From my reading in Luke 14:25-35 in the One Year New Testament.

Jesus made some pretty radical claims about the cost of following him. Let’s look at a few…

Love and Hate

“If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

Jesus is not actually saying that we should just hate our families.

He is saying that that the earthly love we have for our families should look like hate when compared to the love we have for God.

Basically Jesus is saying “whatever you love most in life you must love me much more.” The reason we can make the assumption is that in the rest of God’s Word it is clear that we are to love our families and even our enemies.

Carry Your Cross

“And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27

The cross is an instrument of death. Carrying your own cross means being willing to sacrifice yourself for the sake of Jesus even if it means dying for him.

Count The Cost

Jesus encourages his listeners to count the cost before deciding to follow Jesus. He uses two illustrations.

• When you construct a building you must make sure you have enough money to build it otherwise you will waste your money and look foolish.

• If you are going to war you need to get advise and decide weather an army of 10,000 could take on an army of 20,000. If not then you can save many lives and try to negotiate terms of peace.

The last phrase of this paragraph seems to be a summary statement for this section.

“So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.” Luke 14:33

Surrender is the prerequisite for following Jesus.

This doesn’t mean that everyone has to give all their money away but it does mean that when we decided to follow Jesus we must be willing to give up anything he asks us to. We must be willing to give up sinful habits, unhealthy relationships, sometimes our comfort and surrender it to Jesus.

Jesus is Lord, and he wants us to treat him like it!

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