Bible Challenge

Sometimes, reading the Bible can really bring me peace in the midst of challenge.  At other times, the challenge is reading the Bible itself.  Some passages are really challenging to understand!  Such is the case with a passage I read yesterday.  Since it was Mother's Day, I started out looking up passages that spoke of mothers. This particular one stood out to me but was so challenging that I didn't really address it at the time.  I started reading before it to get the context and found myself focusing on what I shared yesterday instead.  

But the text has stayed with me and I've continued pondering it. It's found in Luke chapter 14 verses 25 - 27:

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. (NIV)

That sounds really harsh! I have to hate my family and myself in order to follow Jesus?  REALLY???  I thought God was a God of LOVE!!!  Over and over again we are told to LOVE!!!!  So, I look a little deeper.

What is the context? Jesus has just told the story of a man who prepared a feast, but when the time came, everyone who had been invited made excuses as to why they couldn't attend - one had just bought a field and wanted to go see it, one had just bought some oxen and wanted to try them out, one had just gotten married. It seems pretty clear that the message is that when it comes to eating of the spiritual feast God has prepared for us, we can't let anyone or anything stand in our way.  

And yet, the words are so strong: "If any one does not HATE . . ."  Surely He doesn't literally mean we must hate our parents.  In fact, later on he tells someone they must honor their parents: "You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'" (Luke 18:20 NIV)  And yet the same word is used in many other passages where we fully understand it as meaning "hate".  Looking the original word up in the concordance gives a bit of a hint.  It says it is "from a primary misos (hatred)" and means "to detest (especially to persecute); by extension, to love less:" (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)  To love less.  Okay, I can certainly understand that idea - I must not make idols of anyone or anything by loving them more that God - makes sense.  And perhaps, using a word that so often means something stronger may have been chosen for shock value to really make us stop and think about this passage.  If so, this must be important!

So, how am I doing?????  How well am I REALLY doing at this?  Do I truly put God first in my life, or do I make excuses like all those invited guests?  Honesty forces me to admit that I, too, sometimes make excuses and choose to put other people or other things first. I am not ALWAYS fully present to that still small voice within and to the people He places in my path!  My first thought is not ALWAYS "what is Your will, Father".  Too often I still get caught up with what I want to do - MY will instead of HIS.

Father, forgive me!  Only you can root out this selfishness in me and make me wholly yours! But I must let you do it!  I think of the young father saying, "Lord, I believe! Help thou mine unbelief." Similarly my heart cries out, "Lord, I want you first in my life. Help me with those places in me where this isn't yet true!"  Thank you, Father!  May your will be done in me this day, I pray. Amen.