Is Jesus a Hater?
When I was 21 years old my girlfriend at the time showed me a verse in the Bible. She is now my wife and is still beautiful, hot, amazing, wonderful, my best friend, and a fantastic cook! Did I mention she is beautiful? If you are reading this baby, I love you! You still got it!
Now, back on track. So, I had read the Bible all the way through only once in my life, but I don’t remember this verse. Is Jesus a hater? Here is how the verse literally reads:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26
What’s He preaching hate for? I get the hate your own life part because when I act like a fool I sure don’t love my life. But what about hating family especially parents, siblings, and even our own kids! Well, maybe it’s a typo. Maybe He meant love not hate. If you don’t love your family, you can’t be His follower. Yeah, that’s it. Or could there be another option? Definitely.
The previous blog post lists this verse along with six other verses, but in that post, it is stated in the way it was understood by the original audience.
Jesus turned and told them, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple.” Luke 14:26
Why does Jesus Christ literally use the word hate, though? There are figures of speech in literature. One of those categories is hyperbole. (Sounds like high-perrrr-bah-lee.) Each culture has sayings that are understood in context. Hyperbole is something we use all the time. It is to make a strong point with extreme words to get a point across that is not meant to be taken literally. It is an excellent form of teaching that grabs the attention by the jugular.
In the 1st Century Jewish context, to say that you must hate something or someone for another just meant to love much less. It didn’t mean to be malicious, militant, or mucho mean (sorry, I was on a roll with the “M’s”.) Jesus Christ never intended for anyone to hate individuals. We can see in thousands of other verses that Jesus Christ taught to hate injustice, transgression, and evil. He also teaches to love people with great sacrifice. Yet, if we love God less than anything or anyone else, then we are making a statement that He is not that important and definitely not worthy of the highest respect. We must love and honor Him so deeply that it seems like we hate all else. See, even in that last statement, it is just a figure of speech that should not be taken as permission or suggestion to hate others.
It is important to always line up verses with other verses that do the explaining for us. Most Scripture can be understood much better by just reading other verses that are similar in other areas of the Bible. Jesus Christ speaks something very similar about loyalty to Him compared to others in another gospel.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:38
Interestingly, the very next verse after this one in Matthew is identical to the one in Luke referenced above. That means many times Jesus Christ would speak about the same thing to different crowds and use alternative phrases that meant the same. In this case, He is teaching about being so devoted to Him that we are willing to have family turn against us or that we place Him as the highest priority in our daily life. Our identity must be in Him alone and not our parents’ last name, our sibling ties, or having children.
So, Christ isn’t trying to be a player hater! He just desires for us to choose Him over all else. That is when the world will know we truly follow Him. If you would like to chat about this more contact us.