What did Jesus mean?

Question

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

Answer 1

It means you put Jesus first, even if your family thinks you have become a religious nut, and don't want you to change your lifestyle.

Answer 2

Luke 14:26
"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."

Jesus is using hyperbole for emphasis.
By comparison, the disciples love of family is hatred when compared to his love of God. Matthew 15:4 proves that we are not to hate our parents: "For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'

This is not a literal text, but a way of using a literary tool to make a point.

Answer 3

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).

I am not going to be popular, being acclaimed as king. I am going to be crucified. There is a real cost if you are going to come after Me. You better count the cost. You better measure it.

Now, don't misunderstand Jesus and think that I have got to hate my father, and my mother, because that is just the opposite of what the gospel teaches. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And if say I love God and hate my brother, I am a liar and the truth is not in me. How can I love God who I haven't seen and hate my brother who I have seen? Then what does Jesus mean, unless you hate your father, mother, brothers and so forth? That is in the language a comparative.

Your love for Jesus Christ must be supreme. It must be greater than your love for your family, your home or yourself, because it may cost you all of these things to follow Jesus Christ. And for many of those people it did cost all those things. Following Christ did cost some of them their families, their family relationships. For they were ostracized by their families when they made their commitment to Jesus Christ. And the same is true today. Many people have found it quite costly to follow Jesus Christ. It cost them their family relationships. But Jesus said if you are not willing to give up these family relationships, you can't really be My disciple. You have got to love Me more than you love any other relationship that you have. Your love for Me must be supreme and every other love must be subservient to your love for Me.

Then He went on to say,

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).

I am not going to be crowned as king of the world. I am going to bear a cross. I am going to be crucified, and if you are not willing to take up your cross you can't really be My disciple. If you really want to follow Me and be My disciple, it can involve a cross and you better consider that.

Jesus is deliberately laying out the terms for discipleship and they are not soft, easy, comfortable terms. They are harsh. They are severe. And it is important that you count the cost, the cost of discipleship.

Simply - following Christ is not going to be easy.

Answer 4

Jesus meant that if a person loved any of those people more than they loved Jesus then they wouldn't be able to follow Him because invariably a conflict would arise between doing what Jesus had called them to do and their desire to please themselves or one of their relatives.

Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate (miséō) not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

miséō - To love less. In Luk_14:26 Jesus contrasts love to family with love to Himself "If any come to me, and hate [miseí, pres. act. indic. 3d person sing.] not his father, and mother, and wife, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Here Jesus asserts His deity. Every member of man's family is a human being, and the love shown to humans compared to the love shown to Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, must be so different that the former seems like hatred.

Answer 5

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Luk 14:26 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.

Check out the word "hate" in the Greek.
It means love less.

G3404 μισέω miseō mis-eh'-o
From a primary word μῖσος misos (hatred); to detest (especially to persecute); by extension to love less: - hate (-ful).
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Wayne Murray

Answer 6

The Bible is the work of many writers, written many years after Jesus was killed.

The work ascribed to Matthew says that Jesus tells his disciples to "Honour your father and mother" (Matt 19:19), but the work ascribed to Luke thinks that Jesus requires his followers to hate their parents: "Whoever comes to me and does
not hate father and mother. . . cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14.26)

Even the writings ascribed to John makes it clear that Jesus had little more respect for his mother than for a house servant: When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus, ever the thoughtful hostess, said to him, "They have no wine." What does Jesus say? He dismisses her contemptuously with the words: "Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come." (John 2:3-4)

When a disciple begs for permission to bury his father, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father.", Jesus told him to let him rot: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:21-22) Is this the same Matthew that told us that Jesus told his disciples to love their parents?

The whole book is full of contradictions, which is why I choose atheism, but I have read it, unlike many so-called Christians.

Answer 7

He meant that you have to be "willing" to give up all your earthly possessions, should they interfere with following Christ, including even family.
Hopefully not many of us will have to do that... A good book for better understanding of that is Hard To Believe by John MacArthur. And study up on idolatry!

Answer 8

It means that the love you have for Jesus should be so great that your love for these others would seem like hate in comparison.

Answer 9

I believe that He means that one has to be willing to turn their back on (not cling to) other people even if those ppl are very close to them. I DO NOT think He wants us to hate anyone in the literal sense of the word.

Answer 10

Chill out
Tune in
Zone Out
Be cool