556. 'And they did not love their own soul even unto death' signifies those who have not loved themselves more than the Lord. By 'to love their own soul' is signified to love themselves and the world, for by 'soul' is signified a man's proprial life, which everyone has from birth, and this is to love one's self and the world above all things. Therefore by 'not to love their own soul' is signified not to love one's self and the world more than the Lord and the things that are the Lord's. 'Even unto death' signifies to be willing rather to die; consequently it is to love the Lord above all things and the neighbour as one s self (Matt. xxii 37-40 [Schsm. 35-38]), and to be willing to die rather than recede from those two loves. The like is signified by these words of the Lord:-
Whosoever wills to find his own soul, shall lose it, and whosoever loses [his] soul for the sake of Jesus, shall find it Matt. x 39; Luke xvii 33.
He who loves his own soul shall lose it, but he who hates his own soul in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal John xii 25.
Jesus said, Anyone who wills to come after Me, let him deny himself; he who wills to keep his own soul, shall lose it; but he who loses his own soul for My sake, shall find it. What is a man profited if he gains the whole world, but causes the loss of the soul? or what shall a man give as the sufficient price of the redemption of his own soul? Matt. xvi 24-26; Mark viii 35-37; Luke ix 24, 25.
By 'to love the Lord' is understood to love to do His commandments (John xiv 20-24). This is because He himself is His commandments, for they are from Himself, therefore He Himself is in them, thus in the man in whose life they have been inscribed, and they are inscribed in that man by willing and doing them.
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