The verse above is Matthew 16:26 as it reads in the NASB95. Many versions, it seems, also speak in this verse of “forfeiting” the soul (e.g., ASV, NASB20, ESV, LSB, RCV), with the same reading, “forfeit,” in the parallel verses of Mark 8:36 and Luke 9:25. This is understandable, since the Greek word here, zēmioō (Strong’s #2210), includes that meaning. The KJV and the NKJV in these passages speak of “losing” the soul,” which is also correct.

However, in the upcoming edition of the Standard Version we prefer to translate it this way:

For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

This is along the lines of Darby’s New Translation and Young’s Literal Translation.

We prefer this reading because “suffering the loss” of our soul connects what the Lord is saying here more directly to the two places where this Greek word appears in a related way in the writings of the apostle Paul.

The first of these is quite negative; it is a very sober warning Paul gave the believers in Corinth regarding how our work as Christians could be consumed by the fire of the Lord’s judgment when the Lord returns:

If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved—yet, so as through fire.
— 1 Corinthians 3:15

Like the Lord before him, the apostle is warning us here that, even as the Lord’s disciples (cf. Matt. 16:24), we may “suffer loss” when the Lord returns if we are not faithful to Him in this age; in that case we will still be saved, yet only “so as through fire.”

Regarding this judgment, I appreciate very much how D.M. Panton puts it in The Judgment Seat of Christ:

A discipleship may end in a piteous conflagration.
— page 22

And no doubt, the “loss” spoken of by Paul in the verse above is the very same loss as that spoken of by the Lord Himself in the gospels, namely, the “loss of our soul.”

However, Paul also speaks of “suffering loss” in a very positive way, that is, in relation to his pursuing of Christ:

Yes, surely, I count all things to be loss on account of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, that I may gain Christ.
— Philippians 3:8

This is a very positive example of what the Lord was saying to His disciples. Namely, the apostle is a pattern here of one who was willing to “suffer the loss” of his soul in this age, so that he might gain it in the next.

And that is why Paul could boldly proclaim, at the very end of his life, shorty before he was martyred,

I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall recompense me in that day—and not only me, but also all those who have loved His glorious appearing.
— 2 Timothy 4:7-8

May we all follow our brother’s glorious example to win the crown of righteousness!

But what does it mean to “suffer the loss” of our soul? It is clearly not referring to eternal damnation, but to something else; and that is what we will consider in the next Note in this series.

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—  21 August 2025 —