The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 153

what is tbe uso of a life preserved at the cost of honour and fidelity? It is not really saved, for it is so degraded that it has become a wcdhless thin". Thus it is a wasted life, a lost life. The same is true to-day under other circumstances. The man who denies Christ for his own convenience lowers himself to the level of worthlessness. He who greedily grasps at his own pleasure to the neglect of higher interests so impoverishes hie nature by his mean and narrow way of living that his life is really ruined. This is the case on earth. It will be more apparent in the next world, when Christ comes to" render unto every man according to his deeds" (ver. 27). Even in spiritual things, if a man's religion is purely selfish it will be of no use to him. If he thinks only of his own salvation, and nothing of the service of Christ and the benefit of his fellow-men, he will be lost. It is not the teaching of Christ that our great business is to save ourselves. Religious teachers are greatly to blame for inculcating this most unchristian notion. Christ comes to save us from ourselves; but this will not be effected by the cultivating of a habit of supreme self-seeking in religion. Such a habit is ruinous to all that is worthy in a man. Therefore ver. 26, which is often quoted in favour of a self-seeking religion, should be read in the light of ver. 25. II. SELF-LOSING IS SELF-FINDING. This is the opposite to the principle just con- sidered; it has a positive importance of its own that demands careful consideration. How is the paradox verified in experience? We must first of all call to mind the immediate circumstances our Lord had in view. His disciples were being warned of coming persecutions. Some of them would lose their Ii ves in martyrdom. Yet then they would most truly find them, for they would be the heirs of life eternal, and would live on in the bright future. That is the first lesson of the words. But they go much furfoer. What is true under persecution is true at all times. The martyr-temper is the Christian spirit. We gain the only life worth living on earth when we deny our- selves and embark on a career of unselfish service, The abandonment of selfish aims is the acquisition of heavenly treasures. There is a blessedness in the life of obedience and self-surrender that the selfish can never know. Happiness is not attained by directly aiming at it; it comes in as a surprise to him who is not seeking it when he is busy in unselfish service. Now, these lessons are driven home and clenched by the obvious truth of the following verse (ver. 26), What is the use of a world of we:i.lth to a man who loses his life in acquiring it? The pearl-seeker who is drowned in the moment of clutching his gem is a supreme loser even while he is a gainer. Nothing will compensate a man for making shipwreck of his life by self-seeking.-W. F. A. Vers. 13-19.-Peter's confession. This renewed retirement of our Lord is best accounted for by his need of quiet. What was now to be done? Another P:i.ssover was coming round. To proclaim himself at Jerusalem was indeed certain death; and yet was not the hour for taking this step at last come? Filled with inward conflict, our Lord journeys on and on until he finds himself at the very edge of the land of Israel, But when his own mind is marl.e up be :i.t once communicates with the disciples, because it was necessary that those who were to be his witnesses should understand the state of matters and should willingly accompany him on the fatal journey to Jerusalem. And in asking them to declare frankly what they thought about him, he wished them to do this in presence of their remembrance of other and more generally received opinions, and feeling that the weight of authority was against them. With that generous outburst of affectionate trust which should ring through every creed, Peter exclaims, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.n Our Lord does not conceal his intense relief and keen satisfaction. "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for this faith is wrought in thee not by mere logical inferences from my works, nor by weighing other men's opinions, but by that enlightenment which God produces and suffers never again to be obscured." In this divinely wrought con- viction of Pater's onr Lord finds at last the foundation-stone or solid rock on which the earthly building of his Church can be raised. Now for the first time does he introduce his disciples to the great idea that this divinely wrought power to see bis nature and confess him is destined to form men Into the most distinct and permanent of associa- tions; that a new society is now begun in this little circle, 11 society, however, formed of those whom God calls, and who are distinguished from all others by their attach- ment to what is Divine, and by their being recipients of a Divine teaching. The 156 TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. tea, xvt. 1-28.