"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple (pupil)." Luke 14:26
Ever since the very first time I read this verse I was certain that it did not belong in the Bible. I couldn't ever imagine Jesus speaking these words. It's never made any sense to me. Even when I heard pastor's preach sermons including this verse it didn't seem right and stuck out like a soar thumb. In all of Jesus' teachings LOVE is the main theme and a house divided against itself will fall so how could Jesus ever instruct anyone to hate for any reason? Yesterday when I wrote the blog about my nightmare; about the impression that living has left on who I am as a person I couldn't stop thinking about this verse. I knew that it belonged attached to that blog.
The original word in the greek is miseo. Translated into English the definition of the word is "to hate" or "to love less." Every last person who has ever walked upon this earth has been flawed beyond recognition by life. We're flawed to such an extent that God is unable to look upon us without the cover of Jesus' blood. We are each the result of our parents and their parents and their parents impression of this world. Our view is flawed. Our lens is flawed. Our entire selves are flawed. If anyone, even an atheist can argue with the truth of that I'd like to hear it. I believe that the redeeming blood of Christ allows God to look upon us as we should be, the way He intended us to be, without flaw, without mar, without filth and dross and blemish. I truly believe that when my Daddy God looks upon me He sees perfect beauty, He sees me; not mistakes that my mom and dad made, not a whole boat load of false truths that have been handed down by my grandparents, not wounds and scars and bruises from the kids at school. Because of Christ my Heavenly Father sees me. The funny thing is I can't even see me. But I know He does.
I'm certain, when Jesus said you must love your father, your mother, everyone LESS if you want to learn anything from me He was simply saying, that guy who you see as your dad isn't really your dad. That guy is a mess. My Father cannot even look upon that guy. I think Jesus was telling his followers that they wouldn't ever be able to learn anything from Him if they weren't able to abandon the brokenness in their families, in themselves; a brokenness that they loved.
This could be super stretching it. It could be. But I believe that is exactly what Jesus was saying. I know He wasn't saying that we should hate, not love, despise, look down upon; He wasn't saying anything like that. But I do believe He was saying we need to stop loving the lies. We need to stop believing blindly all the junk that's been hardwired into us. We need to stop idolizing people. We need to look to Him, listen to Him, look away from people, and hear the truth. Honestly the truth is so foreign to our natural selves that we would have to hate those old ways and false truths in order to see clearly.
I won't go into all the ungodly messiness of my family members. I can magnify the filth in me however. I can say that I hate the laziness, I hate that I'm messy and pessimistic. I hate that people bother me. I hate that depression has a greasy hold on me. I hate the stubbornness. Like I said before in my monster blogs, I no longer even identify those parts of me as me. I know that in Christ Jesus I am a new creation. I know that God sees me outside of those things. This, I believe, is what Jesus was saying when he instructed his followers to hate (love less). I'm bordering on repetition now. So I shall close. I hope this makes sense.
I'm certain, when Jesus said you must love your father, your mother, everyone LESS if you want to learn anything from me He was simply saying, that guy who you see as your dad isn't really your dad. That guy is a mess. My Father cannot even look upon that guy. I think Jesus was telling his followers that they wouldn't ever be able to learn anything from Him if they weren't able to abandon the brokenness in their families, in themselves; a brokenness that they loved.
This could be super stretching it. It could be. But I believe that is exactly what Jesus was saying. I know He wasn't saying that we should hate, not love, despise, look down upon; He wasn't saying anything like that. But I do believe He was saying we need to stop loving the lies. We need to stop believing blindly all the junk that's been hardwired into us. We need to stop idolizing people. We need to look to Him, listen to Him, look away from people, and hear the truth. Honestly the truth is so foreign to our natural selves that we would have to hate those old ways and false truths in order to see clearly.
I won't go into all the ungodly messiness of my family members. I can magnify the filth in me however. I can say that I hate the laziness, I hate that I'm messy and pessimistic. I hate that people bother me. I hate that depression has a greasy hold on me. I hate the stubbornness. Like I said before in my monster blogs, I no longer even identify those parts of me as me. I know that in Christ Jesus I am a new creation. I know that God sees me outside of those things. This, I believe, is what Jesus was saying when he instructed his followers to hate (love less). I'm bordering on repetition now. So I shall close. I hope this makes sense.
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