Hating Your Mom and Dad

Luke 14:25-27 – Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “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. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

I have to hate my family? How can God tell us to love and respect and obey our parents while at the same time tell us to hate them? So what is Jesus telling us to do?

The answer, though clear, is not easy. Jesus warns these people, and therein He warns us, that if we follow Jesus around like fans following their favorite sports team, actor or musician, but we fail to choose Christ, then we haven’t really made a decision for Him after all. You must first make a conscience decision to choose Christ above all.

Jesus calls us to hate our families, but not in the way we use the word today. Not even close. Love is the message of the cross and of the Bible. So that means that this passage about “hating” our family isn’t about our family at all. What Jesus is calling us to is a higher form of following. He longs to have our hearts and our lives. And He longs to have us seek Him with all that we are. This passage, though confusing at first perhaps, is all about choosing Christ over everything. We are to love God more than anything else we could ever imagine loving. We must follow so hard after Christ that even if our families choose to disown us for our beliefs, we will remain on our path to Love God and Love People. We don’t hate them in the way that we are mean to them or disrespectful to them. We “hate” them in the essence that God comes first. Period. End of story.

So the question is: are you willing to lose everything you have ever loved, including your family, for the sake of knowing Christ and making Him known? Does Christ come first in your life above all else?