Bible question in Luke

[RyanXems]

Luke 14:26 says (NKJV) "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."

This passage was pretty disturbing to me at first.. using the word "hate" seemed so out-of-whack with what Jesus's teachings are all about. I thought Jesus taught to love everyone as well as yourself.

Looking from another perspective, I think it may mean not to hate, but to be able to give up those you love, and your own life to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This seems a pretty hard thing to do; to completely leave and put out of your life those you love. Does He refer to present time? Or the end times when father will be divided against son and son against father ...

What do you think? How should someone take this passage and how do you explain it to others?

 

[hithesh]

Luke 14:26 says (NKJV) "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."

"Not all can accept [this] word, 8 but only those to whom that is granted." Matthew 19:11

"My disciple" is the important part of this verse.
Because not of all of us are capable of being his Disciples, in the fullest sense of the term.
To be his disciple requires a bit of moral/divine perfection, such as leaving all worldy wealth, celebacy, choosing poverty over riches etc..,

There are two way of looking at this passage. I for one, look at my blessing in life as a curse.
I sometimes hate my good family, but with a hate that is not directed at them, but a hate directed at having them.
For who am I deserve, or rejoice in having them, when their are many children who don't?
For they are more deserving of them than I, who can manage in God without them.

Now, perhaps you won't agree with that interpretion, so let's provide you with another:

Love for others, is not to overshadow love for God. Because it is in loving god, that we love others, not in loving others that we love god.
With family, one is inclined to love family more than others, and more than God.

In love for family, one sometimes restricts love to a few individuals, instead of incompassing all.
In the comfort of good family, we are more inclined to praise God, but such praise is not what our Lord seeks.
He seeks a love for him, that is beyond, and above the rewards of good family, or bad family.
He seeks a love where family, is irrelevant, worldly riches are irrelevant, personal propseperity is irrelevant.

In hating our family, our lord is saying, that they should not affect our relationship with our lord.
If tommorow, it were decided that they should be taken away, we should love the lord no less in doing so, because his will is beyond love for family.

If one were to truly live in God, then all are equal, all are your brothers, not just those in your vicinity.
Our lord is saying, do not limit you love, and hate what naturally limits you.
Because in hating what naturally limits us, we are desiring to live in God.

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

Looking from another perspective, I think it may mean not to hate, but to be able to give up those you love, and your own life to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This seems a pretty hard thing to do; to completely leave and put out of your life those you love. Does He refer to present time? Or the end times when father will be divided against son and son against father ...

What do you think? How should someone take this passage and how do you explain it to others?

Don't let the emphasized contrast trip you up. Jesus is not saying you must literally hate your own family to follow him. That would mean you would have to literally hate yourself ("own life.") as well. What Jesus is basically saying you must love Jesus more than you love your own family and loved ones.


LDG

 

[FallingWaters]

Luke 14:26 says (NKJV) "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."

This passage was pretty disturbing to me at first.. using the word "hate" seemed so out-of-whack with what Jesus's teachings are all about. I thought Jesus taught to love everyone as well as yourself.

Looking from another perspective, I think it may mean not to hate, but to be able to give up those you love, and your own life to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This seems a pretty hard thing to do; to completely leave and put out of your life those you love. Does He refer to present time? Or the end times when father will be divided against son and son against father ...

What do you think? How should someone take this passage and how do you explain it to others?

This is one of the reasons why I love having a trusted Bible Commentary to double-check things with. Adam Clarke knew the original languages, and the historical customs and background as well.

Adam Clarke Commentary:
Luk 14:26 -
"And hate not - Matthew, Mat_10:37, expresses the true meaning of this word, when he says, He who loveth his father and mother More than me. In Mat_6:24, he uses the word hate in the same sense. When we read, Rom_9:13, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, the meaning is simply, I have loved Jacob - the Israelites, more than Esau - the Edomites; and that this is no arbitrary interpretation of the word hate, but one agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, appears from what is said on Gen_29:30, Gen_29:31, where Leah’s being hated is explained by Rachel’s being loved more than Leah. See also Deu_21:15-17; and Bishop Pearce on this place. See also the notes on Mat_10:37 (note)."

Mat 10:37 -
"He that loveth father or mother more than me - He whom we love the most is he whom we study most to please, and whose will and interests we prefer in all cases. If, in order to please a father or mother who are opposed to vital godliness, we abandon God’s ordinances and followers, we are unworthy of any thing but hell."

John Wesley:
Luk 14:26 - If any man come to me, and hate not his father - Comparatively to Christ: yea, so as actually to renounce his field, oxen, wife, all things, and act as if he hated them, when they stand in competition with him. Mat_10:37."


You can get access to these commentaries for free with e-sword
http://www.e-sword.net/index.html
http://www.e-sword.net/commentaries.html
http://www.e-sword.net/bibles.html

 

[Beasley]

A disciple is

31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."



Disciple is mathetes, means a student, a follower of. It is the root word for the English word mathmatician. Any believer can be an

disciple. Every believer has a different place, role, job in the body of Christ. That role in the body of Christ may actually require doing the opposite of what our friend suggest above. Not all are eyes, hands or feet, some members are more visible than others.

There is a small but gracious group of believers that fund missions to all parts of the world because it is their role in the body of Christ to have money and to be good stewards of it.

 

[Andyreborn]

I think that Jesus is saying that we must put Him first in our hearts, before anyone and anything, and if your family are not saved and are living in a sinful way you must hate their way of life.
The NLT words it differently, replacing 'hate' with 'love me more'.