Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 16:25

"For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it." — Matthew 16:25 (ASV)

Whoever will save his life, ... whoever will lose his life... — There is a subtle distinction in the Greek that English fails to represent. The first clause reads, “Whoever wishes to save his life” (the construction is the same as in Matthew 16:24), while the second is, “Whoever shall lose his life.” It is as if recognizing that no one could wish to lose his life for the sake of losing it, though he might be ready to surrender it if called upon.

The word translated as “life” is the same as “the soul” of the next verse. For the most part, it means physical life rather than the soul with its modern associations, and it is never used as a simple equivalent for the spirit of man as the heir of immortality. Strictly speaking, it is the animating principle of the natural life, as distinguished from the spiritual life.

In the fuller trichotomy of the New Testament, man consists of “body, soul, and spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:23), with the soul being the connecting link between the other two.

The truth is, of course, presented as a paradox, contrasting the two aspects of the soul, or psyche. To be bent on saving the soul in its relation to the body is to lose it in its relation to the higher life of the spirit. To be content to part with it in its lower aspect is to gain it back again in its higher one.