Don’t be a fool

For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? (Mark 8: 37)

In context:


Despite the sexism of ‘a man,’ I prefer the way the individual choice is brought out by using a singular noun. Eugene Petersen, in his translation, makes it the ‘3rd person’ impersonal you. How about: How do you profit if you gain the whole world but then lose your life? What can you give in return for your life?

The best commentary on this is Jim Eliott’s:


Elliott, too, became a martyr.