Provocative Bible Verses: Mom and Dad; I Love Jesus but I Hate You!
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26
What in the world are we supposed to make of these words from Jesus? It seems to be a pretty clear and simple statement but does Jesus really want us to hate our families? When I was a new Christian there was a group that made this verse one of the foundations of their ministry. They convinced thousands of young people to renounce their parents, family and friends and run off and join their group. Most people intuitively sensed that this was NOT was Jesus had in mind but at the same time they didn’t know how to respond to what seemed to be a pretty cut and dried understanding of some clear words from Jesus. As a result lots of folks simply dismissed these words as something we just don’t understand and they instead moved on to more familiar, safe verse about who much God loved them.
But we can’t just ignore what Jesus said. The enemy, Satan, would like nothing more than for us to blow off such provocative verses and refuse to get any deeper in our faith that having a some vague sense that God thinks we are okay. We need to wrestle with what Jesus meant. In order to do that we must first understand what He did not mean. Clearly Jesus would not teach that we are to hate anyone in the way that we normally think of hatred. After all, it was Jesus who commanded that we not even hate our enemies but instead love them. (See http://provocativechristian.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/provocative-bible-verses-love-your-enemies/) It was also Jesus who said the two most important things you could do were to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Surely we are not expected to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and at the same time, detest our parent and siblings.
Some people try to use this as an example of a contradiction in the Bible and an excuse to ignore all of it. But there is no contradiction. When Jesus says to hate your parents He uses the Greek word,miseo. It is a word that has duel usage. It can in fact mean to despise or detest someone. But it is also used in the Bible and other ancient literature to mean “love less”. Numerous scholars of the Bible concur that in this an many other casesmiseo is used in to mean love one thing less than another. It is a matter of placing higher priority over one thing than another.
With that in mind the meaning of Jesus becomes easy to grasp but harder to live. What Jesus is saying is that there whould be nothing in this world that we love more than we love Him. We are not to love our parents more than we love Jesus. We are not to love our brothers and sisters more than we love Jesus. We are not to love our children, or spouse, or cousins, or next door neighbor more than we love Jesus. In fact He says that we are not to love our own life more than we love Jesus. That shouldn’t surprise us for two reasons. First, God said in the Ten Commandments that we are to have no other gods before Him. In other words, nothing in life is to have more devotion from us than the Lord our God. Secondly, Jesus said that we are to love God with ALL that we have and ALL that we are. The implication is simple, nothing and no one should have a greater place in our heart, and in our devotion, and in our love, than the Lord.
To emphasize the fact that we are to love nothing so much as we love the Lord, Jesus goes on in Luke 14:27 and says “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Those folks who heard those words come from His mouth had to have been stunned to the point of being frozen in their tracks. The image of carrying a cross was vivid to them. Anytime someone was carrying a cross they were on their way to their own execution. They were going to death, just as Jesus was when He carried His own cross. By saying that we are to love Jesus more than we love our parents and that we are to carry our cross for Him or else we are unworthy of being His disciples, Jesus is saying that when it comes to following Him, He wants your all. There is no halfway measure with Jesus. It is full and complete devotion or nothing. It is Jesus first or not at all. It is give Him your life even to the point of death, or not at all.
Sometimes your love for the Lord might mean that you have to say no to your family and yes to Jesus. Sometimes your love for the Lord might mean that you have to turn down a promotion because even though it will mean more money and prestige you know that it will have a negative impact on your relationship with Jesus. Sometimes your love for the Lord might mean that you must sacrifice your comfort and open your home to someone without a home. Sometimes your love for the Lord means you must live with rejection from people whom you care about, or face ridicule from others. You must love them and their acceptance and your comfort and your promotion and your prestige, less than you love Jesus.
So the right thing to say is not, mom and dad; I love Jesus but I hate you. Instead, it needs to be, mom and dad and anyone or anything else, I love you but I love Jesus most of all.
Just stumbled upon you. Great post! I was reading this passage of scripture just tonight (from Matthew though).
Also, your blog’s theme is interesting, just a week ago I started a meme called Marvelous Musings which is meant to focus on just these type of ‘provocative verses’ in your words
Blessings in Jesus
but he doesn’t love us if he wants us to die for him. and i do not beleive he is god anyway
Rana …he never ever want us to die!..does he? he gave us life so that we live. That is the whole point he came to earth and died on the cross so that we have eternal life!! a life without pain and worry of death and punishment.What you are talking of is death in this world, death of the flesh which we are sure of as on or the other day we all have to leave this earth. But he wants us to be free from this fake life..and be with him forever. Which is better?..Life in its fullness, enternal life or life on earth? You decide…do read the bible it really helps .God Bless:)) Well I know it is hard to believe that Jesus is God..as it is not as easy as beliving that the Sun is millions of light years away. That every element is made up of molecules. Jupiter is made up of gasses… ..and so on… .:))
Rana …he never ever want us to die!..does he? he gave us life so that we live. That is the whole point he came to earth and died on the cross so that we have eternal life!! a life without pain and worry of death and punishment.What you are talking of is death in this world, death of the flesh which we are sure of as on or the other day we all have to leave this earth. But he wants us to be free from this fake life..and be with him forever. Which is better?..Life in its fullness, enternal life or life on earth? You decide…do read the bible it really helps .God Bless:)) Well I know it is hard to believe that Jesus is God..as it is not as easy as beliving that the Sun is millions of light years away. That every element is made up of molecules. Jupiter is made up of gasses… ..and so on… .:))
if u read about the ebionites u will know tha tjesus was paganzed by the early church he was never god he was alwyas a servant of god. and th evirgin birth and th eressurection are all pagna mythology beleive it or not but i have proof. they decided to pagnanize the church for theri own purposes. I know u relaly hve to read history ,but u should know the real religion of jesus. he never was god. http://www.brotherofyeshua.com
Dear Rana,
I think we are reading history very differently, not to mention the biblical texts. Jesus claimed equality with God on numerous occasions. Perhaps the most striking was in Mark chapter 2 when Jesus acknowledges that only God can forgive sins and then he does just that for the paralytic let down through the roof. It was at that point that the religious leaders decided they must kill him for blasphemy.
I know the story of the ebionites very well and your contention that Jesus was paganized by the early church is simply not accurate. The Greek culture of the day, the pagan culture, was opposed to the idea of Jesus being God. That includes their opposition to the idea that he rose from the dead.
Dan
Hi Dan,Thanks for your post, May Jesus be with you forever!
Hi Rana,
Hope all is well…
We all can make choices right? We can read History OR Bible- personally I believe that Bible is the the WORD of God- so every word is Life in itself- Now like you have read history putting your trust in words that a few men have written about the past where neither they nor you nor I were present- in the same way may I suggest you to read the Holy Bible whenever you get time- without being bias ( Keeping an open mind)with total eagerness to know the truth, to know God and I’m 100% sure that God will guide you with his spirit.I can point out a lot of verses like Isa 9:6 John 1:1 which tells that Jesus is God however I would encourage you to read the Bible yourself instead of we getting into arguements;) and beating around the bush
) there are many verses in Bible that point to Jesus birth- born of a virgin ..and so on.and I know God will guide you to it. God knows it best:) …..Let me know if I can be of any help in your pursuit… May God the Father be with you now and forever! Amen