Losing one's life in this age would be a small price to preserve it in the eternal age to come (compare 2 Baruch 51:15-16; m. 'Abot 4:17). We must decide whether we "want" to come after Jesus (Mt 16:24; NIV would) or "want" (the same Greek term; NIV wants) to save our lives (v. 25); we cannot have it both ways. The cross means death, and nothing less (10:38-39; Jn 12:25).

Yet the only way to ultimately preserve one's life is to relinquish it in faith that the Son of Man will someday come with his angels to execute judgment (Mt 16:27; compare 25:31; 2 Thess 1:7-8; Dan 7:9-14) according to each person's works (for example, Ps 62:12; Prov 24:12; Rom 2:6; 2 Cor 11:15; Rev 22:12). Those who expected a period of great suffering before the time of the kingdom, as most Jewish people did, would hear in such words a radical call to perseverance (Mt 24:9-13).

In the end God will reward us for what we have done, and eternal life matters more than our temporary lives in this age. I once shared Christ with an associate who cared deeply about his friends, prompting him to consider that eternal life is a gift of far greater significance than any other he could offer them, but he could not give what he did not have himself. God's Spirit prompted him to forsake status and worldly plans, and he became a committed Christian who has touched countless lives since that day. John dared to believe that God's eternal riches outweigh any cost in the present, so he became a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Yet how few disciples we have; except for going to church and paying tithes, many Christians today do with their time and money much the same as what morally upright non-Christians do.