The most hated verse in the bible? Verse 33 is said to be that!
Jesus uses shock treatment...tells the huge crowd following him to "HATE" all those they care about. Why?
Telling them to carry their cross, in effect be crusified...die?
One of my favorites!
Anyway, I preached on this on Dec. 31, 2006. I don't think I can do justice to all the stories and other things related to this passage. I have a DVD of it though if anyone is interested.
The jist for now though is that Hate was meant to be used as a comparison. You will hate all those you love in comparison to how much you love Jesus. You will always choose Jesus over all others and everything else in your life.
We are called to know and realize this before we commit to following Jesus because when we commit to Jesus we commit ALL of ourselves, not just parts and pieces.
We aren't obviously going to be perfect and not want to hold on to parts of us and things that we should stop doing, its that we need to be aware that God may call us at any time to let go of something or let Him control some part of us or our lives we either haven't given Him yet or maybe He wants us to do something we never thought He'd ask of us!
It may be uncomfortable but we've given it all and have to let Him do what He would with us, for His will as His followers.
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