 like vacations, TVs, cell phones, data plans, and computers 

but very seldom do we think of using anything but “money” to pay 

for all our worldly stuff — in fact, 

we are so consumed by “making a living” 

that we fail to understand the term “profit” correctly 

or to consider the “true value” of our possessions! 

Our attention on the world and money is by the enemy’s design, 

and Jesus knows that He must open our eyes or we will be blind to the

 TRUTH 

that the “world and money” can NOT buy anything 

“Everlasting”

 — therefore Jesus grabs our attention with the word “profit” 

and immediately Teaches with the phrase

 “if he gains the whole world”

 which defines the true meaning of “profit” as “gain”.

 So in the JQ#19 Question is the start of the Lesson of 

“What is it in our life that we must address 

to make ‘true gains’ in our life 

that have ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal consequences’”??? 

— Jesus Taught His disciples this Lesson several different ways 

and we read the advice of “the disciple that Jesus loved“ 

and also the disciple that wrote the final Jesus Lesson:

 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” as John teaches

 what He learned from Jesus about the world: 

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. 

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

For all that is in the world ———

the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life ——— 

is not of the Father but is of the world. 

And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; 

but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 

(1 John 2:15-17)  

That pretty much sums up where Jesus is going with this 

“profit of the world” verses our “eternal soul” Lesson.

 We see by the followup question Jesus asks 

“Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul”

 (Matthew 16:26b — second part of JQ#19) 

that Jesus has Masterfully brought out the true meaning of “profit” 

to get us thinking straight about our 

“eternal reality”. 

And now Jesus debunks the “money” myth by asking us what we think 

we have that is of any

 “spiritual value” 

that we can 

“exchange” 

for our 

“soul”??? 

— certainly it becomes obvious that Jesus is Teaching 

that all the money in the world is worthless 

when it comes to purchasing “eternity”

 and that our “soul” is “not for sale” at any worldly price! 

This is a very important Question for us to consider — 

“If ‘money’ is worthless in the Kingdom, 

what will we use to ‘purchase’ our ‘ticket to eternity’”? 

Surely Jesus has given us a clue in the Question 

and don’t you think that it may have something to do with our 

“soul” since He has used the terms “profit” and “exchange”

 and followed them both with the term

 “soul”?

 Jesus always gives the answer for every Question 

so let’s look at the context in the verses Matthew 16:21 to Matthew 17:13

 and see what Jesus was Teaching when He asked this question about

 “…what profit is it to man if he gains the whole world?”

 Do you believe, like me, that Jesus gives us the answer by the way HE LIVED?