SCRIPTURAL CONFUSION UNCHRISTIAN TEACHING BY JESUS THROUGH SAINT LUKE'S GOSPEL WHY?
74CONFUSION OF THE MASSES
LUKE THE APOSTLE'S GOSPEL A CONTRADICTION TO CHRISTIAN LOVE. WHY?
Love and Hatred are two diametrically opposed emotional expressions within a man or woman. It is almost virtually impossible to express both simultaneously.
I am neither a theologian, nor a minister, pastor, or priest. I am only a simple Christian man who Loves God passionately as my Creator, Worships God as my Redeemer, and Adores and Obeys God's Holy Spirit as my teacher, and provider of knowledge and wisdom along with all of the other gifts provided me throughout my life such as discernment, speaking in tongues, passion for music, passion for evangelizing through my Hub writing.
I cannot understand nor can I explain why Jesus would make such a statement, or why the Apostle Luke would report such a thing in his Gospel. Can you imagine the calamity the chaos, that could be caused if Atheists, or Agnostics, or Muslims or even the Jews ever learned about this one little piece of obscure scripture by Luke?
"I F" The Holy Bible should not and cannot contradict itself, why do we read this one verse that on the surface appears to contradict everthing that The Holy Bible and Jesus teaches about LOVE and life?
This is a very serious and important question that needs to be addressed, and I do not have the answer to it. If my fellow Christian brothers and sisters know the answer to this perplexing question of mine, I would love to learn the truth, and would welcome it into my heart, as confusion is not what I need in life especially at my age.
Throughout 25 of 27 books, of the NEW TESTAMENT OF THE HOLY BIBLE the writers express the words of Jesus as being teachings of love: love of self, love of parents, love of family, love of friends, even love of your enemy. We are even taught to love the sinner, but hate the sin.
From Old Testament to New testament the Holy Bible is repleat with 192 verses of how we should love and 58 verses teaching us to hate and what to hate.
In the Gospel of Luke: 14: 26 we find the following passage that goes against everything that Jesus teaches about LOVE.
"If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother,and wife and children, and bretheren and sisters, yea even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
This one verse flies in the face of everything ever taught, throughout all 66 books of The Holy Bible about God, about love of God, about love of self, about love of family and friends, and even about loving our enemy.
I have asked several times why this statement by Jesus was ever made, just to fill my own curiosity with some sort of logical answer. The answer I have received makes no sense either.
I was told that what Jesus was actually saying is that if these people in your life, refused to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and be baptised and reborn in Jesus, we should be willing to turn our backs on them and walk away from them. This would be acceptable if Jesus had said it that way, but he didn't. This explanation also neglects one extremely important and intrinsic point in the quotation, that point being, ( how does one walk away from one's self ). Well I guess that could be answered by our becoming "Reborn in Christ" but again this is not what the scripture says.
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Brother Dave,
Because John tells us that "whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him, " we know that Luke cannot mean that Jesus is then telling us to "hate" in the way 21st century man uses the word "hate."
We must transport ourselves back in time and hear as the Hebrews heard and understood. In biblical times, the term “hate” was frequently used in the Hebrew understanding to denote simply the preference of one thing over another. For example, in Genesis 29:31 it is said that Jacob “hated” his wife Leah, and yet, the CONTEXT makes it very clear that he was merely saying that He loved his wife Rachel “more than” Leah (which we learn in verse 30).
Thus, it suggests to us that when Jesus, also speaking to the Hebrew children, instructed us to "hate" our family members, He is not suggesting that we must literally have ill feelings for them. Rather, He is stressing that we must love HIM more than all others, even those dearest to us. This is supported by your reference text (Luke 14:26) with a parallel in Matthew where Jesus insists: “He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me …”
Also, since the fifth commandment demands we honor our parents, for Jesus to tell us to "hate" them would put Him in a position of contradicting the Law which Jesus did not come to abolish or change but to fulfill. Therefore, again, Luke 14:26 must be understood in the context of the audience's (Hebrew) language and given the meaning THEY would have understood it to mean.
I strongly suggest all Christians have the Greek and Hebrew Lexicons as part of their Bible study resources. It is so important to understand biblical words in the context and cultural meaning intended by the authors. Otherwise, we might think there is contradiction where, in fact, there is none.
Hope this helps. Love and peace!
