How can these things be? If a person refers to Jesus as any of the titles in white above and yet practices the comments in yellow, how can it be said that he “loves” Jesus? Good question. And then there is the statement of Jesus, himself in Matthew 7…
Matthew 7 ( World English Bible )
Mat 7:21, 'Not every one who is saying to me Lord, lord, shall come into the reign of the heavens; but he who is doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens.
Mat 7:22, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, lord, have we not in thy name prophesied? and in thy name cast out demons? and in thy name done many mighty things?
Mat 7:23, and then I will acknowledge to them, that--I never knew you, depart from me ye who are working lawlessness.
OK, this passage sheds some light on the subject – but, those that Jesus mentions are doing some good things in his name (7:22) and yet they are unknown by Jesus ( and presumably condemned ).
Yesterday, my scheduled Bible Reading was Luke 14 and I especially remember Luke 14:26. There is a problem, however, and it lies in the translation of the word HATE. Most translations use hate and it bothered me that we are to hate our relatives and even our own lives, so I did a little digging. Here are the verses I found in several translations...
Luk 14:26 ( World English Bible )
“If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard* (emphasis added) his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.
* literally, hate
Luke 14:26 ( NASB)
Luk 14:26, “A If anyone comes to Me, and does not 1,2 hate (emphasis added) his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
1 that is, by comparison of his love for me
2 When our Savior says that he who would follow him must hate father and mother, he means that even these dearest earthly friends must be loved in a subordinate degree; so, in the same sense, the follower of Christ is to hate his own life, or be willing to sacrifice it for the love and service of the Redeemer - Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, McClintock & Strong - “hate”
Luk 14:26 ( ASV )
If any man cometh unto me, and hateth (emphasis added) not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:26 ( Young’s Literal Translation )
'If any one doth come unto me, and doth not hate (emphasis added) his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and yet even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple;
All these things led me to understand that we can love our families and our own life, but love JESUS MORE. Back to the graphic – Those who love JESUS LESS, practice the things it mentions in yellow and will have a big problem at the judgment. But, those who love Jesus more than anything else are OK.
Now, all we have to do is to love JESUS more than ANYTHING and do HIS WILL – and everything will be fine!
Problem solved.
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