We spent ABF today looking at the first part of Jesus’ teachings about the cost of discipleship in Luke 14:25-35. This is some seriously hard teaching. We’re called to hate those who mean the most to us: spouses, children, parents, and ourselves. How could it be that Love Himself commands us to hate?
We explored the idea that this hatred is not the ill-will, angry, bitter type of hatred that we so often associate with the word. Rather, Jesus uses hatred in this sense to mean reject. Now, you might be thinking that being commanded to reject our families and own lives still doesn’t fix the difficulty of loving them and rejecting them.
The idea behind this rejection is to completely remove the hierarchy of loves in our lives. Often times, we makes lists of the things that we love and that vie for our affections, time, and attention. Jesus would be at the top, followed by family, friends, work, etc. Jesus blows this method of loving completely out of the water. Instead, He tells us to reject and forsake ALL of these things, save Him. We can still love people and things, however, it’s just that we no longer love them for their own sake. We love them in and for Jesus. Thus, our love of other people is an outpouring and expression of our love for Jesus.
So, I urge you, the next time you look deeply into your beloved’s eyes, tuck your children in at night, talk to your parents, or spend time with friends, hate them (reject) as having no intrinsic value and as being a distraction to your pursuit of Christ. And then love them like crazy through Jesus as an expression of your love for Him.
Good post bro!
“We love them in and for Jesus. Thus, our love of other people is an outpouring and expression of our love for Jesus.” Wonderful point here. It’s interesting to view this in light of the two greatest commands, to love God with all of our hearts, soul, and strength, and secondly to love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot love if we do not first love God, and loving God rightly necessitates a love for our fellow humankind, and especially our Christian brothers and sisters. But we cannot love them rightly unless the love we have for them comes first from our love towards God.
Sounds like Sunday School is edifying and encouraging.
Grace.
By: Kyle Borg on August 20, 2007
at 11:02 am
Does this idea of hate remain the same for Roman 8 where God says he hated Esau?
By: Anonymous on August 22, 2007
at 12:29 am
Malachi 1:2-3 is cited in Romans 9:13 as saying, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Some, C.S. Lewis for instance, would claim that this passage refers to the actual men Jacob and Esau and that the “hate” here is this idea of rejection. He contends that Esau’s earthly blessings are evidence that he wasn’t hated by God in the sense of God having ill-will toward him, rather he was rejected as the one from whom God would establish his chosen people (note, this is my paraphrase of Lewis’ thoughts in his book The Four Loves). Others would, perhaps, conclude that instead of referring to the historical figures Jacob and Esau themselves, these passages instead refer to their progeny, that is their descendants. In this case, it may very well be an embittered, angry hatred that God has toward “Esau”. In any event, I lean toward the former understanding that even in the case of Jacob and Esau (or their descendants), God’s hatred is one of rejection, not the common notion that we have of hatred today. My verdict is still out though. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?
By: Matt Borg on August 23, 2007
at 12:55 pm