Luke 14: 25-35
Now large crowds were going along with 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.
Jesus is not advocating hatred here, He is comparing our love for our dear ones to the love we are to have for Him; it's an issue of priorities, what or who will come first in our loyalty.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
The cross was an instrument of execution. The one carrying a cross is admitting that they deserve death, and is on their way to die on it. We must live our lives daily in an attitude that we would die for Him; therefore we are living for Him, ready to follow His direction, regardless of what our loved ones tell us. Our first priority must be to do what is right, according to the Righteousness of God, and not let even our closest family members deter us from it.
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
Otherwise, when he has laid an foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it will begin to ridicule him,
saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Even if we want to accomplish something like building a building, it's only practical to make sure you can finance it before you start. If you run out of money or time, then people will make fun of you for leaving it half-finished.
There was a man in the city I lived in who bought a lot of the buildings in town and started to fix them up, but he seemed to lose interest before he finished anything. The other townspeople talked disdainfully about him, for leaving their town in a half-finished state. He couldn't seem to focus on one project long enough to get it done.
Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Here is a political example of looking before you leap. If the king with ten thousand cannot come up with a strategy to defeat the one with twice as many soldiers, then he would be better served not facing them in battle, but negotiating for peace instead. Reasoning and logic and planning.
God gave us brains and thinking powers that He wants us to use. And a will to choose what we would consider the best course to take.
Likewise, Jesus is saying we need to count the cost of following Him. He says:
So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
If becoming a Christian will cost you your family or your possessions, if you are living in a non-Christian country; or if you will lose your job in an evil society; or if you will face some other "undesirable" result of your turning from sinning to righteousness--then you will need to decide if He would be worth it. Is Jesus really your source of everything you really want, and is more valuable than anything you will end up giving up?
When God came to me to save me, I knew that I would be giving up all my boyfriends. But since He loved me so much, I didn't need those guys any more, anyway. And the life He gave me to live ever since that day has been so much better than it would have been, there's really no comparison.
Therefore, salt is good: but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
We are to be the salt of this World. Salt is used to season, give flavor, to food; it is also used to preserve food from rotting. And it is also used to make the soil unable to grow the weeds we want to kill, and to sanitize a manure pile.
But if salt loses its saltiness, then it's not good for anything at all.
If we're to be salt in our cultures and societies, then we need to give the flavor, kill the viruses, sanitize the stink, and preserve what is good. Unlike artificial antibiotics that kills everything, we need to discern what needs to be changed, and also what needs to be kept and improved.
And everyone who has ears, that means everybody, needs to listen to what Jesus is teaching us. Even non-Christians can do good in the World, and many do. But as Christians, the good that we can accomplish would not be mixed with anything that is not pure and righteous; it would be genuine and beneficial for everyone, without harming anyone.
O my Father, thank You for teaching us what is right. Thank You for showing us what seems to be good in the World, but really harmful to people or our environment. Father, give us the discernment to see how to love You and one another, to do what is right and righteous, and to avoid everything that would spoil or tear down the good that You have made in us and for us.
Strengthen us, Father, to give up all the things that will not help or be good for us, regardless of what we hear from others. All that You have for us is so much better than any things or possessions or people or wealth that this World gives.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it ever entered our imagination of what good things You are preparing for those who love You (Isaiah 64:4; I Corinthians 2:9). Even family members--Your own Family!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
