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. (Luke 14:26)
Phew that was a close one. I don’t have to hate my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents! What a deal. Ok seriously though, this verse really does explain the cost of actually following Jesus. Of course Jesus isn’t telling us we have to hate people. That seems a little counter-logical to the whole “God is love” thing he exemplified. But he is making a comparison.
We need to love God more than anything else. We should have so much love for God that by comparison its as if we hate the other things we love. Chew on that one for a while. This isn’t really new though.
When asked what the most important commandment Jesus said “Love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” But you’re not off the hook yet, because the second most important commandment is “to love your neighbor as yourself.” (John 12:29-31).
Let that sink in. The most important thing you can do is to love God. What if I lived as if that was the case? Because for me the order of those commandments seems to be the other way around.
The one thing that nearly kept me from doing the world race was my family and friends. I just really didn’t want to leave them. I know it’s only 9 months, but I’m lucky. I have great friends and even better family and I love them all to death. I was like the rich young ruler; willing to give up everything except what I valued the most.
But it’s funny, my family and friends are also what made me stick with the world race. It would be pure selfishness to keep all of the love that my family and friends have shown me all to myself, because their love only points to the giver and exemplifier of that love. That love convinces me of the truth of the gospel of Jesus more than any apologetics and theology ever could. Something’s worth is determined by how much you are willing to give up for it. And if I have to give up everything just to make one person feel as loved as I have, then it’s worth it in my book. And not just in my book…
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Luke 9:24
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth. 1 John 3:18
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 1 John 2:6
