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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 14:25

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And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

25-35. Lessons of Whole-heartedness, and of Counting the Cost; the Tower-builder; the warring King; the SAVOURLESS SALT.

25. And there went great multitudes with him ] This is evidently a scene of the journey, when multitudes of the Galilaean pilgrims were accompanying Him on their way to one of the great Jewish feasts. The warning might have prevented them from following Him now, and shouting ‘Crucify Him’ afterwards.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

See notes on Mat 10:37-38.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Luk 14:25-26

If any man come to Me, and hate not, etc

The statute-law of discipleship

THE NATURE OF THIS NECESSARY QUALIFICATION OF A TRUE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST.

1. An esteem of Christ above all.

2. The heart renounces its property in all things of the world, in the day of its closing with Jesus Christ.

3. The soul resigns all to the Lord; lays down all at His feet, to be disposed of as He will.

4. The soul accepts of Christ for, and instead of the things resigned.

5. The soul is disposed to part with them, when the Lord calls for them; has an habitual readiness to part with them for Christ.

6. There is in the soul a new power of living, without them, on Jesus Christ; a life which is an absolute mystery to every Christless soul (Joh 6:57). We now proceed–

II. To confirm the doctrine of the text, or show, that no man can be a true disciple of Christ, to whom Christ is not dearer than what is dearest to Him in the world. For this purpose, consider–

1. That the soul cannot truly lay hold on Christ, hut it must of necessity part with the world–No man can serve two masters (Mat 6:24).

2. It is impossible that the love of God, and the love of the world (the persons and things of the world), can at the same time be predominant in the heart. One of them must of necessity be uppermost.

3. That if Christ be not dearer to us than the world, fhere is no universal resignation, which is necessary to prove the sincerity of the heart.

4. That if Christ is not loved supremely, there is a root wanting, the fruit of which is necessary to evidence sincerity. Because of the deceitfulness of your heart, it will be good to be very distinct and particular in this point, on which eternity depends. In consequence I would advise you–

(1) To give up with all your lusts. You have held the grip long, let it now go–Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? Hos 14:8).

(2) To lay down at the Lords feet your nearest and dearest relations, so as that you may never break with Christ for them: His favour, truths, and ways, must be dearer to you than they. And sure I am, ii thou meetest with Christ at His table, thou wilt say, Henceforth know we no man after the flesh.

(3) Lay down at the Lords feet your substance in the world, be it great or small, houses and lands, goods, etc., that He may dispose of them as He may see meet.

(4) Lay down at the Lords feet your credit and esteem in the world. This is often a great idol, and goes betwixt many a man and Christ.

(5) Lay down at the Lords feet your ease and liberty (Act 21:13).

(6) Lay down at Christs feet your desires. Your desires shall be to your spiritual Husband, who shall choose for you your inheritance (Psa 47:4).

(7) Lay down at the Lords feet your life. Let your bodies be given now to the Lord, not only for service, but also for a sacrifice, if He requires it. I now proceed–

III. To offer some reasons why Christ is dearer to His true disciples than what is dearest to them in the world. Among other reasons the following are mentioned.

1. Because to every true disciple, sin, of all bitter things, is the bitterest.

2. That God is mans chief end; and when He made him, He made him pointing towards Himself as His chief end (Ecc 7:29).

3. That as there unquestionably is, so they have seen, a vanity and emptiness in all things of the world, even the things that are dearest to Psa 119:96).

4. Because they find Christ of all objects the most suitable to them, and therefore He cannot but be dearer to them than the dearest thing in the world.

5. Because He is their greatest benefactor; His unparalleled benefits command their hearts to be all His: He has done for them what none other could do.

6. Because they are sensible that whatever they have in the world, they have it through and by Him. And so they behold Him as the fountain of all their mercies. Thus–

(1) They have the enjoyment of their blessings through Him.

(2) They have the comfort of them through Him.

7. Because, if it were not so, Christ would have no Church in the world. If imprisoning, banishing, spoiling of goods, fields and scaffolds reeking with the blood of the saints, would have deterred all persons from following Christ, there had been no Church in the world this day. But God will have a Church in spite of devils and wicked men. (T. Boston, D. D.)

Christ worthy of our highest esteem

I. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE LOVE HERE SPOKEN OF.

1. An esteem and valuation of Christ above all worldly enjoyments whatsoever.

2. A choosing Him before all other enjoyments.

3. Love to Christ implies service and obedience to Him; the same love that when it is between equals is friendship, when it is from an inferior to a superior is obedience. Love, of all the affections, is the most active; hence by those who express the nature of things by hieroglyphics, we have it compared to fire, certainly for nothing more than its activity. The same arms that embrace a friend, will be as ready to act for Him.

4. Love to Christ implies an acting for Him in opposition to all other things; and this is the undeceiving, infallible test of a true affection.

5. Love to Christ imports a full acquiescence in Him alone, even in the absence and want of all other felicities: men can embrace Christ with riches, Christ with honour, Christ with interest, and abundantly satisfy themselves in so doing; though perhaps all the time they put but a cheat upon themselves, thinking that they follow Christ, while indeed they run only after the loaves.

II. THE REASONS AND MOTIVES THAT MAY INDUCE US TO THIS LOVE.

1. That He is best able to reward our love.

2. That He has shown the greatest love to us.

III. THE SIGNS, MARKS, AND CHARACTERS WHEREBY WE MAY DISCERN IT.

1. A frequent and indeed a continual thinking of Him. Where your treasure is, says our Saviour, there will your heart be also. That is, whatsoever you love and value, that will be sure to take up your thoughts.

2. The second sign of a sincere love to Christ, is a willingness to leave the world, whensoever God shall think fit to send His messenger of death to summon us to a nearer converse with Christ. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, says St. Paul.

3. A third, and indeed the principal sign of a sincere love to Christ, is a zeal for His honour, and an impatience to hear or see any indignity offered Him. A person truly pious will mourn for other mens sins, as well as for his own. (R. South, D. D.)

Loving Christ above all, the character of His true disciples

I. Let us consider WHAT IT IS TO BE WORTHY OF CHRIST. And this we find is very well explained in the passage just now referred to by this expression, he cannot be My disciple; that is, ha cannot be a sincere Christian; he may call himself by that name.

