Luke 14:26

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"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."

My question on this verse of the Bible is why Jesus had stated that all disciples hate their families and their life but he had not stated that they should only love him more than all of that or believe and love his message more than all of that.
Does this mean that one can only be a true Christian if he believes in Christ as the sole goal in life and hates or does not care for anything else?

Thanks in advance :cute:

[IceTea]

And who will believe that a prophet teachs hate.

[sameerb1]

according to this website, only extreme words are used in Luke...the word like and less likeing is replaced with love and hate in ancient language...thus by saying hate refers to like less then me.

http://www.tektonics.org/gk/jesussayshate.html

No prophet of Allah has preached hatred

this could be eleborated also in Matthew 10:37 -"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. "

we can see that word love is used, not like...

and also if you read the history, its a call for people in his room for supper
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Luk/Luk014.html

[Jeff]

Look at that! Sameerb got it right. We can find out the honest truth about each other's religions without believing in them...

Just consider this: not a single Christian ever has interpreted that verse to mean "hate" in the literal sense.

Obviously, Jesus did not hate his own family. He loved His Blessed Mother and gave her into the care of the Apostle John when He died.

And He also preached that to get to heaven you had to follow the commandments and He specifically included, "Honor your father and mother."

[amo_l_oman]

Yes those are controversial verses and some Christians did ask about their meaning but as sameer explained [and the Vatican made clear] is just an issue of archaic language

[Threadlike]

Thanks for the explanation Sameerb1 and Jeff :)