Luke 14:25-27 ESV
“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ‘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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’”
Now this is one of those examples of passages of Scriptures that we should either search in a commentary or a Greek interlinear, and/or that we should compare with other Scriptures. Why? Because Jesus wouldn’t teach us to love and to not hate, and then turn around and teach us to hate our family members. So, there has to be another explanation here for what he meant. So, whenever a passage of Scripture seems to contradict other Scriptures, it is good, if you can, to research it to see what it is saying.
For the word “hate” can have two different meanings. One is the one we usually identify as hate, and that has to do with detesting and/or denouncing something or someone. And then it can mean to “love less,” which is the intended meaning here. If we are going to come to true faith in Jesus Christ, we have to love our family members less than we love Jesus. And this word “love” centers in moral preference and it means to prefer what God prefers, because he is God. So we need to show preference to God over our relatives. And he prefers what is moral, upright, honest, and faithful.
But this isn’t just about loving our relatives less than we love God, but it is also about loving ourselves less than we love God. And that involves us dying with him to our sins, but not just once, but daily, and us walking in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), living holy lives pleasing to him. But it is also about giving him and his will for our lives preference over our own wills and over what our family members might want for our lives. For not all our family members will support us in following Jesus Christ.
Luke 14:28-33 ESV
“’For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’”
Now we have a whole lot of people today teaching our salvation as though God does everything and we do nothing at all other than to “believe” in Jesus, which is rarely biblically defined. And so they are teaching that there is absolutely no cost at all to us in order for us to be forgiven of our sins and to have eternal life with God. And so they are giving their adherents carte blanche to continue living in deliberate sin while claiming faith in Jesus Christ and heaven as their eternal destiny.
But isn’t God’s grace to us a gift? Yes, it most certainly is. But what is the gift of God’s grace? We read in the Scriptures that God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, trains us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and worldly and fleshly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14).
And what is our salvation? By God’s grace, through God-given faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer living as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore we are not to let sin reign any longer in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its passions. For if sin is what we obey, it will end in death, but if obedience is what we obey, it will lead to eternal life (Romans 6:1-23).
And Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For, if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we are crucified with him in death to sin, and we now live to him and to his righteousness, then we have eternal life. For he said if we are ashamed of him and his word in this life, then when he returns he will be ashamed of us (he will deny us) (Luke 9:23-26).
So, contrary to the popular teaching of today which is permeating the American church at large, but not in every congregation of the saints, there is a cost to following Jesus Christ with our lives, and our Lord does require of us full submission to him and to his will for our lives, leaving our sinful practices behind us, and us now following him in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), no longer walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-14).
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (vs. 27)
“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (vs. 33).
Following Jesus Christ with our lives means total surrender to him and to his will for our lives, going where he sends us, doing as he commands, and saying what he has for us to say. It requires that we stop living in sin and for self and that we now die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. For if sin is what we practice, and if obedience to our Lord and holy living are not what we practice, we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith in Jesus we professed with our lips.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
https://vimeo.com/379408296
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