II. To consider THE LOVE OF CHRIST AS IN COMPARISON WITH, AND OPPOSITION TO THE LOVE OF FRIENDS, and all other worldly interests. Such affections have deep and firm foundation in nature and reason. As this may be justly attributed to God as its Author, and His wisdom and goodness shine in it, religion is not intended to root it out, or in any degree to weaken the bonds of humanity. But the immediate ends of these natural relations are not the highest ends of our being. We are capable of nobler pursuits and higher enjoyments than the ease and conveniences of our present condition. It is the predominant affection which constitutes the character and temper of a man. The covetous is he in whom the love of wealth prevails over all other inclinations; the ambitious, in whom the love of honour; the voluptuous, in whom the love of sensual pleasures. Each of these will sacrifice every other interest to his idol, and every other desire, which is even natural to him, yet not so strong. But to preserve an universal harmony in the mind of man, and to constitute a truly religious and virtuous character, the love of God and of goodness ought to be predominant. Other affections are not to be rooted out, but this must be supreme; and they gratified and indulged only by its permission, and so far as not to be inconsistent with it. This is the true meaning of my text. For what I would principally observe for illustrating this subject is, that the love of Christ, and the love of God and goodness, is just the same. And as moral excellence is the inseparable character of the Deity, so it is absurd to pretend that we love Him without loving it; that we love the holiest and best of all Beings without loving holiness and goodness itself. Again, let us consider that to be worthy of Christ, to be His true disciples, and obtain His acceptance, it is absolutely necessary that we should adhere to Him inviolably, that we should hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and be stedfast and immovable in good works. For they only who endure to the end shall be saved, and to them alone who remain faithful unto death, the crown of life is promised. Now, the only possible security of this stedfastness, is love to Christ, and to religion and virtue above all. I shall only add that a stedfast and universal obedience to Him is imported in our being worthy of Christ, or His sincere disciples. It remains now that we make some application of this subject; which may be the better done, because our Saviour Himself has gone before us in applying it to one of the highest and most difficult points in the practice of religion, that is, to the case of suffering persecution. For can there be any sincere affection to God, to our Saviour, and to His cause of pure religion and virtue, if it be not a prevailing affection, stronger than any other, which opposes it in the heart? But, we may apply this also to other and mere ordinary purposes in the practice of religion. If the commanding love of Christ be a sufficient defence against the strongest temptations, it may well support the mind against lesser ones. Our affection to our friends and worldly interests may mislead us by flattery as well as terror: and their insinuating smiles may prove a snare as well as their frowns. Besides this, there are other temptations which derive their force from the same root, the love of our intimate friends; and are only defeated by the same principle, a superior affection to Christ. There is nothing more common in the world than for mens families to be snares to them; while to make a large, or (as they pretend) a competent provision for them, they violate their consciences, and sin against God, either by direct injustice, or, at least, by such immoderate solicitude and incessant toil as is inconsistent with piety, leaving no room for the exercises of it; or by such narrowness, and withholding more than is meet, as is directly contrary to charity. But let us remember that this is to render ourselves unworthy of Christ, by loving sons or daughters, or other worldly interests more than Him. Besides, distresses befalling our friends, their deaths and misfortunes, which, considering the vicissitude of human affairs, are always to be expected, and they are to some minds, at least, among the most sensibly affecting trials in life; these are to be supported on the same principle. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

Lore for Christ greater than love for a sister

There is a beautiful story, which some of you will probably know, as it forms the groundwork of one of the best tales of modern times, and which affords a noble example of what I have just been saying. The daughter of a poor Scotch farmer–her name was Helen Walker–after her fathers death, supported her mother by her unceasing labour, and by submitting to every privation. She had a sister, many years younger, whom she brought up and educated, and loved as her own child. This sister, however, brought great grief and shame upon her. She fell into foul sin. She was delivered of a child. The child was found dead. The mother was tried for child-murder. This trial was a terrible one for poor Helen. Notwithstanding her sisters sin, she could not forget how she had loved her; she could not cast her out of her heart: she longed that her sisters life should be spared, so that she might have time to repent. A fearful temptation assailed her. It seemed as though her sisters life hung upon her word–a single falsehood might save her. If she would but say that her sister had made any preparations for the birth of the child, or had ever mentioned it to her, her sister would be acquitted. Her sister implored her; her love for her sister rent her heart; but Helen said, It is impossible for me to swear to a falsehood. Whatever betide, I must speak the truth. Thus the sister was condemned to death; and the thoughtless looked upon Helen as hardhearted. But she had shown that she loved God above her sister. She now showed how deeply she loved her sister, with a love far deeper than it would have been, had she attempted to save her life by a lie. She resolved to take up a petition herself to the King, to spare her sisters life.
She walked to London barefoot, a journey of above four hundred miles; such a journey in those days, a hundred years ago, being far more difficult and dangerous than it is now; and though she was only a poor, helpless peasant, such was the energy and boldness with which her love inspired her, that she gained the Kings pardon, carried it back on foot, and arrived just in time to save her sisters life. I have told you this story, because it is such a beautiful example of the right proportion between love and duty, whereby both are greatly strengthened–of the right proportion between our love to God and our love to our earthly friends. It is an example too, which if we kept it in mind, might often help to admonish us of our duty. For the temptation which Helen Walker resisted is a very common one, and comes across us in a number of shapes. We are often tempted to do something that is not quite right, to say something that is not strictly true, for the advantage, as we deem it, of those whom we love; and because our love is feeble and shallow, and shrinks from pain and sacrifices, we yield to the temptation. Sometimes the temptation may be very strong. You, who are fathers, may see your wives and children suffering from want. At such a time evil thoughts will rise up; you will think you may do anything to save your wife and children from starving. So you may, and ought to do everything, everything in your power, and even beyond your power, provided it be not against the law of God. Whatever is, you should shrink from, remembering our Lords words, that, unless you love Him above wife and child, you cannot be worthy of Him. (J. C. Hare, M. A.)

Love of Christ greater than love of relatives

While discussing this passage one day, I noticed that a beam of sunlight had fallen upon the mass of glowing coal in the grate, and where the sunlight fell the bright redness was turned into absolute blackness. Ah! thought I, there is the meaning of this passage. As the glowing coal appears black beneath the far more intense light of the sun, so Christ asks that the light of our love for Him should be so intense as to render our earthly loves even as hatreds in comparison. In reality, although the red coal appears black under the sunlight, it is still as hot as before, yea, hotter than before, because of the added heat from the sun; so our love for friends and relatives, though it should appear as hatred beneath our love for Christ, will not be quenched by it, but added to, and rendered deeper and purer. (H. Stanley.)

Christ demanding hatred

The word hate is a strong word, and I believe that it points both to strong feeling and strong action. The words hate his own life also are the key to the whole aphorism. A disciple is to hate his relatives and friends in the same sense in which he is to hate himself. In what sense, then, can a man hate himself? He can hate what is mean and base in himself. He can hate his own selfish life. To cling to life is natural; to desire ease and comfort is natural; to gratify the appetites is natural; but all this natural life, whenever it comes into collision with the spiritual side of our being, may be even hated. It is not merely that the Christian may, after a struggle, prefer to remain true to God and Christ, rather than gratify the selfish cravings of his own natural life; he may positively hate these selfish cravings when they are tempting him to forsake his duty. The word may be paradoxical; but is it too strong? Have we never felt disgusted at our own selfishness? Have we never experienced a strong revulsion of feeling when we have been tempted by our own life–by our natural liking for what is agreeable to that life–to shirk our duty, and to do something mean and base? In the old Greek drama, Admetos is disgusted with the life which, in selfish cowardice, he has purchased by the sacrifice of his wife Alkestis. And we can well conceive that many a Christian martyr may have felt disgusted with his own life, when he was tempted to preserve it at the cost of denying his Lord. It is thus, then, that a man may hate himself. Not in the bald, literal sense; for he still cares for his own true best life, and wishes that to be developed and strengthened. But he does: in a sense, hate himself when the self in him rises in rebellion against God and Christ and duty. Now, in this sense also, a man may hate his relatives and friends. He may hate that in them which is mean and base. He may hate that in them which seeks to drag him away from Christ. (T. C.Finlayson.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

We met with much the same Mat 10:37,38. The sum of the words is, That no man can be a true disciple of Christ, that giveth any friend, or any thing, a preference to Christ in the affections of his heart. Christ must be loved above all. It appeareth that the words must not be interpreted rigidly, for then they would oblige us to a thing,

1. Impossible in nature: for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, Eph 5:29. Yet life is one of the things mentioned which we ought to hate.

