Our love for Jesus

“Large crowds were travelling 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.’” Luke 14:25-26
Jesus said some pretty shocking things at times (e.g. John 6:52-66, and Matt. 5:29-30), and this is one of them. What does it mean to hate our father and mother? Doesn’t the Bible say we are to honour our father and mother? The word ‘hate’ here is the same used to describe how the world hates Jesus and those who follow Him. We read similar passages elsewhere: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37). “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
What Jesus is saying is this: our love for Him must be so prevalent in our lives, that the contrast to all our other loves (for our family etc.) are as if those were hatred. If we love our family and ‘like’ Jesus, then we need to re-examine ourselves. At the end of the day, we are defined by our relationship to Him. Our lifestyle and our priorities need to reflect this. In heaven, we won’t have husbands or wives, children or grandchildren, because we will all be seen as God’s children. Our love for the Lord must be above all else. It’s only then that we can endure the hard times – so that we don’t end up blaming God when tragedy strikes us or our family, but instead say, ‘It is well with my soul’ – not the tragedy itself, but knowing that God is in sovereign control over everything.