Discipleship Is Costly

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, ^(A)take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For ^(B)whoever wants to save his ^[a]life will lose it; but whoever loses his ^[b]life for My sake will find it.

The Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is ^(A)foolishness to ^(B)those who ^[a]are perishing, but to us who ^[b]are being saved it is ^(C)the power of God.

²⁴ Now those who ^[a]belong to ^(A)Christ Jesus ^(B)crucified the flesh with its passions and ^(C)desires.

¹⁴ But ^(A)[a]far be it from me to boast, ^(B)except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(C)through ^[b]which the world has been crucified to me, and ^(D)I to the world.

^10 (A)always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that ^(B)the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.

⁶ knowing this, that our ^(A)old ^[a]self was ^(B)crucified with Him, in order that our ^(C)body of sin might be ^[b]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷ for ^(D)the one who has died is ^[c]freed from sin.

²⁷ Whoever does not ^(A)carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.