Forever His,
Pastor Andrew, I understand what you are saying, with the exception of one thing, that being your opening,paragraph. I offer this premise in refuting it.
We all are direct decendants of Adam, the earthly father of all man through to Abraham, David, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, all Jews. Therefore I am a Jew/Christian/Catholic. I am a brother to My Lord Jesus.
I agree with the rest of what you have said, and I believe that I somewhat touch upon it in my last paragraphs. It is a shame that Jesus would not simply say that:
["You must be willing to turn your back on your family, if they are not willing to be re-born, for their lack of willingness might be harmful to your own salvation, if you stand by them."]
This I or anyone else reading the text would fully understand.
Thank you for the clarification with regards to this text, it has always been a bit of a puzzlement, because of its contradictory nature, but if taken in the context as I have restated it, in my response to your comment, it would stand alone and not be questioned.
Brother Dave.
RevLady, my dear sister, I fully believe that the word "Hate" is aptly applied. Meaning to be willing to turn one's back on someone, or in other words as we say, "Love the sinner but Hate their sins."
After reading the comments from both yourself and Pastor Andrew, I feel "Hate" is most appropriately applied.
I invite you to go to my response to Pastor Andrew, and read my reply [ in brackets ] to see how I now view this Verse to be understood at least by me.
Saundra I have one new question which arose from a part of your comment where you discuss the "Fifth Commandment".
Jesus tell His Apostles that he has come to give them a "New Commandment" "Love one another as I have loved you."
He refers to it as a "New Commandment" not the
"11 th." Commandment, thus inferring, that it should maybe supersede,but not fully replace the "10 Commandments" OR is this "New Commandment" to replace the original, as it is all incompassing. I see it as the "11th."
Bless you my dear sister for helping me to better understand this verse in Luke better.
Brother Dave.
I think confusion is everywhere in the BIBLE Kuya because we have been givern different analysis and ways to think -- remember words are evolving through history -- but then GODS love is evidident through all the pages, right? and thats the most importan thing, HUGS KUYA, Maita
Ate' Maita there should be NO confusion in What Jesus teaches in the Bible. His words should be clear and concise yesterday today and tomorrow, and God's word should always agree with who God is, for God is "LOVE".
HUGS TO MY FAVOURITE ATE',
KUYA Dave.
Thank you for asking the question[s] Brother Dave...many are the recipients of the answer and it helps clear the air for more than just you.
As far as your "Jewish" question, one of identity...many were born from Adam, and were not in the direct line of Abraham...who knows where my ethnic roots end up, quite possibly out of Cain's line...Abraham's line is the one that God picked out of all the nations on the earth to be His favored nation. I was not born an ethnic Jew, therefore I was born a Gentile to Gentiles. However, having said that...upon learning about God and consequently receiving Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I was Born Again! And now am grafted into the Olive vine and am a Spiritual Jew, a child of God and of the seed of Abraham in that I am a child of faith.
That is how I see that issue.
Thanks for your questions and allowing others God has gifted with more insight and wisdom than we have to answer, I appreciate this.
Blessings to you
UlrikeGrace
UlrikeGrace, thank you for your response to this Hub but I fear you have this hub confused with an earlier hub of mine as being a "Jew" has nothing to do with this writing.
But as for your comment, like it or not we as humans all fall as direct decendants of Adam as he was the first, and the father of all mankind. That is why to this day we carry his original sin until we become reborn in Jesus, and Jesus is still of Jewish decent. Tribal lineage,Abraham,
Issac,Isaiah,David really has no bearing.
Brother Dave.
Dave Mathews
This verse is also a type and comparison, or even a challenge to the heart.
You could compare it to the verse on
"The Pearl of great price"
Mat 13:46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Pearl represents the truth of God Jesus Christ.
or
" The Field with the treasure in it"
Mat 13:44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Will Man/Woman be willing to take the steps to forsake his life to follow Christ, not that it will involve becoming a monk, but more a case of don't let family interfere with your accepting the Lord and being led by the Holy Spirit.
Go well
HOWANTSTONO, Brother I am familiar with the scriptures you suggested. I agree with your closing comment about letting family get in the way of accepting The Lord, I also think that to be willing to not interact with family that denies Christ is applicable too. Family is family, but if we have to separate ourselves from those who refuse to believe and accept Jesus, then so be it. God comes first and foremost, if you desire full brotherhood with Jesus.
Brother Dave.
