What does Jesus mean when he says:?

Question

In the bible, there is the following:
A certain ruler asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered, "You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.""All of these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything, you have to give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow me."-Luke 18:18-22

I assume when Jesus says "Come follow me" he means become my desciple. But earlier in the bible, Jesus says:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple...In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
-Luke 14:26-33
So God wants us to hate everyone and love everyone. What does he mean?

Answer 1

He means we are to have nothing that we love more than Him.

Answer 2

In Luke 14: 26-33 this passage is talking about loving God more than anything else. We are suppose to deny ourselves and take up our cross. Being a christian will not always be easy. Jesus is telling use we need to count the cost before we become a christian. The bible says, "Jesus will divide families."
In Luke 18:18-22 this passage is talking about we are called to love Jesus with actions and our heart. The man asking Jesus with the question is lacking loving Jesus with his heart.
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Answer 3

It as many things written in red can mean many things depending on your perspective and where you are at spiritually. If you don't know the way, the truth, then come and follow me, I will be your way shower. Take it from the perspective of the story being based on astrology...the Father resides where? In heaven! And who has the best view of the heavens, but the Sun, the Son from the German word sonne, the Sun. From a Yoga perspective it can be said that God the Absolute, beyond space/time resides in heaven, the Only Begotten Son the part of God that came out from the Absolute to be creation...you cannot get to the Father except through the Son - how can you say you love God the Father when you don't love the Son manifested everywhere around you as the life forms and the plants and animals and your brothers and sisters, you say you love God but you do not even see God equally present everywhere. And there are probably many other ideas it brings up to people. No one verse has an absolute meaning.

Answer 4

About Luke 18:18-22
It was what he said to one person. That was what Jesus told that guy to do. But don't be surprised if you meet a few Christians that did just that.

About Luke 14:26-33; love and hate
I lived this principole. And like any other principle, you find yourself doing it and then the verse comes to mind. Yes, it does seem paradoxical, but it has to do with different aspects of what we go through as we are following after Christ.

Love them: I love them by bringing the Gospel to my family. I try to convince them that Jesus is real, and the way told in the Bible is right, we don't have to wonder about it. I told them as a family member with all the acceptance that any family member would do because I genuinely want them to share in the rewards of trusting God. I hold nothing back, and let them know how important it all is.

I hate them because the response is: "That's your opinion!" "Oh, well look who 'found religion'"! "Hey, how come God allows bad things to happen." And every other defense of remaining out of Christ that they can muster. I hate them for that because I freely gave them the Gospel and they rejected it. And that can be taken personally.

And then to add insult to injury, they want me to keep 'fanily' as more important to the call of God, and that is what is talked about in Luke 14:26-23. Family is NOT more important. Because Family by being a family does not keep someone in the peace that they can have in Christ. Whoever does not have peace with God will perish. ( I rarely state that because I would rather bring the message of Grace and Peace with God through Jesus Christ.

So God works on my 'family', but I have done all I could for them. And then when the gossip reaches my ears, and those who are angry with me for not being a part of their family it just gets worse. What they son't understand is that I belong to a new family now, and this one is eternal. That's important. More important than anything.

Answer 5

Jesus was making the point that if you put anything ahead of God you can not be a true disciple. As a disciple you learn the two most important commandments are (paraphrased) 1. Love God first. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you love God, loving your neighbor in a Godly manner becomes easy. If you love something before God, loving others is usually based upon selfish needs rather than Godly ones.

Answer 6

When Jesus spoke to the young ruler, he already discerned the ruler's weakness - money. When Jesus said to sell all you have, the ruler walked away sadly, because he loved money more than God. That was the heart condition that Jesus wanted to bring to the surface.

The other passage has again to do with placing other people before God. Many here on YA have answered that they rather go to Hell with a loved one, than be in Heaven without them. How many people are out here who would not be a Christian, because it is not the faith of their parents or spouse? How many would not be a Christian, because it might offend their family members? How many would deny Christianity because it's not good business, or doesn't seem cool, or affects their lives adversely? That is what Christ is getting act.

Do not place any other "gods" before God. It is good to see that a lot of posters here understand that.

Answer 7

Couple that verse with the other verses concerning loving and
obeying Christ, and you will understand that He is saying that anything that would keep you from obeying me implicity should be hated. There is nothing or nobody that should keep
us from serving and honoring Christ. He alone is worthy of our complete loyalty above everyone and everything on earth.
In other words, He is first and everyone else is somewhere in line after that.

It is not a command to hate anyone in the sense of hate this world expresses daily because we are to love all men including our enemies.

Answer 8

The word "hate" is not an absolute term but a relative one. He is establishing a comparison: "You have to love Me more than mother, father, wife, children, brother, sister." We have to put Christ first; we have to love Him more than the others. Recall what He said to Peter after His resurrection. What was the first question? "Do you love [agape] Me more than these?" Who were the "these"? It was very likely the other disciples who were with Him. "Do you love Me more than your friends?"

What Christ said to Peter He is also saying to us! The standard is exactly the same. Though we may not have the responsibility of feeding the sheep, Christ must still be our first concern in life, and God expects us not only to be concerned, but to love Him with deep, family affection.

Answer 9

i believe that Jesus is letting us know that if we love the world and the people in it we are of a worldly mind. and we can't productively be with him if we will leave him because of our families our properties. i believe to truly know Jesus you need to let everything as he ask so that you can become that women or man of God you have chosen us to be. because example if you have alot of baggage and no one to carry it it becomes very heave. So God does not want you to worry about the things of this world only focus on him. God does not want you to hate people but let them go so he can build you up and make you strong because people can hold you back from all God has for us. HATE THE SIN LOVE THE PERSON!!!!!

Answer 10

Good question! Jesus spoke in riddles at times and so the meaning for "simple" people like me get messed up. I will be looking for the answers that people give you because I want to understand this too. I think that Jesus just wants to know if we are "willing" to do that . I don't think in this day and age that this love/hate thing applies.

Answer 11

In order to understand these two passages, I would tell you to look at: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after oprhans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27

Now in order to understand Luke 18:18-22, look at the first part of James 1:27. This man comes to Jesus and says I have done EVERYTHING that you asked (meaning he kept the ten commandments). Jesus, knowing that this man was devoted and needed to be challenged by his faith, tells him that he has not done everything. Jesus tells this man to sell everything he has, give it to the poor, and follow me. Faith is not something that you can perfect or complete. It is a lifelong struggle and pursuit. As you grow in your faith, bigger and more challenging things will be asked of you.

As for Luke 14:26-33, look at the last part of James 1:27. Jesus Christ wants, and deserves to be, the single most important thing in your life. Your needing and wanting for a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ must make every other need and want look like NOTHING. Your need for your significant other, best friend, mom, dad, brother etc. must be nothing in comparison to your need for Jesus Christ. The last part of James 1:27 talks about not being polluted by this world. You were not made for this world you were made for heaven. You must learn to hate this world's pleasures and restrictions. Nothing in this world will ever give you absolute pleasure or happiness. If you put your trust in a relationship, success, material things to make you happy then you will be let down. Only Jesus Christ will never fail you.

Here is the commentary for Luke 14 to explain: http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/?action=getCommentaryText&cid=3&source=1&seq=i.49.14.1