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NASB | Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]--he cannot be My disciple. |
Bible Question: What does this mean? |
Bible Answer: RealMenLuvJesus, Well it's best understood not as a literal hating of your family. Honoring your Mother and Father were part of the 10 Commandments, so Jesus wouldn't be saying something counter to that. Verse 33 sheds some light on this. "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." Jesus is showing in verse 26 just how serious it was to be a disciple of him, especially at that time when persecution and execution were very, very, real. You had to be able to set your family aside to be a disciple for Jesus. In Matthew Jesus noted this too, Matthew 10:33-37 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." We shouldn't take this to hate our families, or think they get in between us and God. Jesus was just stating the very serious business of being a disciple, something that many couldn't hack. Think of it as a sort of 'weeding out' process, so that only the cream of the crop remained. Take care, SUEDE |