Mat 16:25 For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

In this verse, "life" is too narrow of an idea and "lose" is too gentle. In the original Greek, psuchê means not only life and breath, but the spirit, the soul, and the consciousness of a person. The topic of this chapter is the relationship between the spirit and the body. In the word psuchê, these two ideas are united. Christ is saying that those that seek to preserve both breath and consciousness will destroy them utterly. Whereas, those that seek to destroy their physical sense of spirit for the sake of the true, perfect spirit will discover and gain their real lives.


"Save" is from sôizô, which means "to save from death," "to preserve," "to keep alive," "to keep in mind," and "remember."

"Life" is from psuchê, which means "breath," "life," "soul," "self," "consciousness," and "spirit."

"Lose" is from apollumi, which is a very string form of "to destroy," "to kill," "to slay," and "to lose." It means "to destroy utterly." It also means "to ruin" a woman.

"For my sake" is from emou (me, mine) heneka, which means "on the account of," "because of," and "for the sake of."

"Find" is from heuriskô, which means "to find," "to find out," "to discover," "to invent," "to get," "to gain," and "to earn."