Luke 14:26

“If any man comes to me, and does not love less than me, his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

The first cost was with regard to family. As He had demonstrated earlier, now that He was fulfilling His ministry His own family, who had actually sought to interfere with that ministry, even though He loved them, counted as less to Him than His new spiritual family, which consisted of those who heard the word of God that He spoke, and did it (Luke 8:19; Mark 3:31).

In the same way those who ‘come to Him' in order to follow Him must recognise that He must then mean more to them than their families. They must respond to His way of life and His words. They must love their families less than they love Him. This very claim reveals that Jesus saw Himself as more than simply a man, that He saw Himself as having the right to claim a man's total submission.

The word used here is regularly translated in modern versions as ‘hate' and that is what it does often mean. But we must beware. No word in one language translates exactly into another. Thus miseo does not always mean ‘hate. It can mean ‘love with a lesser love'. Consider the following examples:

· In Genesis 29:30 LXX we read of Jacob that ‘he loved Rachel more than Leah', and it goes on to say ‘and when the Lord saw that Leah was ‘hated', (that is ‘not loved like Rachel was'). Thus the comparison is between two levels of love.

· In Deuteronomy 21:15 a man has two wives, one of whom he loves more than the other. The point is not that he hates the second wife, but that he does not love her like he does the other.

· In 2. Samuel Luke 19:6 the charge is made that David loves those who loved him less than he loved Absalom. It could hardly be thought that he was seen as hating them. The charge is that he does not love them as he ought.

· In Proverbs 13:24 we are told that ‘he who spares the rod hates his son.' Taken literally that would be nonsense. If he hated him he would not spare the rod. The point being made is that a loving father should punish the son whom he loves, because he loves him and wants him to grow up rightly. If he does not he is demonstrating that he has a lesser love.

· In Romans 9:13 we read, ‘Jacob I loved and Esau I hated' because the latter would serve the former. Again the idea is not that the Lord hated Esau. Rather it is that His love for Jacob was the stronger because He had chosen him, while he had put Esau in second place. He had a lesser love for him, although it was still great enough to bless him (Genesis 27:39).

In the same way it is quite clear that ‘hate' is not what is meant here. Even if there were no other argument to prove that it becomes clear from the fact that Jesus includes the man as ‘hating' Himself. But if the word is taken literally no normal, rational man would ever really do such a thing, however much he may hate his own selfishness, and the sin that sometimes possesses him. He simply loves himself less. And this meaning is confirmed in that Jesus has already told His hearers to love their enemies and not only those who love them (Luke 6:27; Luke 6:32; Luke 6:35).

So the Old Testament LXX background indicates quite clearly that ‘hate' is not always the correct translation for miseo. When it speaks of God loving Jacob and ‘hating' Esau this simply means that He has set His love on Jacob and not on Esau, because Jacob is His chosen one, His beloved. Esau is not loved in the same way, and is ‘loved less'. In the same way for people to ‘love Jesus' is to set their love on Him and choose to follow Him. By it they have made Him their chosen Master. To ‘hate' their families indicates that they leave them, however reluctantly, in order to follow Jesus, and that they will not allow their lesser commitment to their families interfere with their greater commitment to Jesus. Given the choice they, however grievingly, turn their backs on their families (compare Luke 9:59). If they are faced with a choice between obedience to Jesus and obedience to their families, they will choose obedience to Jesus. For they ‘love' Him, and their families they ‘love less'. And the point here is that this is what following Jesus calls for.