2. It is morally impossible: for the law of God commands us to honour our father and mother.

For the nonobservance of, or teaching contrary to, which law, teaching the people to say, Corban, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, Christ so severely reflected on the Pharisees. Himself therefore doth not here teach others to hate their fathers or mothers, taking hatred in a strict and absolute sense:

If any man hate not signifieth here no more than, If any man doth love his father, wife, children, brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life, more than me,

he cannot be my disciple. Nor is this any sense put upon the term hate, different from what must be the sense of it in other scriptures: Gen 29:31,

When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, that is, less loved, as is expressed, Luk 14:30; so it must be interpreted in Luk 14:33. It also signified less loved, Deu 21:15,17; Mt 6:24; Joh 12:25. We met with the substance of what is here, Luk 14:27, in Mat 10:38, and Mar 8:34.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

25. great multitudes with himonHis final journey to Jerusalem. The “great multitudes” weredoubtless people going to the passover, who moved along in clusters(Lu 2:44), and who on thisoccasion falling in with our Lord had formed themselves into one massabout Him.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And there went great multitudes with him,…. From Galilee, as he journeyed from thence to Jerusalem; some for one thing, and some another, and all perhaps were in expectation of his setting up a temporal kingdom when he came there; and hoped they should share, more or less, the worldly advantages of it; for the whole nation was big with such carnal notions of the Messiah. Jesus therefore, to draw off their minds from such views, and that they might not be disappointed, acquaints them, that if they would be his disciples, they must part with all that was near and dear to them; and prepare to suffer great hardships and difficulties for his name’s sake: for it follows,

and he turned; himself to the company that was behind: and said unto them; with a grave and stern countenance, looking wistly at them, and in the most solemn manner delivered what is hereafter related.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Necessity of Self-denial.

25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

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 the profession of it, and to consider what they did. See here,

I. How zealous people were in their attendance on Christ (v. 25): There went great multitudes with him, many for love and more for company, for where there are many there will be more. Here was a mixed multitude, like that which went with Israel out of Egypt; such we must expect there will always be in the church, and it will therefore be necessary that ministers should carefully separate between the precious and the vile.

II. How considerate he would have them to be in their zeal. Those that undertake to follow Christ must count upon the worst, and prepare accordingly.

1. He tells them what the worst is that they must count upon, much the same with what he had gone through before them and for them. He takes it for granted that they had a mind to be his disciples, that they might be qualified for preferment in his kingdom. They expected that he should say, “If any man come to me, and be my disciple, he shall have wealth and honour in abundance; let me alone to make him a great man.” But he tells them quite the contrary.

(1.) They must be willing to quit that which was very dear, and therefore must come to him thoroughly weaned from all their creature-comforts, and dead to them, so as cheerfully to part with them rather than quit their interest in Christ, v. 26. A man cannot be Christ’s disciple but he must hate father, and mother, and his own life. He is not sincere, he will be constant and persevering, unless he love Christ better than any thing in this world, and be willing to part with that which he may and must leave, either as a sacrifice, when Christ may be glorified by our parting with it (so the martyrs, who loved not their lives to death), or as a temptation, when by our parting with it we are put into a better capacity of serving Christ. Thus Abraham parted with his own country, and Moses with Pharaoh’s court. Mention is not made here of houses and lands; philosophy will teach a man to look upon these with contempt; but Christianity carries it higher. [1.] Every good man loves his relations; and yet, if he be a disciple of Christ, he must comparatively hate them, must love them less than Christ, as Leah is said to be hated when Rachel was better loved. Not that their persons must be in any degree hated, but our comfort and satisfaction in them must be lost and swallowed up in our love to Christ, as Levi’s was, when he said to his father, I have not seen him, Deut. xxxiii. 9. When our duty to our parents comes in competition with our evident duty to Christ, we must give Christ the preference. If we must either deny Christ or be banished from our families and relations (as many of the primitive Christians were), we must rather lose their society than his favour. [2.] Every man loves his own life, no man ever yet hated it; and we cannot be Christ’s disciples if we do not love him better than our own lives, so as rather to have our lives embittered by cruel bondage, nay, and taken away by cruel deaths, than to dishonour Christ, or depart from any of his truths and ways. The experience of the pleasures of the spiritual life, and the believing hopes and prospects of eternal life, will make this hard saying easy. When tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, then chiefly the trial is, whether we love better, Christ or our relations and lives; yet even in the days of peace this matter is sometimes brought to the trial. Those that decline the service of Christ, and opportunities of converse with him, and are ashamed to confess him, for fear of disobliging a relation or friend, or losing a customer, give cause to suspect that they love him better than Christ.

(2.) That they must be willing to bear that which was very heavy (v. 27): Whosoever doth not bear his cross, as those did that were condemned to be crucified, in submission to the sentence and in expectation of the execution of it, and so come after me whithersoever I shall lead him, he cannot be my disciple; that is (says Dr. Hammond), he is not for my turn; and my service, being so sure to bring persecution along with it, will not be for his. Though the disciples of Christ are not all crucified, yet they all bear their cross, as if they counted upon being crucified. They must be content to be put into an ill name, and to be loaded with infamy and disgrace; for no name is more ignominious than Furcifer–the bearer of the gibbet. He must bear his cross, and come after Christ; that is, he must bear it in the way of his duty, whenever it lies in that way. He must bear it when Christ calls him to it, and in bearing it he must have an eye to Christ, and fetch encouragements from him, and live in hope of a recompence with him.

2. He bids them count upon it, and then consider of it. Since he has been so just to us as to tell us plainly what difficulties we shall meet with in following him, let us be so just to ourselves as to weigh the matter seriously before we take upon us a profession of religion. Joshua obliged the people to consider what they did when they promised to serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 19. It is better never to begin than not to proceed; and therefore before we begin we must consider what it is to proceed. This is to act rationally, and as becomes men, and as we do in other cases. The cause of Christ will bear a scrutiny. Satan shows the best, but hides the worst, because his best will not counter-vail his worst; but Christ’s will abundantly. This considering of the case is necessary to perseverance, especially in suffering times. Our Saviour here illustrates the necessity of it by two similitudes, the former showing that we must consider the expenses of our religion, the latter that we must consider the perils of it.

