26 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.
27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14: 26-24 NASB
24"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
25"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
26"If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
John 12: 24-26 NASB
In other scriptures He talks about us loving our enemies as ourselves and showing each other love being the hallmark of who we are, so what do these verses mean? If you take the time to think about it in context of other scriptures He is not saying we are to in fact “hate” these things but our love for Him is so great that our love for these things will appear as if we hate them. A level of devotion so great that we would be willing to forgo all things if it were asked of us is what He asks for. So where do we stand? Can we honestly say these things about ourselves? I know that I struggle with it all the time, I can be very selfish in the things I do and each time I am I put my love of self over my love of Yeshua. This is the struggle we all face, how do I put Yeshua first in our lives? For each of us the path is different because we have different struggles but ultimately it comes down to one simple question. Am I willing to lose my life and everything in it to serve Him? If you can honestly answer this question with a “yes” then you are one of His.
4 comments:
Eaglewood, is our life even our own if we have become believers? Just a thought provoking question.
Jimmy,
You are right in that as believers we are bought with the blood of Yeshua and that alone makes us His, but that does not address the attitudinal disposition of the believer that Yeshua was addressing. He is looking for us to sell out to Him and give to Him all that we have and all that we are to the point that it would appear to others that we hate ourselves. It is one of the paradoxes of belief because when we do we get back so much more than we could ever imagine.
Eaglewood. You are absolutely right. We are to be completely giving of ourselves back to God. My thought is this: If Jesus is actually living within our lives, will He not always seek to please His Father? It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Maybe we are dually controlled in that we, being alive also war against that which is in us, which is alive.
Not completely sure where you travel on this direction. Good thought provoking thinking here as well as exegesis and hermaneutical study.
Eaglewood,
I noticed a couple of places that you claim to be a profit, however, to me that is an indication that you are a false teacher. The Bible is clear that profits are no longer needed. I realize that people differ on those verses, but one thing is clear - a profit NEVER is wrong and a profit NEVER tells or supports someone sinning or going directly against commands of the Bible. You have done both of these, which shows that you are not a true profit. That's why I have zero respect for Christians.
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