A Question Regarding Luke 14:26
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesA querist asks, “I’m puzzled about Christ’s requirement in Luke 14:26 to hate our families and even our own selves in order to be His disciple. Other passages in the New Testament tell me that we are to love ourselves, our wives and one another. Can you please explain to me what the Lord is teaching in this passage?”
The passage in Luke 14:26-KJV reads:
“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.”
The word “hate” in this passage simply means to “love less.” It denotes a preference of one thing over another. Since the Bible is its own best commentary, please look at Matthew 10:37-KJV which is a parallel passage to Luke 14:26-KJV.
It states:
“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” (Emphasis mine).
From this passage, we can plainly see that we are to love our immediate family “less than” the Lord.
In the Old Testament, we see another example of the idea of “loving less” in Genesis 29:31-NKJV, where it is stated that Leah was “hated.” But in Genesis 29:30-KJV, the text reads regarding Jacob’s love for Rachel:
“And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years” (Emphasis mine).
We can plainly see that the use of the word “hate” in this passage, denotes that Jacob simply loved Leah “less” than he loved Rachel.
It’s interesting to note that in Deuteronomy 13:6-11-KJV, the penalty for influencing a family member to forsake God for other gods, was stoning to death.
Since our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:3-5-KJV), He demands that our love and devotion to Him exceed that of our love for family and friends.
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