Better to Lose the World Than Your Soul
When Noah received the message about the judgment on the earth and all flesh, the next thing he did was prepare his entire life for that moment. Why? Everything from the moment the judgment came was vanity; they were going to be destroyed anyway, so why put your heart into something that has been judged by water? The judgment was this: Genesis 6:13 — “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
The judgment was that everything would be completely destroyed, back to its default settings as it was in the beginning when the earth was void… So it meant it made no sense then what anyone gained on this earth, since everything was going to be destroyed. I mean, if my focus is to build more mansions, establish more businesses, when a judgment has been given that everything will be destroyed, what will it be useful for? If it won’t matter where I am going, why not be content with what I have and look for what’s ahead?
And now this is what we are being told today, just as in Noah’s days. 2 Peter 3:10 — “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Everything will be destroyed completely and you won’t even find its smoke or ashes anywhere; that’s an annihilation of the heavens, the earth, and all its works.
The question then is: what exactly are you living for? Solomon tells us, “vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” The money, the marriage, the lands, the houses, the job, the prestige — all that a man toils for — why is it so? Because judgment has already been given. Once the judgment has come that everything will be completely destroyed and there will be no trace of it, then it means whatever a man builds here is just grasping at the wind.
The people of that day were arguing about marriage, and Jesus told them — bro, where we are heading to there is no marriage, no family, no brothers or sisters, no mother; you are like an angel. In other words, you are a new creation the day you were born of water and the Spirit. You are no longer that man who was conceived by a woman. No and no — you are a NEW BEING. So if you are, then why set your heart on this dying world? Why should they be a reason you cannot serve the Lord? Why should they be a reason you will lose your soul?
You are new; your citizenship is also not here but in heaven, so everything about you should be about this newness. Don’t let anything of any form, whether joy or pain, loss or gain be the reason you will be left behind when the trumpet is sounded. Someone stole your company; the man who promised to marry you at the last moment changed his mind — so you want to kill yourself? The family rejected you; someone used dishonest means to take your land; someone impregnated you and ran away and now you are left with a child to take care of — so? You were scammed?
You did not get anyone to help you with your school? You don’t have a place for shelter? So because of these things you will lose your soul? Because of these you can’t prepare for the coming? There is no pain on this earth, no loss on this earth that can be compared to being tormented in fire not for a day, a year, or a century but forever. Just name any loss in this world that can be compared to it, I am waiting. This is why Jesus says: “It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” — Mark 9:47
What Jesus is saying is that it is better for me to be homeless and make the kingdom of God than to live in a palace and be tormented day and night in hell in the end.
What are the necessities or basic needs of life — clothing, shelter, food, money, marriage, land? These are what Jesus represented with the eye. That the pain of losing or living without any of these cannot be compared to swimming forever in the lake of fire.
It’s not that having them is bad, but if in our pursuit of them we end up sinning against God and losing our lives in the end, then being without it is better. If money will cause me to lose eternal life, then what Jesus is simply saying is that it is better to enter eternal life in poverty than to gain riches and lose your soul. He is saying that if marriage will lead you into adultery and cost you eternal life, then it is better to remain single forever — because where we are going, there is no such thing as marriage; you are a new creation in a completely new world of its own.
Jesus is simply telling you and me that if, in your poverty, you are going to do things that will cause you to lose your soul, then He is saying: find something to do with your hands so that you don’t sin against Him in your poverty and lose your soul. He is saying that if refusing to sign a fraudulent contract will cost you your home, then go ahead and don’t sign it — let your landlord kick you out. As long as you will gain your soul, endure the pain and embrace the suffering. That’s what it means to pluck out your eye. It’s not the plucking that is most painful, but living each day without it for the rest of your life — that’s where the real pain lies.
But, brethren, no pain on this earth can be compared to one losing his soul in the lake of fire. If you are going to remain poor and still gain your soul, Jesus is saying — so be it.
If you are going to remain barren and yet gain your soul, then in Jesus’ eyes you haven’t lost anything. If you’re going to lose the job because you refused to sleep with that man, Jesus is saying — pop some champagne! You’ve gained, not lost. If you’re going to be homeless but have your soul secured, then go for it. Your pain is only for a moment. It is 70 years of pain in this world against 99999… years in the lake of fire or the new earth. You decide.
You see, this is the mind God wants us to have — what Paul tells us by the renewal of our mind: to have the same mind as that of Christ when He was here on earth as the Son of Man. If we get this, we will not spend a year praying for jobs, food, money, to build houses, fasting and praying for a husband or praying for a wife, praying to get a visa to travel abroad. They are good, but do you know what God requires? That we grow in the knowledge of His Word, we conform to His will and become the perfect men God wants us to be, and walk in the newness of life as though we are in heaven because this place is passing away.
So all our works should be for this purpose, not focusing and praying for vanities that come to destroy us in the end.
It is because of the mindset we have, that is why all our prayer is about gaining the world. While God in heaven wants us to lose the world, we are rather praying to Him to gain it. Everyone has something they are looking for: “God, give me this, give me that,” and God is also looking for us to turn from our evil and obtain eternal life, while we want to obtain temporal comfort, we want to obtain all the good in a world that has been judged with fire. He is looking to give us a perfect world, where there is no pain, sorrow, death, or any kind of it.
Revelation 21: 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there *shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:* for the former things are passed away.
All the good things we desire in this world, God has already thought of them too; that’s why He said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the Lord, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) He wants to give us something eternal, while we often desire things that are temporal and may last only 70 years, when men once lived up to 969 years. But what God has for us is not time-bound; it is a forever unchanging state of joy.
Next: Part 3: Prepare To Meet Thy God: That’s Your Whole Duty on This Earth
