“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.
See how Christ in his doctrine suited himself to those to whom he spoke, and gave every one his portion of meat. To Pharisees he preached humility and charity. He is in these verses directing his discourse to the multitudes that crowded after him, and seemed zealous in following him; and his exhortation to them is to understand the terms of discipleship, before they undertook...
Commenting on Luke 14:25-35
Whosoever doth not bear his cross,.... All reproach, afflictions, persecutions, and death itself, cheerfully and patiently; the Ethiopic version renders it, "of his death the cross"; it signifies whatever is trying and disagreeable to flesh and blood: and come after me; bearing his cross; as Christ himself was about to do, and which doubtless he had in view; cannot be my disciple; he is not...
Verses 25-27. ; . Verse 26. And hate not. The word hate, here, means simply to love less. See the meaning of the verse in . It may be thus expressed: "He that comes after me, and does not love his father less than he loves me, &c., cannot be my disciple." We are not at liberty literally to hate our parents.