# Losing life: discipleship becomes a survival principle

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH06.P020](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH06.P020/#char=562,613): "He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,"

The closest wording is Luke 9:24 in the King James Version: Chesterton keeps its distinctive combination of ‘will lose’ and ‘the same shall save it,’ while shortening the sentence and removing ‘for my sake.’ Mark 8:35 is another close parallel, but has ‘shall lose’ and ‘for my sake and the gospel’s’; Matthew 16:25 ends with finding life rather than saving it. This is a compressed Gospel quotation, not an exact reproduction of the inspected KJV witness. That comparison does not establish which Bible edition Chesterton used. [KJV, Luke 9:23–26; Mark 8:34–38; Matthew 16:24–26](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10).

The omitted qualification matters. In Luke, Jesus has just predicted his suffering and death, and calls followers to take up their cross daily. The promise concerns following him even at the cost of life; it does not promise that a dangerous manoeuvre will preserve a disciple's body. Chesterton deliberately carries the pattern into a different register: sailors, climbers and soldiers may have to risk physical life to preserve it. His examples explain the form of the paradox, while leaving the Gospel's distinct religious object unstated. Luke 17:33 supplies a related saying without ‘for my sake,’ but its KJV wording is ‘shall preserve it’; its setting is the revelation of the Son of man and the warning about Lot's wife, rather than a manual of practical escape. [KJV, Luke 17:28–35](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10).

## Sources

- [The King James Version of the Bible, Project Gutenberg ebook 10](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), Luke 9:22–26; 17:28–35; Mark 8:34–38; Matthew 16:24–26; inspected plain-text witness updated 29 October 2024; translation first published 1611

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