How Does Jesus Teach Us to Compute?
by Erin conner, writer & communications associate
In a recent article entitled "To Gain the World and Lose Your Soul," published by Desiring God, writer Greg Morse powerfully illustrates the problem of ignoring the soul as a result of the distractions and deceptions of our modern world.
Morse writes, "One great feature of modernity, from Satan’s standpoint, is the sheer rejection of the soul. We live in a world stupefied by the material. Ask ten people on the street about their souls — if they don’t wonder aloud, 'What does this babbler wish to say?' (Acts 17:18), they will tell you that if they do have a soul, they have not thought much about it. Even ancient pagan philosophers wrote dense treatises on the soul, but the mass of men today live as though they are soulless. And yet these same people investigate the silliest things under the sun. If anything is worth thought, is it not your soul? 'Claiming to be wise, they became fools'” (Romans 1:22).
In his article, he continues introducing the significance of the soul by asserting, "Hell is being filled not so much with a shaking fist as with a shrug. How little thought, how little attention, how little time or effort is paid to eternity. Many a sinner today thinks thoughts of his everlasting soul as deep as his belly button. His neglect offends both God and his own well-being — he suicides the immortal part of him by his thoughtlessness. If Jesus’s question was needed then, it is needed all the more now. Dip it in fire, carve it in granite, engrave it upon the conscience:'What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?'" (Mark 8:36–37).
In response, Morse shares three Biblical lessons on the soul:
1. Your soul is greater than safety.
"We need to study this before we are tested on it: your soul is worth any suffering to keep. Jesus introduces his question about soul-losing in the context of cross-bearing. He refuses to hide the cost of discipleship. 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'" (Mark 8:34).
2. Your soul is greater than your body.
"Local gyms, hospitals, makeup departments, medicines, and fashion all prove man cares about his physical self. A man cannot suffer a hangnail without it becoming a preoccupation. How much money must he spend to make the illness go away? How much to drink from the fountain of youth? We’ll pay it. How anxious he is to swell that bicep but a few centimeters or trim that midsection a few inches — how many hours, how much pain, what inconvenience he will endure for the body…In all of this, we spend our focus on the wrapping paper of God’s far greater gift. The mass of humanity cares more for healthy and beautiful bodies than they do for healthy and beautiful souls. The one they can see in the mirror; the other is immaterial and, thus, to them unreal. What a tragedy."
2. Your soul is greater than all the world.
Lastly, Morse notes, "Oh, how man excavates the ground for gold. How he crosses oceans, sails from shore to shore, sifts dirt for diamonds — in these he thinks he finds treasure. In these he thinks he finds what matters. How differently does Jesus teach man to compute. Find the buried treasure, capture the pot of gold, unearth Atlantis, fill your barns, attain that celebrity, wealth, and status, and you will gain nothing…The world and all its desires are dust, rotten trash, a loathsome disease compared to riches you already possess by virtue of being a creature with a soul."
Wisely asking his readers to consider Jesus’s second warning, Morse concludes by asking, "What can a man give in return for his soul? The man has lost his soul and wishes to buy it back. What can he give for its return? What would he not give for its return? Yet he does not have the funds. He sold himself cheaply and cannot buy himself back… Reader, you can lose your soul — most do. To lose your soul by thoughtlessness is an easy road and natural. To keep one’s soul in following Jesus to our crosses and beyond — this is supernatural."
This article is a poignant reminder of what is at stake when believers intentionally or unintentionally adopt the world's ways instead of yielding and aligning our souls with the Spirit of God within us (Romans 8:11).
Read the full article "To Gain the World and Lose Your Soul" at DesiringGod.org.
Listen to Christian Union's free teaching series, Seven Keys to Kingdom Advancement.
