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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 9:23 - 9:23
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He said unto all (elegen de pros pantas). This is like Luke (cf. Luk 9:43). Jesus wanted all (the multitude with his disciples, as Mar 8:34 has it) to understand the lesson of self-sacrifice. They could not yet understand the full meaning of Christ’s words as applied to his approaching death of which he had been speaking. But certainly the shadow of the cross is already across the path of Jesus as he is here speaking. For details (soul, life, forfeit, gain, profit, lose, world) see notes on Mat 16:24-26 and note on Mar 8:34-37. The word for lose (apolesei, from apollumi, a very common verb) is used in the sense of destroy, kill, lose, as here. Note the mercantile terms in this passage (gain, lose, fine or forfeit, exchange).
Daily (kath' hēmeran). Peculiar to Luke in this incident. Take up the cross (his own cross) daily (aorist tense, āratō), but keep on following me (akoloutheitō, present tense). The cross was a familiar figure in Palestine. It was rising before Jesus as his destiny. Each man has his own cross to meet and bear.