It is on this same "key" basis that we are to "hate" our own lives,
in recognition of the tempter's internal influences over and in our own flesh.
Examples:
Ecclesiastes 2:17
Therefore
I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for
all is vanity and
vexation of spirit.
Luke 14:26
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Revelation 12:11
And
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and
they loved not their lives unto the death.
him, above, being of course Satan, the tempter, the thief, the destroyer, the resistor, the great dragon,
who has present reign over the vile flesh body through the avenues of temptations, lusts, deceptions of every sort imaginable.
So, yeah, the KEY
was summarized here, after the event with Peter, thusly by Jesus:
Matt. 16:
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
It is not 'us' or 'ourselves' that we are looking for on the other side of this venture, but God in Christ, Himself. We are a portion of His Own Body, being formed, presently, in the midst of adversity, courtesy of the pressures applied by the tempter, the wicked overlord of the flesh. The elemental adverse to God, wicked spirit that God's children are 'tutored' and 'disciplined' under, that we might learn what "resistance" is, and in the process, Mercy and unmerited favor aka GRACE.
We'd all do ourselves a favor and stop trying to save the tempter in our own flesh, and recognize what is "really" going on.