Actually Brother Dave I am not confusing this with another...sorry for the confusion, I was commenting on what you said to Pastor Andrew,
"We all are direct decendants of Adam, the earthly father of all man through to Abraham, David, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, all Jews. Therefore I am a Jew/Christian/Catholic. I am a brother to My Lord Jesus."
I hope that brings light to my comments...
UlrikeGrace
Yes, I totally agree with your statement in regards to us and original sin and when said in the Light of being IN Jesus, then yes, wholeheartedly, I agree we are of the line of Abraham...Blessings
UlrikeGrace, I had to go and get a second cup of coffee thinking that one of us is confused here. I'm glad my sister to discover that it was neither of us. When patient, God unconfuses the confused. Thanks be to The Lord Our God!
Brother Dave.
Brother Dave I appreciate the hubs and thank you for the thought provoking ways. As for this hub question I find the meaning of hate to be similar to that of abandon, being that if the family, friend, and self cannot abandon life to become a disciple of Jesus in the truest form He will not wait in His kingdom for such to happen, but instead wait on us to abandon the thoughts of selfish living which is not the loving means as God wants of man to become His disciples.
Amen sir, amen
SL Perrin my brother in Christ, I see where you are coming from and I agree. There must be absolutely nothing and nobody, permitted to be able to be between myself and my full acceptance of Jesus as my saviour.
I'd like to invite you to become one of my followers as a reader. I'd welcome your spiritual fellowship and guidance.
Thanks,
Brother Dave
I have good news for you UlrikeGrace. None of us are descendants from Cain. They all passed in the flood. We all come through the ark.
Also, my point on understanding this passage as a Jew would back in the day of Jesus is simply that there are somethings that we will not understand properly unless we take the time to be careful and understand the idioms and expressions that were prevelant at the time.
If you are under the weather in America, you are sick. I am told that that expression means that you have a hang over in Australia. So, it is not a matter of where your blood line lies as much as undertanding where the language and logic takes us in the context that it was spoken.
Pastor Andrew I find some of your comment to Ulrike Grace a little misleading. For instance. We are all direct decscendants of Adam, although you say they passed in the flood. This is erroneous. Also when you talk about being under the weather in Australia as having a hangover, is this not a form of sickness?
Brother Dave.
Great Question Dave! It really makes us think, that is a good thing!
Here is what I take from the Scripture, and I actually have experiential reasons for it, which I will explain. Jesus here says in Luke 14:26,
“If anyone ‘comes to me’ and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” Then Jesus adds in vs 27: “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Paul taught us in Romans 9:10-24 about “Election”, about “God’s Sovereign Choice”. In verse 11 he states, “Yet ‘before’ the twins were BORN or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in ‘election’ might stand: 12) not by works but by him who calls—she (Rebekah) was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13) Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
So here, even before the twins were born, God CHOSE Jacob. Neither twin had any works, good or bad, to base His decision of election upon. He “elected” to make Jacob (whom God renamed ‘Israel’) to be the father to the very lineage that God would use to bring forth our Lord Christ Jesus. Jacob was “chosen” by God to be His own.
When we “come to Christ” we no longer live for ourselves but for Him who bought us. We were “chosen” from the founding of the world. Jesus said in Luke 14:27, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus here clearly stating that there would be “sacrifice” required of us to be his disciples. That sacrifice will likely be attached to the thing—or person we love the most. (remember Abraham who was willing to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice to God?)
In this sacrifice--God expects US to “Choose” Him! To “elect” to give Him our very lives as a sacrifice to Him, if required.
Before they were born—God LOVED Jacob and hated Esau. God had chosen him to love. To bless. To covenant with. How grateful we must always be to know that God also chose US! To love. To bless. To enter into a New Covenant with.
Yes—He will require sacrifice, and it may well come down to the people we cherish most in our lives—to allow us to prove to ourselves—and to the enemy; that we CHOOSE Him! Then He can say, It is I whom they love, and their parents they have hated, for it was I whom they have chosen! Their sacrifice is acceptable to me!
I feel this because of my own family situation. I knew my family would reject me the minute I told them I was born-again in Christ. Though I shed many tears, and offered many, many prayers—I knew that they would consider me an apostate for becoming a born-again Christian. I had to risk losing them forever—to tell them.
