“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” -Jesus
Our first response to this statement is that he doesn’t mean hate. He means “to not love as much as,” right? How can the one who exemplifies love to a broken world truly say that anyone should hate their immediate family? How can the one who said that he fulfilled the commandments make such a statement about hating father and mother? How? It makes no sense to the thinking mind. It makes no sense to any natural mind. It only makes sense when you look at it from a super-natural mind, or from an eternal perspective.
To follow Jesus is not about him fitting into your life but him being your life. He said the greatest commandment was to love God. Before you can ever have a proper relationship with other human beings you have to selflessly and unconditionally love God. The first four of the top ten commandments were about a Hebrew’s relationship with almighty God. The only proper relationship that anyone can have with God has such a love for him that when you look at everything else it seems like you hate them compared to your love for Him.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.” - Jesus
It is interesting that most assume that Jesus came to bring a peace and harmony that would result in a warm fuzzy feeling in the lives of his followers. What needs to be understood is that the life that humanity lives is guaranteed destruction. As in his proverbs Solomon states, “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Jesus came into a world that guaranteed death to call each person out of this inevitable destruction and offer them a promise of life. The harsh reality is that a divided love cannot realize the promise of life. He put this into words when He spoke about money.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” – Jesus
Even family can divide a person’s love and sabotage the promise of life in Christ. Both cannot win in the struggle for allegiance. Only the true and holy One merits and deserves the allegiance of a life. Love Jesus and hate family or be devoted to family and despise Jesus. Applying his words is not easy but it is crucial to being who Jesus calls his followers to be. An important question: “Does Jesus advocate hate?” BY NO MEANS! What he teaches is loving others in truth as he defines it. Love mother, father, wife, children, and siblings as Jesus would but not at the cost of denying, despising, discounting, or neglecting Jesus. He is everything before family. He is everything…period. Do you love him with an undivided love? Do you seek to allow your love for him to define all other relationships in your life?
Luke 14:26; Matthew 10:34-36; Proverbs 14:12; Matthew 6:24