(1.) When we take upon us a profession of religion we are like a man that undertakes to build a tower, and therefore must consider the expense of it (v. 28-30): Which of you, intending to build a tower or stately house for himself, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost? and he must be sure to count upon a great deal more than his workmen will tell him it will cost. Let him compare the charge with his purse, lest he make himself to be laughed at, by beginning to build what he is not able to finish. Note, [1.] All that take upon them a profession of religion undertake to build a tower, not as the tower of Babel, in opposition to Heaven, which therefore was left unfinished, but in obedience to Heaven, which therefore shall have its top-stone brought forth. Begin low, and lay the foundation deep, lay it on the rock, and make sure work, and then aim as high as heaven. [2.] Those that intend to build this tower must sit down and count the cost. Let them consider that it will cost them the mortifying of their sins, even the most beloved lusts; it will cost them a life of self-denial and watchfulness, and a constant course of holy duties; it may, perhaps, cost them their reputation among men, their estates and liberties, and all that is dear to them in this world, even life itself. And if it should cost us all this, what is it in comparison with what it cost Christ to purchase the advantages of religion for us, which come to us without money and without price? [3.] Many that begin to build this tower do not go on with it, nor persevere in it, and it is their folly; they have not courage and resolution, have not a rooted fixed principle, and so bring nothing to pass. It is true, we have none of us in ourselves sufficient to finish this tower, but Christ hath said, My grace is sufficient for thee, and that grace shall not be wanting to any of us, if we seek for it and make use of it. [4.] Nothing is more shameful than for those that have begun well in religion to break off; every one will justly mock him, as having lost all his labour hitherto for want of perseverance. We lose the things we have wrought (2 John 8), and all we have done and suffered is in vain, Gal. iii. 4.

(2.) When we undertake to be Christ’s disciples we are like a man that goes to war, and therefore must consider the hazard of it, and the difficulties that are to be encountered, Luk 14:31; Luk 14:32. A king that declares war against a neighbouring prince considers whether he has strength wherewith to make his part good, and, if not, he will lay aside his thoughts of war. Note, [1.] The state of a Christian in this world is a military state. Is not the Christian life a warfare? We have many passes in our way, that must be disputed with dint of sword; nay, we must fight every step we go, so restless are our spiritual enemies in their opposition. [2.] We ought to consider whether we can endure the hardness which a good soldier of Jesus Christ must expect and count upon, before we enlist ourselves under Christ’s banner; whether we are able to encounter the forces of hell and earth, which come against us twenty thousand strong. [3.] Of the two it is better to make the best terms we can with the world than pretend to renounce it and afterwards, when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, to return to it. That young man that could not find in his heart to part with his possessions for Christ did better to go away from Christ sorrowing than to have staid with him dissembling.

This parable is another way applicable, and may be taken as designed to teach us to begin speedily to be religious, rather than to begin cautiously; and may mean the same with Matt. v. 25, Agree with thine adversary quickly. Note, First, Those that persist in sin make war against God, the most unnatural, unjustifiable war; they rebel against their lawful sovereign, whose government is perfectly just and good. Secondly, The proudest and most daring sinner is no equal match for God; the disproportion of strength is much greater than that here supposed between ten thousand and twenty thousand. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? No, surely; who knows the power of his anger? In consideration of this, it is our interest to make peace with him. We need not send to desire conditions of peace; they are offered to us, and are unexceptionable, and highly to our advantage. Let us acquaint ourselves with them, and be at peace; do this in time, while the other is yet a great way off; for delays in such a case are highly dangerous, and make after-applications difficult.

But the application of this parable here (v. 33) is to the consideration that ought to be exercised when we take upon us a profession of religion. Solomon saith, With good advice make war (Prov. xx. 18); for he that draws the sword throws away the scabbard; so with good advice enter upon a profession of religion, as those that know that except you forsake all you have you cannot be Christ’s disciples; that is, except you count upon forsaking all and consent to it, for all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution, and yet continue to live godly.

3. He warns them against apostasy and a degeneracy of mind from the truly Christian spirit and temper, for that would make them utterly useless, Luk 14:34; Luk 14:35. (1.) Good Christians are the salt of the earth, and good ministers especially (Matt. v. 13); and this salt is good and of great use; by their instructions and examples they season all they converse with, to keep them from putrefying, and to quicken them, and make them savoury. (2.) Degenerate Christians, who, rather than part with what they have in the world, will throw up their profession, and then of course become carnal, and worldly, and wholly destitute of a Christian spirit, are like salt that has lost its savour, like that which the chemists call the caput mortuum, that has all its salts drawn from it, that is the most useless worthless thing in the world; it has no manner of virtue or good property in it. [1.] It can never be recovered: Wherewith shall it be seasoned? You cannot salt it. This intimates that it is extremely difficult, and next to impossible, to recover an apostate, Heb. vi. 4-6. If Christianity will not prevail to cure men of their worldliness and sensuality, if that remedy has been tried in vain, their ease must even be concluded desperate. [2.] It is of no use. It is not fit, as dung is, for the land, to manure that, nor will it be the better if it be laid in the dunghill to rot; there is nothing to be got out of it. A professor of religion whose mind and manners are depraved is the most insipid animal that can be. If he speaks of the things of God, of which he has had some knowledge, it is so awkwardly that none are the better for it: it is a parable in the mouth of a fool. [3.] It is abandoned: Men cast it out, as that which they will have no more to do with. Such scandalous professors ought to be cast out of the church, not only because they have forfeited all the honours and privileges of their church-membership, but because there is danger that others will be infected by them. Our Saviour concludes this with a call to all to take notice of it, and to take warning: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now can the faculty of hearing be better employed than in attending to the word of Christ, and particularly to the alarms he has given us of the danger we are in of apostasy, and the danger we run ourselves into by apostasy?

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

And he turned ( ). Second aorist passive participle of , common verb. It is a dramatic act on the part of Jesus, a deliberate effort to check the wild and unthinking enthusiasm of the crowds who followed just to be following. Note “many multitudes” ( ) and the imperfect tense , were going along with him.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

TEST OF DISCIPLESHIP V. 25-27

1) “And there went great multitudes with him:” (suneporeuonto de auto ochloi polloi) “Then there came together or went with him many crowds,” as he left the house of the Pharisee, Luk 14:1, from different areas, making multitudes, hard to be numbered. They desired to be near Him or hear His teaching, on the way up to the feasts in Jerusalem. Some were anxious, others were curious, Gen 6:5.

2) “And he turned, and said unto them,” (kai strapheis eipen pros autous) “And turning he said to them,” personally and directly, stern words to sift the multitude of so many fickle followers, in the face of the supreme betrayal, suffering, and sacrifice that soon confronted Him, Joh 6:66-67.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk. 14:25. There went with Him.I.e., journeyed with Him; many, if not most, of them being on their way to one of the feasts in Jerusalem. The multitudes were attracted by Christs teaching and works, and He wished to teach His followers the wide difference between an outward and a real adhesion to Him. He spoke these stern words to sift the multitude. The purpose of self-sacrifice by which He was inspired lent force to His utterances. The nearer the approach of His own self-sacrifice, the more distinct and the more ideal are the claims which He makes (Meyer).

