Gain
GAIN.The word gain occurs ten times in the Authorized Version of the Gospels, and on every occasion in one of the sayings of our Lord. These passages fall into three groups: (1) The parallel records of a saying repeated by all the Synoptists (Mat 16:26, Luk 9:25, Mar 8:36); (2) the parables of the Talents and the Pounds (Mat 25:17; Mat 25:20; Mat 25:22, Luk 19:15-16; Luk 19:18); (3) the single record of the saying in Mat 18:13. It is (with the exception of St. Lukes use of , , and in the parable of the Pounds) always a translation of . This verb and its cognate substantive are used elsewhere in the NT by St. Paul (1Co 9:19-22, Php 1:21; Php 3:7-8, Tit 1:11), St. Peter (1Pe 3:1), and St. Luke (Act 27:21, a peculiar use, but not without classical parallels).
1. Mat 16:26 (|| cf. Php 3:7; Php 1:21) contrasts gain and loss as they touch the direct personal relation of the soul to God. A man may count the world a thing to be gained, and give his soul as the price of it; or, with the wiser Apostle, may reckon communion with Christ a gain worth the sacrifice of everything else; or, rising to the vision of the great beatitude, may look for the supreme gain, something better even than living here in Christ, to the life beyond the grave. This is the mystics conception of religionI and God are alone in the world. All gain apart from union with the Divine is really loss; and loss, or what seems loss, incurred in achieving that union is gain. Qui invenit Jesum, says Thomas Kempis, invenit thesaurum bonum; immo bonum, super omne bonum. The thought finds its simplest and at the same time its fullest expression in the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price, whose finder sells with joy all that he has, to buy what he has discovered.
2. The parables of the Talents and the Pounds express the gain to character which comes of faithful use of powers and abilities. The thought is of the realization of the possibilities that are in man and the subsequent fitness for higher work. Here the gain depends less on sacrifice than on diligence and faithfulness. This is a common conception of the meaning of the Christian religion. In it life is not a period of aspiration for an unutterable beatitude, but a time of training, in expectation of the gain of the Masters praise and ultimate ability to do more and greater work for Him.
3. Mat 18:15, with which must be connected 1Co 9:19 ff., speaks of the gain of winning other souls for Christ. Here there is the need of sacrifice, the sacrifice of pride, of social and racial prejudice; and there is also the need of faithfulness and diligence. This is the missionarys conception of Christianity. We find it in St. Paul and in all those after him who have felt the necessity laid on them, Woe is me if I preach not the gospel. The joy of this gain is anticipated in Dan 12:3 (cf. Jam 5:19-20). Its greatness is most fully known when we realize that we share it with God Himself and His angels (Luk 15:6; Luk 15:9; Luk 15:22 ff.).
In all three classes of passages the language is that of the market-place where men get gain by bargaining or labouring; but it is immensely sublimated and purified of all selfishness and greed.
Literature.Augustine, Confessions; Francis de Sales, The Spirit; Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ; Theologia Germanica (translation by S. Winkworth); Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living; Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion; H. J. Coleridge, S.J., Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier: R. Southey, Life of John Wesley; Lives of eminent modern missionaries.
J. O. Hannay.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Gain
gan: In the Old Testament the translation of three Hebrew substantives, , beca, unjust gain, any gain (Jdg 5:19; Job 22:3; Pro 1:19; Pro 15:27; Isa 33:15; Isa 56:11; Eze 22:13, Eze 22:17; Mic 4:13); , mehr, price for which a thing is sold (Dan 11:39, the only place where the Hebrew word is translated gain in the King James Version, though it occurs in other places translated price); , tebhu’ah, produce, profits, fruit (Pro 3:14). It is the translation of one Hebrew verb, , baca, to gain dishonestly (Job 27:8); of one Aramaic verb, , zebhan, to buy, procure for oneself (Dan 2:8, here used of buying time, i.e. seeking delay (Gesenius)).
In the New Testament, the translation of three Greek substantives, , ergasa, gain gotten by work, profit (Act 16:16, Act 16:19; Act 19:24 (the King James Version)); , kerdos, gain, advantage (Phil Act 12:1; Act 3:7, in the former, Paul asserting that to him to die was a personal advantage, because then he would be with Christ; in the latter, he counts as loss his personal privileges in the flesh, when compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ); , porismos, gain, a source of gain (1Ti 6:5, 1Ti 6:6, where the apostle asserts, not gain (earthly) is godliness, but godliness is gain (real, abiding)). It is the translation of three Greek vbs., , kerdano, to gain, acquire, in Mat 16:26, where Jesus teaches that the soul, or life in its highest sense (his own self, Luk 9:25), is worth more than the gaining of the whole (material) world; Mat 18:15, concerning the winning of a sinning brother by private interview; Mat 25:17, Mat 25:22, the parable of the Talents; Act 27:21 the King James Version, injury gained, sustained, by sailing from Crete; 1Co 9:19, 1Co 9:20 bis, 21, 22, all referring to Paul’s life-principle of accommodation to others to gain, win, them to Christ; in Jam 4:13 used in a commercial sense; , poieo, to make, make gain (Luk 19:18 the King James Version, the parable of the Pounds); , prosergazomai, to gain by trading (Luk 19:16, commercial use, in the same parallel).