Non - Christians and christians: "What do you think Jesus meant when he said, 'what does it profit a person IF

Question

he or she gains the World, but loses his or her soul {soul - which according to the bible means the Mind/intellect, will and emotions) ?

Answer 1

That success is more than simple monetary gain. If you're the richest guy in the world, but hollow on the inside, then you aren't really any better off than anybody else. It's why the pharmaceutical companies make so much money selling anti-depressants to rich people.

Answer 2

The following explains the answer, if you use your imagination.

It was the Prophet Mohammed himself who attempted to negate the positive image of the Jew that had been prevalent earlier. According to historian Bernard Lewis, the Prophet Mohammed's original plan had been to induce the Jews to adopt Islam; when Mohammed began his rule at Medina in AD 622 he counted few supporters, so he adopted several Jewish practices-including daily prayer facing toward Jerusalem and the fast of Yom Kippur-in the hope of wooing the Jews. But the Jewish community rejected the Prophet Mohammed's religion, preferring to adhere to its own beliefs, whereupon Mohammed subsequently substituted Mecca for Jerusalem, and dropped many of the Jewish practices.

Jews faced the danger of incurring the wrath of a Muslim, in which case the Muslim could charge, however falsely, that the Jew had cursed Islam, an accusation against which the Jew could not defend himself. Islamic religious law decreed that, although murder of one Muslim by another Muslim was punishable by death, a Muslim who murdered a non-Muslim was given not the death penalty, but only the obligation to pay "blood money" to the family of the slain infidel. Even this punishment was unlikely, however, because the law held the testimony of a Jew or a Christian invalid against a Muslim, and the penalty could only be exacted under improbable conditions--when two Muslims were willing to testify against a brother Muslim for the sake of an infidel.


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Answer 3

How I read it is that when a person gains worldly possessions, wealth and riches, what has he or she really gained if what is sacrificed is one's depth of spirit, depth of humanity and connections to one's own place on the earth as a human being. Going after all the riches in the world will not make you a better person in that world, it makes you more disconnected and more superficial.

Answer 4

Basically - it doesn't matter if you are rich if you got there by debasing yourself and those around you.

I'm not a christian (or any religion) but whoever wrote the words attributed to Jesus in the bible had a lot of good advice - if you can seperate it from the religious mumbo jumbo.

I am decently financially stable - I've got a good job, a house, etc. - but more important than any of that is having a wife and daughter who love me, good friends, and a clear conscience because everything I have, I worked hard for - and didn't have to use anyone else to get where I am.

If there is a God like the bible describes, I would hope that he would approve - but if he bases his decision to send me to hell because I didn't 'get saved' or whatever - then he can go f**k himself.

Answer 5

Very interesting question.
Personally, I think he means we should think about things that are permanent (Heaven) and not the temporal (life here on earth). I think most humans measure their value on how successful they are materially. Example = Nice house, expensive car, good job, etc. But we don't value God or have the "fruits of the spirit" = love, peace, patience, kindness, etc.
I hope that helps!

Answer 6

it doesn't matter if you get what you want (i.e. the world) if you lose your soul along the way...I disagree that soul = mind...he is clearly referring to the more ethereal definition of a soul here

Answer 7

you have a funny perception of what soul means.

Answer 8

Good answer, Sway.

Another side to that is that it profits a man nothing when he seeks material and popular gain and sacrifices his conscience to do so, a Faustian bargain.

Answer 9

One may have power but unless his soul is pure he can misuse the power and wind up also losing his soul to the prince of darkness.

Answer 10

you can belong to the world or you can belong to God, you can't have both. since the things of the world passes away while the things of God never do which offers a better future.