Below is part 2 of an outreach and discipleship booklet I put together for my church based on an April 2013 sermon series by the same name. You can find Part 1: Give Up Your Life for Jesus, here.
Value Jesus Above All Else
Luke 14 tells us how Jesus was walking along and an exceedingly large crowd followed. At one point Jesus stopped and turned towards them, and said some very difficult things to them. Imagine Jesus speaking these words, and listen as you read:
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 bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” ~ Luke 14:26-33
Now, you may have heard that God is love and that Jesus loves others and that he told his followers to love others—and that is true (see: John 13:34-35, and 1 John 4:7-21). So what is going on here that Jesus said to “hate” others? Well, let’s take a moment to think about what Jesus is not saying…
Jesus is not telling us to be mean to others, to kill others, or to harm others in any way. At one time Jesus even told us that we have to love and do good to our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). So the same is true for our family and friends.
So what Jesus is doing when he says to “hate” others and even our own lives, is to challenge our priorities and what we hold most important. In Luke 16:13, Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” So, essentially, this is Jesus’ way of asking, “What do you serve?”
You see, some people (and you might be one of them) think that family is the most important thing in life. Or jobs… or money… or love or power or fame or sex or happiness… the list could go on and on. None of these things are necessarily bad themselves, though they can be abused and used in completely wrong and therefore sinful ways.
But Jesus is telling us that none of these things—not even the good things—should be the driving devotion of our lives. Instead, you should value Jesus above all else.
To put things in perspective, think about it this way: Here in America, you can tell your friends or family, “Hey, I’ve decided to be a follower of Jesus.” They might support you, or they might call you dumb. But in the highest probabilities, they won’t kick you out of the family, disown you as a friend, or worse: seek to physically harm or kill you. But that wasn’t necessarily true in Jesus’ day, nor is it true all around the world today.
There are people living in countries this moment who, if they decided to be a follower of Jesus, would be disowned by their families and face a very real threat of death. In fact, in some places it is so bad that their very own friends or family would seek to kill them. In his book Follow Me, pastor and author David Platt tells the story of how he was in a foreign country telling people about Jesus and two men (one young and one old) decided to follow Jesus and be baptized (a ritual involving being immersed into a pool of water) as a public expression of their faith. But if certain people saw them being baptized, they would be killed. So another man asked these two the question, “Are you willing to be baptized, knowing it may cost you your life?” In both cases, the men said, “Yes.”[1]
That is what Jesus was saying in Luke 14.
Our hope is to be able to have Jesus, to follow Jesus, and have family, friends, a good job, and even life. But if it comes to a choice between these things and Jesus, then choose Jesus.
Now there are some things Jesus will never tell a person to do in light of this truth. He will never tell his follower to not provide support for a family member in need (usually a parent supporting a child, but it could also be a child supporting their aged parent). Nor will Jesus ever tell his follower to abandon or initiate divorce from their spouse. (We see these truths in places like 1 Timothy 5:8 or 1 Corinthians 7:10-16). But if it is a choice between Jesus and your family abandoning you, then choose Jesus.
Jesus is far, far more valuable than family, comfort, wealth, possessions, friends, and even life. Choose Jesus.
So ask yourself:
{ Have you counted the cost? Are you willing to give up anything and everything to follow Jesus? Is Jesus worth it to you? }
Next up: Part 3 ~ Know Who You Are and Delight in the Father’s Love