Matthew 10:39 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

He that findeth his life. — The word is the same as that translated “soul” (i.e., that by which man lives in the lower or the higher sense of life) in Matthew 10:28. The point of the maxim lies in the contrast between the two senses. To gain the lower now is to lose the higher hereafter, and conversely, to lose the lower for the sake of Christ (i.e., to die a martyr’s death in confessing Him) is to gain the higher.