This verse has always confused me.
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26
Seriously. Hate? Like tear up their pictures and stick pins in a voodoo doll?!
So I looked up the Greek word used for "hate". My dictionary revealed this...to love less.
To me this verse now reads...If I am to truly follow Jesus, then I need to love all others LESS than Jesus. Even those who are most precious to me...my mother, siblings, husband, and child...and even my beloved sister and father who went on before me. I need to love all of them LESS. Less than Jesus.