Luk. 14:26. Cometh unto Me.This is descriptive of outward adhesion. Hate not.The word cannot be understood of active hatred, since Christ commands us to love even our enemies, but denotes a deep and heartfelt alienation from all ties, and affections, and feelings, that would interfere with devotion to Christ. The clue to whatever difficulty the words might, at first sight, suggest is to be found in the phrase and his own life also. Life here means animal life; not life in the highest sense. In the same manner in which a man is called to control and repress and subordinate his lower life to higher claims, at any cost of feeling, is he to deal with the other relationships in which he finds himself. Let the hate begin here, and little explanation will be further wanted. It need hardly be observed that this hate is not only consistent with, but absolutely necessary for, the very highest kind of love. It is that element in love which makes a man a wise and Christian friend, not for time only, but for eternity (Alford).

Luk. 14:27. Bear his cross.I.e., submit to any sufferings, however severe, to which his devotion to Christ might expose him.

Luk. 14:28. Sitteth not down.Deliberate and careful consideration (so in Luk. 14:31) of ability to complete the undertaking.

Luk. 14:31. Or what king ?The former illustration lays stress upon the folly, this upon the danger, of following Christ without having duly considered what is involved in discipleshipwhat self-renunciation must be exemplified. The purpose of the illustrations seems to be to enforce the necessity of earnestness and deliberation in entering upon and discharging the obligations of the spiritual life.

Luk. 14:33. That forsaketh not, etc.In other words, counting the cost (Luk. 14:28), which may be that of forsaking the interests, and affections, and possessions, of this present life.

Luk. 14:34. If the salt have lost, etc.The life of the merely nominal Christian is compared to salt that has lost its characteristic properties and is useless for any purpose. The office of the follower of Jesus is to be a salutary influence in the world, by which it is to be preserved from corruption. The figure was evidently one frequently used by Christ (cf. Mat. 5:13; Mar. 9:50). The loss of savour is an illustration drawn from actual fact. It is a well-known fact that the salt of this country (gathered from the marshes in dry weather), when in contact with the ground, or exposed to air or sun, does become insipid and useless (Thomson: The Land and the Book).

Luk. 14:35. Neither fit, etc.Of no use as manure, or to be mixed with manure. Men cast it out.A fit emblem of the contempt which even the worldly-minded have for any who fall away from Christian practicewho have the name of disciples, but have lost all that differentiates them from the children of this world. He that hath ears, etc.Words that no doubt closed the discourse (cf. chap. Luk. 8:8).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 14:25-35

Thorough-going Disciples.Complete surrender of earthly things as the indispensable condition of discipleship is the teaching of this passage. Crowds followed Christ, but He will have no recruits enlisted on false pretences, and rather discourages than stimulates inconsiderate adhesion. The clear presentation of difficulties stifles no genuine earnestness, but rather fans the flame. Christ would have the light-minded crowds, following Him with curiosity, understand that it is no holiday stroll nor triumphal march in which they are joining, but a procession to a cross. So, if they are not ready for that, they had better not come after Him, and, at any rate, must come with their eyes open, if at all.

I. Our Lord lays down the law of discipleship.There is a twofold requirement, the solemnity of the statement of which is increased by that repeated He cannot be My disciple.

1. The first requirement refers to the heart. Jesus claims the subordination, and, if necessary, the sacrifice of all other love to the supreme love to Himself, as the prime, indispensable condition of all discipleship. We need not wonder at that strong word hate. The hate which embraces all whom nature and God bid us love, and our own lives also, cannot be the earthly passionate loathing, attended by desire to harm, which goes by that name, but detachment of heart consequent upon supreme attachment of heart to Jesusthe purifying of earthly love by loving only in Him, rigid subordination of the closest ties, and the readiness to sacrifice the tenderest of these when they come in the way of our higher love to Christ. Mark the tremendous claim which Christ here makes, in assuming His right to the throne in all our hearts. What gives Him the right, and how can He satisfy the love which He demands? Surely He who thus speaks must be conscious of Divinity, or His claim is blasphemous. Surely He not only is, but does, what deserves and draws, and will bless with full fruition the fullest love of every heart.

2. The second requirement applies to conduct. The first calls for the surrender of the dearest; the second, for the acceptance of the most painful. There is here a veiled allusion to Christs own cross, as if He had said, I, on this journey in which you are following Me so blindly and eagerly, am going to My cross. If you could see, it is already lying on My shoulder. If you follow Me, you, too, will have to carry a cross. Note the two halves of conduct which together make up real discipleshiptaking up each the cross which is his own, and imitating Christ. Every true Christian has his own special burden of humiliation, difficulty, self-denial, to carry. The cross is heavy, and hard to carry; but unless we do carry it, we are not His. And all the procession of cross-bearers go after the Lord. If we follow after Him, our crosses grow light, remembering His, and with Him for leader and companion.

II. Two illustrative similes enforce the law.

1. The rash builder. This sets forth discipleship in its aspect of building up the noble and conspicuous structure of a Christ-like character. That is the life-long work of a true disciple. Life is not for enjoyment, nor for worldly ends, but for building up a holy character, and all outward things are but scaffolding to further the building. Expenditure is needed to secure this end. Building costs money. The building of ourselves takes and tasks all the resources of a life-time. In other words, we are not disciples unless we surrender self and all we have. It plainly follows that there must be deliberate, open-eyed recognition of what being a Christian involves, at the beginning, if there is not to be failure long before the end. But if we find that we have not the power to build, are we to give up the attempt? No. For they who know that they can do nothing of themselves are they who will most humbly look for, and most certainly receive, the grace that will keep them steadfast and growing; and they who fail are precisely those who begin with swaggering self-sufficiency. The bystanders mock, as they have a right to do. Thorough-going Christians may be disliked, but they are respected. Earnestness awes and sometimes excites hostility, but inconsistency only amuses.

2. The rash soldier. This presents Christian life as a warfare. There is not only need for continuous effort, as in building, but for continual struggle with an enemy stronger than ourselves. Our Lord here warns men not to begin the conflict unless they are prepared to fight it out to the death. Does He, then, advise a man who feels himself too weak to conquer evil to give up the struggle and to become its tributary slave? That would be a counsel of despair. If we find that we have not enough force to meet the enemy, the recognition of our weakness, and the abandonment of all trust in self, will bring an ally into the field whose reinforcements will make us more than conquerors.

