Family

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. Luke 14:26 

What a hard verse!  Surely the King of All does not want us to hate.  So, what does He mean? 

A friend and I were just talking about this verse today.  We both are married and have kids, so this si a dear subject to us.  As fathers we are called to protect our family from physical distress, be spiritual leaders of the home, and to love unashamed.  And Jesus tells us we can't follow Him unless we hate them.  The word here is not hate.

The better translation would be "love less".  He who doesn't love His family less than he loves Jesus cannot follow Him.  Jesus is simply telling us that He is to be our everything.  We are to place Him first.  When we do, we are being the best fathers and mothers we can be.  The best sons and daughters we can be.  The best followers we can be.  This may not be so impactful right now, but it will be.

There will be times where the world's view of what we need to do for our family will conflict with God.  Do we sacrifice Him or them?  Do we forsake time with the Lord for activities?  Do we work at our jobs to get money for our stuff at the expense of Him?  Do we really place Him first?