John Calvin Commentary John 12:25

"He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." — John 12:25 (ASV)

He who loveth his soul shall destroy it. To doctrine Christ joins exhortation; for if we must die in order that we may bring forth fruit, we ought patiently to permit God to mortify us. But as He draws a contrast between the love of life and the hatred of life, we ought to understand what it is to love and hate life.

He who, under the influence of an immoderate desire for the present life, cannot leave the world except by constraint, is said to love life. Conversely, he who, despising life, advances courageously to death, is said to hate life.

This does not mean that we ought absolutely to hate life, which is justly considered one of God’s highest blessings. Rather, believers ought cheerfully to lay it down when it hinders them from approaching Christ, just as a man who wishes to hurry in some matter would shake off a heavy and disagreeable burden from his shoulders.

In short, to love this life is not in itself wrong, provided that we only pass through it as pilgrims, keeping our eyes always fixed on our destination. For the true limit of loving life is this: when we continue in it as long as it pleases God, and when we are prepared to leave it as soon as He shall order us—or, to express it in a single word, when we carry it, as it were, in our hands and offer it to God as a sacrifice.

Whoever carries his attachment to the present life beyond this limit destroys his life; that is, he consigns it to everlasting ruin. For the word destroy (ἀπολέσει) does not signify to lose, or to sustain the loss of something valuable, but to devote it to destruction.

His soul. It frequently happens that the word ψυχή (soul) is put for life. Some consider it as denoting, in this passage, the seat of the affections, as if Christ had said, “He who too much indulges the desires of his flesh destroys his soul.” But that is a forced interpretation. The other interpretation is more natural: that he who disregards his own life takes the best method of enjoying it eternally.

In this world. To make the meaning still clearer, the phrase in this world, which is expressed only once, ought to be understood as if repeated. The meaning would then be: “They do not take the proper method of preserving their life who love it in this world; on the other hand, they truly know how to preserve their life who despise it in this world.”

Indeed, whoever is attached to the world, of his own accord, deprives himself of the heavenly life, of which we cannot be heirs in any other way than by being strangers and foreigners in the world. The consequence is that the more anxious any person is about his own safety, the further he removes himself from the kingdom of God—that is, from the true life.

He who hateth his soul. I have already suggested that this expression is used comparatively, because we ought to despise life insofar as it hinders us from living to God. For if meditation on the heavenly life were the prevailing sentiment in our hearts, the world would have no influence in detaining us.

From this, we also obtain a reply to an objection that might be raised: “Many persons, through despair or for other reasons, and chiefly from weariness of life, kill themselves; and yet we will not say that such persons provide for their own safety, while others are hurried to death by ambition, who also rush down to ruin.”

But here Christ speaks expressly of that hatred or contempt of this fading life which believers derive from the contemplation of a better life. Consequently, whoever does not look to heaven has not yet learned how life must be preserved.

Besides, this latter clause was added by Christ to strike terror into those who are too desirous of the earthly life. For if we are overwhelmed by the love of the world, so that we cannot easily forget it, it is impossible for us to go to heaven. But since the Son of God arouses us so violently, it would be the height of folly to sleep a mortal sleep.