Luke 14:26-27 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. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Truth be told, the conditions for Discipleship with Jesus in Luke 14:26-27 above is quite disturbing for a lot of us. Does following Jesus mean we must hate our family and friends? What did Jesus really mean by that? When compared with the similar account in Matthew 10:37-39, you will find that Jesus isn’t teaching hatred for family per se, but rather a PRIORITIZATION FOR CHRIST before anything else. You must love Him more than family, children, spouse, work , et al. You must love Jesus more than anything else. This is how you become His Disciple.
Jesus left no stone unturned. He left no room for ambiguity or confusion. He was very clear on what His Lordship meant: IT’S EITHER YOUR LOVE IS FOR CHRIST OR IT’S NOT. EITHER HE IS LORD – AND YOU ARE SERVANT, AND HE IS MASTER – AND YOU ARE DISCIPLE; OR NOT. EITHER YOU ARE FOR CHRIST OR AGAINST CHRIST. There is no middle ground, there is no part-time, there is no fence-sitting. So He said,
“He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”-Matthew 12:30
Are you for Christ, or are you Anti-Christ?
Most of us preachers have tried to sugarcoat things to make things easy going in the name of Grace. But we must be very careful with that.
This is how we have created what I call, “false-disciples”, and “false-servants”, and “false-believers”. It’s a very serious matter and the day of reckoning beckons.
GRACEFUL MORNING