Tough Words

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”  Matt 10:37, wow what harsh sounding words and very hard to accept. How could Jesus expect us to live up to this, is He nuts, it’s undoable. Why? Very simple, because our natural tendency is to love our family beyond all else, so how can I put anyone before them?

At first glance, this is difficult, because it seems to imply that Jesus is telling us to love our family less and Him more. But this is not the case, as we can love our children and parent even more than we do now; we just need to love Jesus beyond that.

 Let me use money, as an example:

He who gives more money to his son or daughter, than to me is not worthy of Me. Suppose we gave our child $10 a week allowance, but gave God’s work $5 a week. This does not mean we should give our child $3 in order to prove we care more about God; we could give our child $20, but give God $25. The truth is, whatever “extra” we have, be it money, things or even love, our natural inclination is to give it to those we love most, which is often our family.

When I was a teen, I had a fairly large record collection. I loved music and I spent a lot of money buying albums and such. You can say I idolized music, I knew band names, songs and other trivia, and I loved concerts, loud music and just hanging out with friends listening to music. As I studied Gods word I realized that I could not continue to grow spiritually if I did not put God before my music. This is something I really did not want to do. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with liking music, that would be legalism, it’s just for me, at that point in my life, I knew more about music than I did about God. Music was my idol, music was my god and I liked it that way.

One day, as I was studying Gods word, including the verse above, I realized, that for ME to grow, I needed to do away with my music. I know it sounds drastic, but it was something that I needed to do. I didn’t want to and I bargained with God, trying to figure out another way, but to no avail as my priorities were off and I needed to set them straight. Once I did, I was once again free to love music as much as I wanted, although it just did not seem all that important anymore.

So God (Jesus) is not asking us to love our parents and/or children less, He actually would prefer that we love them even more, but he expects us to put Him before all else. Realize that you cannot match His love, not even for your children as He loves them more than you are even capable. Nevertheless, I know that I will struggle with this concept and must constantly examine my heart and motives so as to make sure that the Lord Jesus Christ is always in His rightful place.

We all have room to love God more. It’s just are we willing? It may not be music for you, but we all have our god that gets in the way. It’s the same god that keeps us from reading and studying His word. It’s the same god that often keeps us home on Sunday morning. For some it is things, for others it is people. What-ever or whoever it is, God will be second to none. No need to give others less, just give Him more.

I’ve had a great life thus far. I’m not some religious zealot who thinks we should just sit and pray and only talk about God. But let’s not keep God in some corner and only bring Him out for a little while on Sunday or call upon Him for the things we “need” or “want.” Let’s not treat Him as an afterthought. If we really expect to spend eternity with Him, it’s probably best we get to know Him a little better before we meet Him face to face. The last thing we want to hear is Him say, “go away, I never knew you” Matt. 7:23, which sadly He will say to many who currently profess to know him.