Sacrificing All "So Others May Live"

To be a rescue swimmer for the United States Coast Guard, requires weeks of intensive training. The training prepares courageous men and women for the task of jumping from helicopters to rescue those in danger at sea. The challenges they face include hypothermia and death by drowning. Why would people risk so much for strangers? The answer is found in the rescue swimmer’s motto, “So Others May Live.”

In Fox’s Book of Martyrs, we read of a different kind of rescue that demanded extreme commitment and sacrifice. This book records the stories of Christians who suffered and died because they proclaimed the love and life of Jesus.

Knowing it could cost them their lives, these individuals made the Savior known to a world in desperate need of Him.

Himself a martyr for Christ, Paul expressed his passion for the hearts of people this way:

“I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3).

Paul so longed for his fellow Jews to come to Christ (Romans 10:1). that he was willing to sacrifice all, “so others may live.”

Beloved, may we likewise embrace this sacrificial attitude for the eternal souls of men and women.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets