Loving to Carry

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

LOVING TO CARRY

Luke 14:25-27

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

NIV

We knew we needed to further consider these words of Jesus, as yesterday time was pressing us to be at church on time considering we are the pastor. What we needed to do is compare how Matthew recorded what Jesus said, and it is different. Matthew’s record quotes Jesus as having said that if anyone loves his father and mother more then him is not worthy to be my disciple. He said the same thing about loving sons and daughters more than him. Because Luke uses hate, it is the same sense as if we love our family more the Jesus. Of course, the Lord expects and demands that we love our father and mother and our children, as well as love our neighbor more than ourselves. The whole of the truth of God is about living a life of love, and not of hatred for anyone, In fact, Jesus warns us about hatred, that it is the same as the command not to commit murder. If God is love, in fact, he loved us so much he sent Jesus to come in the form of man, to go to the cross and take all our sins upon himself, being the sacrifice for us, to satisfy his own justice, reconciling himself to us, paying that price we were supposed to, and then was buried and Praise God, he was resurrected being the firstborn of all who believe in him so that we too will be resurrected into an eternal life where there is no death, no hatred, no sin. Life is all about loving each other, yet we are to love Jesus more than anyone or anything in this life. He must be the first and the last love of our lives, before all else. However, we are still to love one another rather than having any hatred in our hearts whatsoever. Because we love Jesus more than anyone, we can take up our cross and follow him. This means we are willing to carry our cross to our execution or bear our cross to our death. We will never lose our faith, our trust to our last breath. It is doubtful we who live in this country would experience death because of our faith, although believers in other parts of the world have been put to death in horrific ways devised by evil men driven by the power of Satan. Nevertheless, we will carry our cross, and we will follow Jesus all the days of our lives, no matter what.