it is more blessed to give than to receive;
pray for your enemies and do good to them;
...
and the list goes on.
The most challenging one (I think) is this:
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matt 16:25
What??
The commentaries all agree that 'whoever desires to save his life' is in the context of someone trying to save himself from trouble/persecution by denying Christ. This person will find that denying Jesus lets him off in his physical life, but such a person has lost sight of his destination -- he risks losing his eternal life.
This makes sense since the following verse says:
or what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Conversely, if we refuse to deny Christ when push comes to shove, we'll receive an eternal reward.
May we avoid being like Peter, who denied Christ when it was convenient to meld in with the crowd.
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