The Great Multitudes
Luke 14:26 says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus addressed this passage to “great multitudes” (v. 27), that were following Him. In a parallel passage found in Mt 10:37, Jesus was addressing the twelve apostles as He sends them to preach “the gospel of the kingdom” (Mt 9:35). He was not commanding us to hate our closest loved ones in the sense of becoming our enemies. In fact, He commands us to “be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love” (Rom 12:10)!
But we are to seek “first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Mt 6:33). He wants us to love Him first with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength (Mk 12:30). Our love for Him is to be so much more than our love for anyone or anything else! Jesus was addressing a crowd that is mostly unbelievers to affirm the requirements of the law (Deut 6:5). He was convicting them of their sins and their need of salvation! Because “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Gal 3:24).
He showed them that the law required perfection of one’s thoughts and heart attitude toward God (Ps 19:7). Therefore, Jesus made them realize that they could not obtain righteousness through the law (Rom 10:4), but only through Him (2 Cor 5:21). He tells us that in order to be a disciple, we must be willing to lay down our lives to serve Him (Lk 9:24). Sadly, I have seen unbelieving husbands try to hinder their wives from serving Christ or even attend church. I also saw young men who dedicated their lives to the ministry, but have been disowned by their parents because they left their traditional religion. If there is ever a conflict that exists between God’s will and the will of our loved ones, then God must always be given the highest priority (Lk 9:62)! God bless you!
-Pastor Melito Barrera
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