A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
All Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 3:6 Go To Ecclesiastes 3
Didymus the Blind
AD 398
Before the good things were found (for example, the knowledge of truth), people were in ignorance. For them it was the time of losing. But this time was preceded by the time of seeking; for when some one seeks the good, the time has come to lose what in his case had been before the good. Likewise people lived according to the law before Christ’s life on earth, and they looked for the letter. But when the “Sun of righteousness” rose and truth finally had come, the time also had come to lose the letter and to supersede it. This is how one can sometimes lose in a good way. The Savior in the Gospel says: “Those who want to save their soul will lose it, and those who lose their soul will find it.” One [can also] understand this as referring to martyrdom and to the time of persecution: Those who want to save their soul on the day of judgment and at the time of reward must lose it by offering themselves up to death; to lose the soul here means death, the dying for truth in martyrdom.
