You Can't Love Jesus If You Don't Hate Your Parents

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 (Luke 14:26).

Today's culture would accuse Jesus of clickbait or sensationalism. He did have a way of communicating that captured your attention, causing you to stop, think, and listen. I won't speak to clickbait's deceptions and cautions because we know their dangers, but I want to draw attention to a way of wordsmithing that captures folk's attention. We should ask God to give us a way of communicating succinctly and effectively. We call it brief and amazing around here. Our aim must not be ongoing speaking but effective speaking.

The best practice for discipleship is saying less while saying it so that the person won't forget it. The more you talk, the more your hearer will lose. After the bucket is full, everything spills onto the ground. When Jesus said that our love for Him must look like hate for our fathers, mothers, brothers, and so forth, it would be fair to say He had their attention. One fellow said in another place that nobody ever spoke like this man, which is the goal for all of us.

Speaking of hating your parents, we know it was hyperbolic language. I have borrowed a saying from the 70s, "He passed me so fast that it looked like I was sitting still." The idea is the speedster zipping down the interstate at 90 MPH. I was going 55 MPH, but he was going so fast it was as though I was sitting still.

That's the idea Jesus was communicating; He was not asking us to hate our parents, but comparatively speaking, our love for God must be so profound that all other passions look like hate in comparison. Thus, we have two conclusions:

(1) Practice saying more with less, and

(2) make any necessary recalibrations if something has displaced your love for Christ; He must be our highest affection, so much so that all other loves look like hate in comparison.

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