Matthew 16:26

For what is a man profited,.... Such persons, though they are only seeking their own profit, will find themselves most sadly mistaken; for of what advantage will it be to such a man, if he shall gain

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Our interpreters, by translating the same word soul in this verse which they had translated life , let us know that they understood it here of that essential part of man which we call the soul, in which sense it could not be understood in that verse, for it is impossible in that sense to lose our soul for Christ’ s sake. Some think that it hath the same sense here as in that verse, and that our Saviour argues here from the less to the greater, thus: Men will lose any thing rather than their lives; skin for skin, and all that a man hath, for his life; and this is but reasonable, for if a man lose his life to get the world, what will the world gotten do him good? What can be a proportionable exchange or compensation to him for that? Now if you value your temporary life at that rate, how much more ought you to value your eternal being and existence! It cometh much to the same, only the sense is plainer if we take it as our translators have taken it, for otherwise part of the argument is not expressed, but left to be understood, or supplied from the next verse. So as the sense is this: Besides bodies which may be killed by persecutors, you carry about with you immortal souls of infinitely more value; and besides a temporal life, of which you are in possession, there is an eternal state, which awaits you. You are creatures ordained to an eternal existence, either in misery or in happiness. Admit you could, by pleasing yourselves, denying me, shifting the cross, declining a life according to my precepts and example, prolong your temporal life, yet what will you get by it, considering that by it you must suffer loss as to your eternal happy existence, for I shall then deny you before my Father and his angels? Can any thing you can get or save in this world be a proportionable exchange for eternal happiness?

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Ver. 26. Yet what is a man profited] Francis Xanerius counselled John the Third, King of Portugal, to meditate every day a quarter of an hour on this divine sentence. If there could, saith a reverend divine, be such a bargain made, that he might have the whole world for the sale of his soul, he should, for all that, be a loser by it. For he might, notwithstanding, be a bankrupt, a beggar, begging in vain, though but for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue. Is it nothing then to lose an immortal soul, to purchase an ever-living death? The loss of the soul is in this verse set forth to be 1. incomparable; 2. irreparable. If, therefore, to lose the life for money be a madness, what then the soul? What wise man could fetch gold out of a fiery crucible? hazard himself to endless woes for a few waterish pleasures? give his soul to the devil, as some popes did for the short enjoyment of the Papal dignity? What was this but to wilt Venice, and then to be hanged at the gates thereof, as the proverb is. In great fires men look first to their jewels, then to their lumber; so should these see first to their souls, to secure them, and then take care of the outward man. The soldier cares not how his buckler speeds, so his body be kept thereby from deadly thrusts. The pope persuading Maximilian (king of Bohemia, afterwards emperor) to be a good Catholic, with many promises of profits and preferments, was answered by the king that he thanked his Holiness; but that his soul’ s health was more dear to him than all the things in the world. Which answer they said in Rome was a Lutheran form of speech, and signified an alienation from the obedience of that see; and they began to discourse what would happen after the old emperor’ s death. Or what shall a man give in exchange] He would give anything in the world, yea, 10,000 worlds if he had them, to be delivered. But out of hell there is no redemption. Hath the extortioner pillaged, or the robber spoiled thy goods? By labour and leisure thou mayest recover thyself again. But the soul once lost is irrecoverable. Which when the guilty soul at death thinks of, oh, what a dreadful shriek gives it, to see itself launching into an infinite ocean of scalding lead, and must swim naked in it for ever! How doth it, trembling, warble out that doleful ditty of dying Adrian the emperor: " Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes comesque corporis, Quae nunc abibis in loca Horridula, sordida, tristia, Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos?" Mr Ley’ s Monitor of Mortality. Non magis iuvabitur, quam qui acquirat Venetias, ipse vero suspendatur ad Portam ut est in proverbio. Par.

(26) what is a man profited . . .?—It is not without a purpose that what may be called the argument of expediency is here brought in. Even the self-denial of Mat 16:24 does not exclude the thought, for those who are still within the range of its influence, of what, in the long-run, will profit us most. There is a self-love which, in spite of the strained language of an exaggerated and unreal philanthropy, is ennobling and not debasing. In exchange for his soul.—The English introduces an apparent antithesis of language (as has just been noticed) in place of the identity of the original. It would be better to keep “life” in both verses. If there is no profit in bartering even the lower life for the whole world, how much less in bartering the higher, ‘Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas! And when that forfeiture has been incurred, what price can he then pay to buy it back again? No. “It costs more to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever” (Psalms 49:8, Prayer Book version).

Verse 26. Lose his own soul] Or, lose his life, τηνψυχηναυτου. On what authority many have translated the word ψυχη, in the 25th verse, life, and in this verse, soul, I know not, but am certain it means life in both places. If a man should gain the whole world, its riches, honours, and pleasures, and lose his life, what would all these profit him, seeing they can only be enjoyed during life? But if the words be applied to the soul, they show the difficulty - the necessity-and importance of salvation. The world, the devil, and a man's own heart are opposed to his salvation; therefore it is difficult. The soul was made for God, and can never be united to him, nor be happy, till saved from sin: therefore it is necessary. He who is saved from his sin, and united to God, possesses the utmost felicity that the human soul can enjoy, either in this or the coming world: therefore, this salvation is important. See also Clarke's note on "Lu 9:25".

26. and lose his own soul] The Greek word translated “life” in the preceding verse is here translated “soul,” which is life in its highest phase.

26. Gain the whole world, and lose his own soul — As Peter, in his preference for a worldly monarchy, would in fact do, and even persuade Jesus to do.