Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Luke chapter 14, verses 25 and 26.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,

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 how's that for an opening jesus to this massive crowd around him and says,

if you're going to stick with me,

you need to hate your mom and dad and wife and kids and brothers and sisters,

and your own life.

Otherwise, you can't follow me.

What in the world does that mean?

Well, obviously, and we know from all throughout

scripture, this is not Jesus saying that we don't honor our parents, for example. That's part of the

Ten Commandments, and that's echoed in the New Testament, that we obey and honor our parents. And

certainly we love our spouses husbands love your wives as

christ love the church and gave himself up for her and wives respect and love your husbands and

we love our children so this is not not a call from Jesus to literally hate the people in our family.

Even just the most basic command he gives us, the second and greatest commandment.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

But what he is saying here, feel the weight of it, is that our love for him should make our closest

relationships in this world look like hate in comparison. That's the language in Matthew

10. Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

The whole picture is a superior love and affection for Jesus, for God, which is the first

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