Revelation 12:11

They conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, because they did not love their lives unto death.

“They did not love their lives unto death” means that they did not love their life more than they loved the One who gifted them with that life.

They did not consider being disloyal to Christ in order to save their life as worth it.

I don’t know of anywhere in Scripture where we are commanded to love our life. It might be in there and I’m not aware.

But their are plenty of places where we are commanded to love God. The God who gives us life.

We also know that it is written, “Your love is better than life.”

Satan cannot take our souls which have been consecrated to Christ.

Impossible.

But it seems Satan can mess with our life in order to try to render us ineffective for the kingdom of God, and pull us away from intimacy with Christ. It is difficult to focus when our life is not going the way we would like, either physically or emotionally.

And the more we treasure our life, the more easily we will be thrown off course when the inevitable storms of life hit. As we focus on the pains more than on Jesus, Satan wins the battle.

But the more we treasure Christ, even above our life, the more we have built our house upon the rock, and when the floods come, we are still standing because of that firm foundation, as opposed to the sandy one. And every time we choose to suffer rather than be disloyal to Christ, we defeat the enemy.

It can be a difficult day indeed when we have to face the question, “Do you love Christ or your life more?”

In 2018 United States, we are probably not facing martyrdom. We most often are challenged with whether we treasure Christ above our own comfort.

Do you love more the Way that is Christ, or the comfortable way?