Jesus said in Luke 14:26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Jesus, in this passage, shows the cost of being his disciple. What does he mean by the word hate? Matthew explains in his account by recording Jesus as saying, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). From this account we see that “love less” is meant by the word hate. We must love Jesus more than our parents, wives, children or anyone else. He must be first and foremost in our lives.
In Luke 14 Jesus continued by stating that we must bear our cross and count the cost of serving Him as illustrated by the tower builder and the king going to make war with another king. He then sums up what he is talking about by saying, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). The spirit of self-sacrifice is the point Jesus is stressing. As brother H. Leo Boles said in his commentary on this passage, “The cost is great; one must give his influence, his money, his energy, his life, his all, if he would be a disciple of Jesus.”
Sometimes we sing the hymn “All to Jesus I Surrender.” Listen carefully, “All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live. All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow; Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now. All to Jesus I surrender, Lord I give myself to Thee; Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessing fall on me.” The cost is great. Count it and then pay the price. Jesus deserves it. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24).
Ken Tyler
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