“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
The full verse · Mark 8:36 · KJV
shall it a , he shall the , his ?
Asked by
Jesus: the Son of God and promised Messiah, who had just begun to teach that the Son of man must suffer many things, be killed, and rise again (Mark 8:31)
Asked to
Crowd: the people Jesus called to Him along with His disciples to hear His call to follow Him (Mark 8:34); Disciples: "his disciples" (Mark 8:33-34), the followers of Jesus who had just heard Peter confess, "Thou art the Christ" (Mark 8:29); Jesus called the people to Him "with his disciples also" and taught them all to deny themselves and follow Him (Mark 8:34)
The Scene
Near the towns of Caesarea Philippi, after Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ and Jesus rebukes him for resisting the cross, Jesus calls the people to Him with His disciples and tells them to deny themselves and take up their cross (Mark 8:27-34).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionJesus asks this to show why losing your life for Him is not foolish. The question begins with "For," so it explains the hard saying just before it: "whosoever will save his life shall lose it" (Mark 8:35). It sets the greatest gain anyone could imagine, "the whole world," against the loss of one's own soul.
Gill says Jesus is thinking of the person who, by denying Christ and His gospel, saves his life for now and even gains great wealth. He asks what that will be worth "in the long run, in the issue of things." Peter had just been rebuked for savouring "the things that be of men" (Mark 8:33). This question teaches the disciples and the crowd to weigh everything by what lasts.
The Response
What Scripture recordsNo one answers aloud, because the answer is plain: it profits nothing. Jesus presses the point at once with a second question: "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:37). Then He warns that whoever is ashamed of Him and His words "in this adulterous and sinful generation," the Son of man will be ashamed of him "when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38).
Historical Context
The world behind the wordsThe word translated "soul" here is psyche. It is the same Greek word translated "life" twice in Mark 8:35. So Jesus' saying about saving or losing your "life" flows straight into this question about losing your "soul." The verb for "lose" is zemioo, which Thayer defines as to suffer loss or damage, and with an object, to forfeit it. That is why the ESV says "forfeit his soul."
Mark notes that Jesus spoke these words not only to the twelve but to "the people" as well (Mark 8:34). Gill says Christ called or beckoned the people to come nearer after His private talk with the disciples. The call to follow Him, and this question, were for anyone who would listen.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThis question comes at a turning point in Mark. Peter has just confessed, "Thou art the Christ" (Mark 8:29), and Jesus has begun to teach plainly that "the Son of man must suffer many things" (Mark 8:31). Now He shows that the road of the Master is also the road of those who follow Him. The question reveals how highly God values one human soul. Gill says the soul is "immortal and everlasting, when the world, and the glory of it pass away, and so is of more worth than the whole world." Matthew Henry puts it plainly: "The gain of all the world in sin, is not sufficient to countervail the ruin of the soul by sin."
The question is a warning, but it is also an invitation. The same passage that says a soul can be lost promises that it can be saved: "whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it" (Mark 8:35). Matthew Henry quotes Bishop Hooper, the night before his martyrdom: "life is sweet, and death is bitter, but eternal death is more bitter, and eternal life is more sweet."
Look Closer
In Mark's account, to whom did Jesus speak these words?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Father, You count my soul worth more than the whole world; what am I working hard to gain that matters far less to You than I think?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- What kinds of "gain" most tempt you to set aside what Jesus asks of you?
- Tell about someone whose life showed you that following Jesus was worth whatever it cost them.
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
Most of us will never be offered the whole world. But we are offered small pieces of it often: approval that asks us to stay quiet about Jesus, success that asks us to bend what He says, comfort that asks us to stop following. Jesus' question helps you weigh those offers honestly. Put the gain on one side and your soul on the other, and ask what it will be worth in the end.
This doesn't mean that work, success, or money are wrong in themselves. Jesus is speaking of gaining the world at the price of the soul, when holding on to the world means denying Him and being ashamed of His words (Mark 8:35, 38). Gill describes the person who gains riches "by denying Christ, and his Gospel." Work hard and build well, but never by letting go of Christ.
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Keep questioning
“Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
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