“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate…even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” -Jesus
Here we go again. Hate my own life? What happened to love your neighbor as yourself? Loving self is the height of sin. Sin is, above all, desiring my way above God’s way and therefore becoming god to myself and denying the fact that God is God.
When Jesus said, “hate…even his own life,” the idea is that self become irrelevant to life. Only life in Christ is the priority and everything that that entails.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.“ - Paul
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” - Jesus of Nazareth
Thinking on these quotes we must realize that Jesus' intent is not for us to hate in order to do evil but to disregard in order to focus our attention, priority, and life on him and true life that is only found in him.
Galatians 2:20; Matthew 16:24
