Jesus again talks about what it takes to be one of His disciples in Luke 14. In verses 26-33, He tells them that a disciple must hate his own family — and even his own life. And he finishes up by saying that the disciple must renounce all that he has. Of course we know that Jesus does not want us to hate anyone. It is an expression often used in the bible when talking about loving someone or something more than another, and that is the point.

English: An etching by Jan Luyken illustrating Luke 14:16-24 in the Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By the same token, we do not have to give away everything we own. But those people and those things mean little — must mean little — to us in the grand scheme of things. Our devotion to the Lord is what will carry us to the prize at the end.

Much is made by the Pharisees, in chapter 15 and elsewhere, about Jesus associating with sinners and those that the pious do not approve of. Those are naturally the very people Jesus came to associate with, as He said time and again. How often do we try to alienate ourselves from those sorts of people? Certainly, we do not want to put ourselves in a position to be tempted to imitate ungodly behavior. But we have to be “in the world.” We cannot do that if we separate ourselves entirely.

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Luke 12, Luke 13, Luke 14, Luke 15, Luke 16

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All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.