III. The final warning.Entire self-surrender is necessary in order to our realising the ideal of the Christian life in our own characters. It is also necessary in order to the discharge of the Christians office to society. The true disciple, who has forsaken all, and taken up his cross and gone after Christ, is the salt. The action of such souls on the community is to arrest corruption, and by diffusing a penetrating and sometimes biting, but always purifying, influence to sweeten and hallow what is on the road to putridity. There is need, however, for watchful renewal, day by day, of the self-surrender; for the saltest salt may lose its savour. It is a slow and often unconscious process. The salt keeps shape, colour, bulkonly the invisible savour is gone; but everything worth keeping goes with it. How can the loss be repaired? There is nothing in the world that can re-salt it. Of course, our Lord does not here close the door to the possibility of going again to Him, and getting from Him a fresh gift, even of the grace which we have so carelessly spilt; but what He means is, that since disciples are to give, and not get, savour, there are none to give it them if they lose it. He is always there to give, but that is not the point in hand. Christians who are not acting as salt are doing no good at all. Saltless salt is utterly useless, and by no means ornamental. The only thing to do with it is to cart it away. It may do to lay on a path, but that is all it is good for. Stern words from gentle lips! But they are true, and need to be laid to heart by the professing Christians of this as of every time.Maclaren.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 14:25-35

Luk. 14:25. Great multitudes.Christ reads their hearts and foresees the future; He knows that multitudes will fall away from Him, and multitudes cry Crucify Him (chap. Luk. 23:21). And so He winnows them by prophecies of tribulation and trial; as Gideon winnowed his thirty-two thousand until he had brought them down to three hundred (Jdg. 7:1-8).

The Fickle Crowd.Christ placed no confidence in the multitude loosely attached to Him; He knew that a day of temptation would scatter them. They that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful (Rev. 17:14), and such, and such only, will abide with Him to the end.

Luk. 14:26-27. If any man come and hate not.Discipleship may involve

(1) the sacrifice of affectionsthe breaking of earthly ties, and
(2) the endurance of persecution.

Luk. 14:26. Come to Me.I.e., outward attachment to Jesus. Be My Disciple. I.e., genuine attachment to His person and spirit.

Recruits Warned of Hardship.Recruiting-sergeants commonly keep out of view what is hard, painful, and dangerous in the service for which they would enlist men; but Christ desired that none should join themselves to Him without a clear knowledge beforehand of all to which they were engaging themselves. So to St. Paul, at his conversion, is shown what great things he must suffer for Christs names sake (Act. 9:16). Ezekiel, at his first commission, is told that the men to whom he is sent are like thorns, briars, and scorpions (Eze. 2:6).

Doth not hate.We must hate all thingsour friends, our relatives, our own livesif they draw us from Christ. We are to love our enemies; and that man is best loved who, if he tempts us from God by words of carnal wisdom, is not heard.Wordsworth.

The Principle already Sanctioned by Scripture.According to Deu. 21:18-21, when a man showed himself utterly vicious and impious, his father and mother should be the first to take up stones to stone him. Jesus here simply spiritualises this command.Godet.

Divinity Implied by the Claims Christ Makes.What man, that was not mans Maker as well as his fellow, could have required that father and mother, wife and children, should all be postponed to Himself; that, where any competition between His claims and theirs arose, He should be everything, and they nothing; that not merely these, which, though very close to a man, are yet external to him, but that his very self, his own life, should be hated, when on no other conditions Christ would be loved? God might demand this of His creatures, but how could Christ, except as He also stood in the place of God, and was God?Trench.

Christ Demanding Hatred.This demand must have staggered many who were now following Jesus. It was meant to sift the heterogeneous crowd. This crowding after Him was not discipleship; they could only become disciplesthey could only obtain those blessings which he had to bestowat a certain cost. This cost they ought to count. And these are His terms: If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, etc. Those who heard Him must have understood Him to mean that His claims were paramount, and, in case of conflict, were to override the claims of the nearest and dearest relatives. His words were well adapted to sift the crowd: the unspiritual would probably be driven away by them in disgust, while those who were attached to Jesus, in virtue of their spiritual susceptibility, would probably still cling to Him and wait for His own explanations. Of this paradox about hating father and mother we say

(1) that the whole spirit of Christs life and teaching was enough to prevent His disciples from understanding the word in its bare, bald, and literal meaning. Christ did not trample under foot everything that is humanblood, and love, and country. So far from commanding His disciples to hate their friends, He exhorted them to love even their enemies. He Himself respected the ties of natural relationship. He wept over Jerusalem. When on the cross He thoughtfully cared for His mother. He taught that the spirit of hatred and contempt was the very spirit of murder, and He took little children into His arms and blessed them. None could learn from Him that He demanded from His followers that they should love Him alone.
2. The word hate cannot here mean that we ought to love our relatives and friends with a diminished affection. This interpretation would be opposed to the teaching of Christ and the genius of Christianity. Love one another, says Christ, as I have loved you. Husbands, love your wives, says Paul, even as Christ loved the Church. What limits shall we set to affection which is thus inculcated? Pure and unselfish love cannot be excessive. We may, indeed, love the Divine Lord too little; but we cannot love any human being too much. And we shall never love the Divine Lord more by merely loving our human friends less.

3. The words hate his own life also are the key to the whole aphorism. A disciple is to hate his relatives and friends in the same sense in which he is to hate himself. A man can hate what is mean and base in himself; he can hate his own selfish life. Not in the bald, literal sense, for he still cares for his own true, best life, and wishes that to be developed and strengthened. But he does, in a sense, hate himself when the self in him rises in rebellion against God, and Christ, and duty. Now, in this sense also a man may hate his relatives and friends. He may hate that in them which is mean and base. He may hate that in them which seeks to drag him away from Christ. He may hate the selfishness lying in their love for him, which leads them to tempt him into sin. He may hate the selfishness lying in his own love for them, which tempts him to disobey God in order to please them, or in order to retain their friendship. Just as he hates all selfish life, so he may hate all selfish love; and this hatred he may manifest in deliberately choosing to renounce the favour and affection of his friends, rather than recant his allegiance to Christ. It is here that we are to look for the explanation of Christs demand for hatred; in the positive revulsion of feeling with which the faithful soul turns away from the temptations of affection, and in the positive sacrifice of friendship which may be involved in allegiance to duty. The strongest and truest love is that which is capable of the courage and self-sacrifice involved in the infliction of necessary pain. And, therefore, just as he who hateth his life in this world really keeps it unto life eternal, so he who, according to Christs paradox, hates his friends, really loves them with a deeper, more abiding, and more unselfish affection.Finlayson.

Luk. 14:27. His Cross.I.e., his sufferings, whatever he may be called upon to suffer in My name, even as I actually bear the cross and suffer upon it. Christ here speaks prophetically of His own crucifixionan event not likely to be foreseen by merely human wisdom, as the cross was not a Jewish form of punishment.

Luk. 14:28-32. Building and Fighting.The Christian has two kinds of work to dobuilding and fighting (cf. Neh. 4:17).

I. The positive aspect of the Christian life; the erection of a structure which arrests the attention of men, and for the building of which all the resources available will be required.

II. The negative aspect of the Christian life; a perilous war with a powerful king, which involves the possibility of being called upon to lay down ones life for the cause.

A Bad Beginning; a Disastrous Close.

I. Christ warns His hearers, and all in later times, of the shameful close which may attend a service begun in a spirit of vain self-confidence.

II. He points out to all the only wise course for avoiding such perils as would thus be before them.

Want of Due Deliberation.