I sent an audio tape to them to listen to first, before they read my letter. I told them that even if I lost them over my “coming to Christ”, though it would break my heart---I knew that God would be pleased that I was choosing to obey Him, and preach the gospel of Christ to them—rather than to maintain my relationship with them by keeping silent.
I have been able to give a thorough witness of the gospel of Christ Jesus to my family members. Though my brother and his wife and their kids utterly reject me for it, and my eldest sister barely speaks to me, my Dad and my other sister will speak to me, though at times it is strained. But I love God more than my family, and was willing to sacrifice my relationships in order to “choose” Him! In that sense, I loved God—and hated my family, I chose God!
Thanks for the wonderful hub as always Brother Dave!
Sacrifices will be asked of us, painful ones, but as is told us the chaff of the grain God must burn away by unquenchable fire, so that only the purity of the grain harvested, remains, and will be gathered into God to store.
The message Jesus is actually teaching in LUKE:14:26 is that we must love Jesus more, or over and above self, family, and friends.
The Greek word used in Luke 14:26 for 'hate' is 'miseo' - I hate, detest, love less, esteem less. It is the same word used in 1 John 4:20, where Jesus said, "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."
These verses would seem to contradict each other, so we must apply the appropriate definition of miseo to each one, so the message of Christ agrees. With this in mind, 1 John 4:20 would mean 'detest', while Luke 14:26 points to 'love less, esteem less'.
To apply Luke 14:26 to a real-life situation, I think of religions that excommunicate those who leave, not only from the 'church', but from their families: i.e. Jehovah's Witnesses. Ask any Jehovah's Witness that has received Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior how their families responded to them. Many have been shunned by their religious community and their family members. It's not that the new believer 'hates' his/her family (if anything it's the other way around), but it means he/she chooses love the Truth more than reverting back to a false religion to keep close with their congregation and family members.
This probably happened in Judaism, too. Staunch Jews may have excommunicated anyone that became a Christian. The pull of new believers to revert back to Judaism (the Law) was strong, and I'm certain this issue still continues to this day.
Look at Islam. If an Islamic man converts to Christianity, he could be killed. Should he go back to Islam to be accepted by his family and community or 'hate' that doctrine enough to love Jesus Christ more, risking his very life? This brings into play the latter part of Luke 14:26 that states a disciple of Christ is to 'hate' [to love less] "even his own life..."
Judah's Daughter Adelia dear sister: How did you know that I went back into this hub to read it again?
This one scripture from LUKE has a tendency to confuse Christian and Non Christians, those in the "Word" and those seeking to know God and God's Holy Word.
I feel that my last comment, that God/Jesus command my love for God to be my priority, above self, family and friends, speaks to what Jesus is saying in this scripture.
I saw your hub in my 'feed', so I came to read and comment! :-) Yes, that is what He means. My comment is to reaffirm how this verse can be applied with understanding in a Christian's life. God bless you, brother!
Thank you dear sister and God be with you always!
PastorAndrew Level 1 Commenter 2 years ago
You are thinking like a non-Jew from the twenty-first century instead of a Jew, living in Jesus' day. The language and concepts of that society do no always translate easily into our modern view points.
One part of the issue is the fact that the Hebrew language did not have the type of modifiers like we do. (Was Jesus speaking Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek is another question). But Jesus was a Jew as were His listeners. They would have been much more in tune that this is a statement of comparison.
English has concepts of good-better-best, more-most. An example of the lack of these modifiers in Jesus day is found in the repetition of adjectives and adverbs. "I say unto you" becomes, "Verily, I say unto you," Becomes, "Verily, verily, I say unto you."
In Luke 14:26, the spirit and the comparison of what Jesus was saying was clear to His listeners. To put in modern English, "If you do not love God so much that your love for your parents looks like hate, you cannot be my disciples." It is all about comparison.
This is demonstrated by what Jesus said to the young man that was not ready to be Jesus disciple until he buried his father. Luke 9:59 "And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God."
Notice it is the same writer, Luke. Jesus was not heartless. He was talking to a man who was an heir and was not ready to follow Jesus because his father had not died yet. His father would cast the son out of his family. He would be considered dead by his father if he were to follow Jesus. This is just like what happens today when a Jew proclaims that Jesus is Messiah. This young man wanted to "bury" his father to get his inheritance and avoid exile from his family while his father was yet alive.
No, Jesus Word is not contradictory. Loving Jesus the way He calls us to will be called hating our family by those who do not believe.