The subjectivity of Jesus' commands - You can never be certain where you stand
at Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn. 12:25).
Many of Jesus's pronouncements are like this one. They make a black-or-white result come from a shades-of-gray standard. In the statement above, Jesus seems to indicate that there are only two possible outcomes for human beings as they move from this life to the next. For you, this means that you will either "lose" your life or you will "keep it" eternally. Essentially it's the heaven or hell scenario with nothing between. No purgatory, no second chances.
OK, fine. But the problem is, the conditions resulting in these two possible outcomes are not binary. They are not on/off. They might be best described as a continuum of possible conditions, ever changing and impossible to pin down.
In the example above, you can choose between loving your life or hating it. First off, these terms are subject to vast swathes of interpretive geography. What does he mean? Second, how does one measure such things? Do I hate my life sufficiently? Is there possibly some ineradicable smidgen of love that will be my ultimate undoing?
Such subjectivity removes all possibility of rational certainty. There are even cases mentioned in the Bible of people who thought they were on the right side of the equation, only to face a fiery re-education on the matter (Matt. 7:21-23).
So I ask you, believer, how can you be certain where you stand?
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