John 12:25 - Exposition

He that loves his own life ( ψυχή ); life used as equivalent to "self," in that totality of being which, like the life of the seed-corn, survives the accident of death— he that loves his own life ( self ) is losing £ it ; or, perhaps, destroying it, ipso facto . There are ends and objects of love so much greater than" the self," that to keep it by some act of will and recreant fear is to make it utterly valueless, is really to destroy its true vitality. And he that hateth his ( ψυχή ) life ( self ) in this world , wherever the greater claim of Christ and of the Father would be compromised by loving it, shall veritably preserve it , viz. the self, unto eternal ( ζωή ) life ; i.e. to the blessedness of eternal being. The ψυχή is a great possession; and "what advantageth a man if he should gain the whole world, and lose it?" But if a man persists in gaining the world, and forgets that this earthly existence is not capable of satisfying the demands or finding a sphere for the true self, and so makes the earthly reign or enjoyment of the ψυχή the end of all striving,—then he miserably fails. So far it is clear that our Lord is applying a great principle of the true life to the case of his own Messianic work and ministry. He draws, from a law of the superiority of the Divine life to the fear of death and to the fact of death, a justification of his own approaching doom. He can only by dying live his perfect life, win his greatest triumph; reap his world-wide harvest.