‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple’ Luke 14:26 (NKJV)
When you read this verse, do you feel as if you are a true disciple of Yeshua? Do you hate your spouse? Is this really what Yeshua meant? Doesn’t the Bible say that you are to honor your parents, love your husband or wife, and not exasperate your children? What was Yeshua getting at here? The answer lies in the previous verse: ‘Now great multitudes went with Him’ (Luke 14:25). Yeshua wasn’t into hangers-on. He was every marketing man’s nightmare, with no interest in big numbers. He wanted to whittle down a large crowd of sightseers. He wanted people who were committed. He didn’t mean that you should treat your closest family with hate; instead, in trying to lose the uncommitted from the crowd, He suggests that His followers should have no higher priority in life than loving Him. Can you imagine such a deep intense love that it makes all other loves pale in comparison? How do your close personal relationships line up against the Master? Can you honestly say that in a competition He would come first every time? Thomas Kempis wrote, ‘My son, give up self and you will find me. Lose the right to choose and the right to own, and you will know nothing but gain. Abundant grace will be heaped upon you the moment you surrender your own will and do not claim it back.’ Is Yeshua really the number one relationship in your life? If not, then you cannot be His disciple. Ask Him to increase your desire and love for Him, that you would put Him at the centre of your life today.