I. The folly of an inconsiderate profession of religion.

II. Its danger.

Luk. 14:28. A tower.Something more than an ordinary housea considerable edifice, specially fortified, which cannot fail to arrest the attention. In like manner a Christian life professes to be something more and better than an ordinary lifeto have stronger and more enduring elements in it; and the world can judge whether the profession is actually realised or not.

Sitteth not down first.The sitting down first, and considering well from the very beginning all that is involved in the continuing and finishing, is to commence with deep thoughtfulness, not rashly and superficially, in contrast with that thoughtless running after Him which was witnessed at this time and which the Lord intends to humble and repel.Stier.

Counteth the cost.In the spiritual building, the only true counting of the cost is that a man should see his own absolute incompetence and emptiness. The counting of the cost must always issue in the discovery of the utter inadequacy of his own resources, and the going out of himself for strength and means to build.

Luk. 14:30. Was not able to finish.In the building which is implied in discipleship, the completion may be righteously demanded and expected of all who have begun; in this case the not continuing brings its own fitting disgrace in the sight of God and man. The world is compelled to respect the sincere and thorough-going Christian; it has nothing but contempt for the half-hearted, who give up the object which they profess to aim atthe salt that has lost its savour is trodden under their feet.

Luk. 14:31-32. Cometh with twenty thousand.The king coming with twenty thousand soldiers is God, whose sanctifying power and discipline must ever be in conflict with our independent life and will until they are completely subject to His power. So far from the prince of this world being this king, man is naturally at peace with him, and Christ would not advise surrender to him.

Luk. 14:31. Self-assertion a Mode of Fighting with God.He fights with God, as truly, though in another way, as the openly ungodly, who would fain be anything in His sight, who, face to face with God, would assert himself at all; who does not renounce all that he hath, and, as that which is the dearest to him, and cleaves closest to the natural man, himself and his own righteousness the first of all. The Pharisee in the parable (Luk. 18:9-12) reckoned up all that he had wherewith to meet Him who resisteth the proud and giveth grace only to the humble; the publican, on the contrary, avowed his own inability even to look his adversary in the faceand therefore, exclaiming, God be merciful to me a sinner, he threw down his arms, and sought, while there was yet time, conditions of peace.Trench.

Luk. 14:32. Desireth conditions of peace.Nothing is said here of scorn or shame, since to pray for peace in the presence of the more mighty one involves no disgrace, but is rather an act of praiseworthy prudence.

Luk. 14:33. The Claims of Christs Love.Christ did not make things too easy for His disciples. Three times in this discourse is the tremendous sentence repeated, He cannot be My disciple, each time with a condition of discipleship harder and sterner than before. Hating our life, carrying our cross, forsaking all we havewhy, claims like these we should have thought, would have earned either a bitter resentment or a silent disdain from most men, but for two circumstancesseparately attractive, together invincibleHis sincerity and His worthiness. He meant what He said, and He merited what He claimed. Those claims of His can only be met by us, and satisfied for Him, through the wondrous method of sacrifice. He claims acceptance, docility, imitation, service, trust, love.Thorold.

Forsaketh not.Nevertheless, it is not enough to forsake all that we have, unless also we forsake ourselves.St. Gregory.

Luk. 14:34. Salt is good.If a man, who ought to teach others, and to preserve them from corruption, lose his savour, and become reprobate, how shall he be seasoned?Bede.

The Need of Entire Self-sacrifice.How significant is this admonition of the Lord, following instantly on the absolute necessity of entire self-sacrifice! Salt is good, but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith then shall it be seasoned? The inference is indisputable. The salt of the Christian life is sacrifice, and if the spirit of sacrifice die out of it, and the essence of that spirit, which is love, become chilled, and its activities and devotions presently diminish, and decay, and disappear, the salt of the life is gone, and its growth paralysed, and its influence killed, and its testimony silenced. The bane of the Church of God, the dishonour of Christ, the laughing-stock of the world, is in that far too numerous body of half-alive Christians who choose their own cross, and shape their own standard, and regulate their own sacrifices, and measure their own devotions; whose sacrifices do not deprive them of a single comfort from one years end to another, and whose devotions never make their dull hearts burn with the love of Christ.Thorold.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Butlers Comments

SECTION 4

Grounded (Luk. 14:25-35)

25 Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, 26If any one 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. 27Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. 33So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

34 Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? 35It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Luk. 14:25-33 Farsighted: True discipleship to Jesus must be based upon or grounded in reasoned commitment, not on superficial emotionalism. The Jesus movement was gaining a superficial momentum toward that triumphal entry into Jerusalem some three months hence. As He-preached throughout Perea, Christ saw through the facade of popularity and gave this stern, umcompromising lecture, illustrating that there is no place for unreasoning, sentimental enthusiasm in His followers. This admonition of the Lord is doubly pertinent for todays would-be follower of Jesus! There is a vast difference between todays religious sentimentality and the real discipleship outlined in the New Testament.

The verb strapheis (2nd aorist participle) indicates Jesus turned suddenly, and threw into their ears the gauntlet of total commitment. Looking out over that sea of faces, Jesus could find very few whose minds and lives were committed to Him. It was an impulsive crowd spread around Himthey were following on feelings. He wanted thinking, intelligent, logical followers; He wanted farsighted, judicious, sober soldiers in His army, so He used clear, candid language to sift the multitudes and blow the chaff away.

No earthly love must ever come into competition with love for Christ. Entire self-renunciation is the cost of real discipleship. The Greek word misei (hate) carries the idea of choice or priority. A man must choose Christ over father, mother, wife, children, brethren and self. If Christ is not absolutely first in a persons life, he is no disciple (cf. Mat. 10:34-39). To the worldly mentality, these are shocking and severe words. To be a disciple of Jesus men must prepare themselves to choose Him over every one of lifes dearest relationships! The world does not think like this. When a choice must be made between the church and ones family, most people choose family. The Bible strongly advocates love of family so the fact that Christ insists He must have first priority emphasizes the seriousness of this injunction. The terms of Christian discipleship are awesome. There can be no higher loyalty than that which Jesus requires. This statement of Jesus strikes at the very core of the excuse of the man who said, I have married a wife . . . If ever there is a conflict between the highest and dearest earthly love then we must deny that and follow Him.

Jesus associated discipleship with cross-bearing. The cross was the repulsive, terrifying, certain instrument of execution in the Roman world. When a person was given a cross to bear, it was certain he was on his way to deathexcruciatingly painful death. Christian discipleship means certain death to ego-centricity. It means emptying ones life of everything that is selfish. It means choosing death to self and desiring Christs life over ours (cf. Gal. 2:20-21; 2Co. 5:14-21; Php. 3:4-11). Taking up the cross means total commitment. It is not easy to be a ChristianJesus never promised it would be. It involves pain, struggle, surrender and death to self-rule. It is not just sufferingmany people suffer and glorify themselves in it. Bearing the cross is not just giving up bad habitsit is sacrifice of self, surrender of all supposed rights to determine what one shall think and do. This was exemplified ultimately by Jesus (Php. 2:5-11; Joh. 12:20-33).

