Getting Saved

The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.  John 12:25 NASB

Keep it – Want to know how to get saved?  Yeshua gives you the simple answer: hate your life in this world.  What?  How can the one who embraced the sanctity of life as God’s creative activity tell us that we need to hate our existence here if we want to have eternal life later?  Doesn’t this seem completely contradictory (Please put all those evangelical ideas of heavenly bliss on the shelf for the moment)?  Does God really want me to hate who I am, what I do, how I manage as His agent in this world in order to gain my place in the next world?  And notice that there is no mention at all about “believing in the Name of Jesus” or anything like that.  It’s straightforward, or so it seems.  Hate today—gain tomorrow.  We will need to do some serious digging if we’re going to understand this Zen conundrum.

We should start by dismissing the usual soft-pedaled interpretation.  You know, the one that suggests that what he means is that you should hate all the bad things in this life, like, for example, your selfish desire to maintain your life as you please.  What you need to hate is all that self-control, yetzer ha’ra stuff, the things that tie you to worldly desires.  This interpretation sounds good, especially since it allows you to go on living prosperously as long as you just do the ”right” thing.  But if this is all that Yeshua meant, then there’s not much impact in his saying.  It boils down to the equivalent of “be a good person and don’t be selfish.”  The Greek miséō (to hate) is far stronger than this pablum proposal.  Even Michel’s remark in TDNT seems a bit shallow:

In John divine love conflicts with cosmic hate. The world’s hatred for God, Christ, and God’s people is sin. The world is blinded and impelled by darkness and therefore hates the light (Jn. 3:20). Since Jesus is the light, the world hates Jesus (7:7). In so doing it hates God (15:23–24). It also hates the disciples (15:18). To live in the light is to be a target of hate. To hate the brethren is to live in darkness (1 Jn. 2:9, 11). Yet there is a proper hatred, as in Jn. 12:25, which states that one must hate one’s life in this world in order to keep it for eternal life.^[1]

His comment doesn’t answer our question.  Yes, if I view the world as darkness in opposition to God, then I should experience aversion and dislike for it, but does that mean I should hate my existence in this world?  I didn’t choose to be here.  I was thrown into this world.  And it is not a world of my own making.  I inherited it.  Certainly I can be averse to its general direction and I can hate its proclivity to oppose God, but does that mean I have to hate myself?  If “hating God means ignoring his commands and persecuting his people” but I love His commands and identify with His people, then why would Yeshua ask me to hate my life?^[2]  Perhaps John is more of a dualist than I thought.  Perhaps he only sees the world as either black or white.

Perhaps we need to think of this verse in Hebraic terms.  We discover that God Himself commands us to overcome hatred (Leviticus 19:17).  The Hebrew verb is śānēʾ.

It expresses an emotional attitude toward persons and things which are opposed, detested, despised and with which one wishes to have no contact or relationship. It is therefore the opposite of love. Whereas love draws and unites, hate separates and keeps distant. The hated and hating persons are considered foes or enemies and are considered odious, utterly unappealing. . . There is also a hating on the part of man which is acceptable to God. Man must have an aversion to and depart from evil.”^[3]

The Hebrew concept clarifies.  Hatred here is not ontological.  It is not detesting my very existence, as if somehow my being alive is an abomination.  Yeshua’s command is to despise and reject the life of opposition to God in all of its forms.  In this sense, the one who loves his life is the one who pursues his own well-being as the ultimate goal.  This is more than our truncated idea of selfishness.  I can be quite generous and still live for my own attainment.  Yeshua’s idea of hate rests on his idea of servitude.  I can only serve one master.  If I serve the master of my own goals, no matter how ethical, I will ipso facto not serve the ultimate goals of God.  Hatred is defined by my indenture, not by my existence.

We should have recognized this right away.  The Hebrew idea of life is defined by purpose, not power.  Life is the process of doing, defined by its objective.  If my objective is self-preservation, the concern of the yetzer ha’ra, then I will be indentured to my own control, that delusion powering personal objectives.  But if I am averse to the designs of the yetzer ha’ra, if I seek the will of God, then power is not my objective.  Self-preservation takes a back seat to divine calling.  I live for something greater than myself.  And in this way, I discover and participate in life indeterminate, that is, life not limited to this age.  I am averse to, I detest what interferes with this greater calling.

In the next few verses, Yeshua prophesizes his own death, his greater calling.  This Zen conundrum is the preface to what appears to be an utter failure of mission, but what is in reality the greatest human act of obedience.  In this preface, he challenges his disciples, and us, to rethink our lives and our calling in these greater terms.

Topical Index: hate, śānēʾ, miséō, purpose, calling, Leviticus 19:17, John 12:25

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 599). W.B. Eerdmans.

^[2] Ibid., p. 598.

^[3] (1999). 2272 שָׂנֵא. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 880). Moody Press.