Hating

It is possible to love those nearest and dearest to  us so much that we are unable to give God His rightful place in our life.  Inordinate love for family could place shackles on us rendering us unable to make the sacrifices necessary to put God over and above all else. If we are constantly concerned about  pleasing family members, we will be unable to give God the place of primacy in our lives.  Every human love must be dispassionate and disinterested,  we must neither cling nor  permit others to cling to us, rather  from our love for God must flow our love for others.  Only such a love fulfills God's first commandment to love Him with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole might and our whole being.  Putting anything else before our love for Him becomes an idol.

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Luke  14:26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brother and sister and yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 10:37,  He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

  

The cost of discipleship requires a whole hearted not half hearted response.  If anyone stands in the way of complete commitment to God even our closest, nearest and dearest, it must be renounced.  Our response to God’s call must be radical.

Reading the above verses from the Gospel of Luke and Matthew one may get the impression that God is calling us to renounce all family ties but that is not true at all.  How could a God of Love demand that we  not love our family when He Himself commands us to honor our father and mother?  

What God calls us to is radical love - the same kind of love that sent His beloved Son to the Cross in order to redeem us.  We too must be prepared to lay down our lives in love and service first to God and then to our neighbor.

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