If Christian discipleship involves the ultimate cost (death to self) then it is imperative that it not be entered into unadvisedly, hastily or flippantly. Christian discipleship involves decisions for eternity and demands, therefore, reasonableness, honesty, humility and faith. Jesus illustrates this with two short parables. He is requiring would-be disciples to count the cost by illustrating the momentous calling of discipleship. He is building an eternal temple (the church) and fighting a life-and-death battle against the strongest of foes. Christian discipleship is no place for the half-hearted. In recruiting, Jesus seeks the few good men. He is far too wise to pride Himself in mere numbers of converts. He is more concerned with quality than quantity. He always loathed the counterfeit, the double-minded and the superficial. Jesus always accentuated the severity and sacrifice of discipleship:

Foxes have holes . . . but the Son of man has nowhere . . . (Mat. 8:20; Luk. 9:58)

Are you able to drink the cup . . .? (Mat. 20:22)

Go sell all that you have . . . (Mat. 19:16-22; Mar. 10:17-22; Luk. 18:18-23).

Some tend to cover up the severity of discipleship to Christ. They make out like the Christian life is easy. They try to play down everything unpleasant about it. They do deceitful and indulgent things to lure prospects. Jesus, on the other hand, went out of His way to sift disciples! He was brutally frank and searching in challenging would-be followers. Is it not self-defeating to continually emphasize the difficulties of following the Lord? Should we simply say nothing about the strait and narrow way so we may reach more? Would it not be better to get as many enlisted as possible without worrying about their commitment? Not if we are to take Jesus as our guide. It is better never to enlist a single disciple than to enlist a halfhearted one! Jesus will not have reckless, carefree, spur-of-the-moment enlistments. Christ discouraged half-hearted kingdom enlistments. He was negative about superficiality. Lukewarmness makes Christ vomit! (Rev. 3:16).

The illustration of the man desiring to build a tower would be a familiar figure for that day. The Herod family was noted for its penchant for erecting magnificent public and private buildings. Many men probably tried to imitate them and found they did not have the will nor the funds to finish. There were probably scores of unfinished towers scattered throughout the land. These unfinished building served only as monuments to the hasty, near-sighted, half-hearted efforts of foolish and emotional men.
The picture of the wise king who takes counsel of his strength before he goes to battle is also taken from the history of the times. Herod Antipas illicit relations with Herodias caused his first wife, the daughter of Aretas, to divorce him. Aretas, a powerful Arabian king, declared war on Herod and the result was disaster for Herod. Josephus declares that Herods entry into this war was the commencement of all his subsequent misfortunes. Any commander of troops would be the laughingstock of all his contemporaries if he entered into a battle carelessly, flippantly and expecting to retreat.
Christ wants no shallow, half-hearted builders in His kingdom leaving unfinished towers for the world to mock. No one has any business in His army without the will to fight and finish. The Lords terms for discipleship are severe:

He is engaged in building and fighting.

He wants followers who will stand by Him until He is done.

He wants quality more than quantity.

Discipleship must not be undertaken in a moment of emotional sentimentality or rashly. If it is, there will be disaster.

No would-be follower of Jesus should put his hand to the plow if he is planning to look back (cf. Luk. 9:62; 2Pe. 2:21-22).

The Christian must fight, but not as one that beateth the air . . . (1Co. 9:26).

The Christian must run with perseverance the race that is set before him . . . (Heb. 12:1).

Jesus said, So, therefore, whoever of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. One ancient Christian wrote, We must live in this world as though the soul was already in heaven and the body mouldering in the grave (St. Francis de Sales). To renounce what we have does not mean to indiscriminately throw away those things over which God has placed us as stewards. It means that not one of those things or all those things put together are to have first priority in our lives. These things include families and friends as well as properties. Any person not willing to pay that price cannot be Christs disciple.

Luk. 14:34-35 Functional: The true disciple of Jesus is not merely a follower-he is a functioning follower. Salt that does not function is worthless. Salt is absolutely essential to life. Medical science knows that a patient continually given liquids without salt-content soon has all the salt flushed out of his body and is in danger of death by water-poisoning! Salt seasons and preserves. Disciples who have no tang and no bite and who give the world no preserving functions are worthless. What good is a mountain of granules if they are saltless? What good is a mountain of disciples if they do not function? No wonder Jesus sought quality rather than quantity. True evangelism sifts out the chaff from the wheat! It is the very nature of the gospel to sift, so do not be discouraged when few decide to enlist. You must have willing ears to hear this.

STUDY STIMULATORS:

Jesus accepted an invitation to dine in a Pharisees housewould you be sociable to a hypocrite? What if one tried to trap you into a religious mistake?

If it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, is it all right to work on Sunday if your job demands it?

If there is an opportunity to help a neighbor who is in true need could one miss church services to help?

Do you see any room for growth in the area of humility among Christian leaders today? Can you name some leaders who are humble?

Is pride really dangerous?

When was the last time you gave a dinner and invited the poor, lame, blind and maimed?

Have you ever heard excuses similar to those of the guests invited to the great feast? What were your answers to the excuses?

If many are invited to the feast of God, why are only a few chosen?

Do you know any builders who have left unfinished towers?

10.

Why doesnt the church spend more time emphasizing the cost of discipleship?

CONDUCT WORTHY OF THE GOSPEL

(Php. 1:27-30)

By Paul T. ButlerOBC Chapel, 102380
INTRODUCTION

THE PHILIPPIAN CHRISTIANS

Lived in a city that had an illustrious history and a great heritage of citizenshipfirst in the Greek empire and later in the Roman empire.

About 100 years previous to Pauls letter, Mark Antony and Octavian (Augustus) fought for control of the Rome empire there.

Philippi had been given Roman citizenship and was proud of it.

Roman colonies were little bits of Rome planted throughout the world. In Roman colonies the Roman citizens never forgot that they were Romans. They spoke the Latin language, wore the Latin dress, called their magistrates by the Latin names, insisted on being stubbornly Roman, however for they might be from Rome. . . . Barclay

Tenney states that many retired Roman army officers lived in Philippi.

There was a school of medicine there. Many think Luke was a native of Philippi. There seems to be a touch of native pride when Luke calls Philippi a city of Macedonia, the first of the district (Act. 16:12).

They knew about the idea of pride in citizenship.

Were members of the first European church Paul had founded

This church had to endure persecution from the very beginning.

Paul and the Christians there were accused of subversive actions.

They were attacked by a mob, ordered to be beaten with many blows after which they were imprisoned and placed in stocks.

It was here Paul insisted on his rights as a Roman citizen and made the magistrates who imprisoned him illegally come and release him and apologize.

There was a very intimate relationship built up between Paul and this congregation of believers.

They supported his work financially and in prayer, often.

II.

LET YOUR MANNER OF LIFE. . . .

The Greek word translated conduct or manner of life or conversation is polietuesthe.

It is a unique use of the word for Paul. He usually exhorts Christians to walk worthily and uses the Greek word peripatein which means to walk about.

Polietuesthe is the same word from which we get the English words, politics, politicize, metropolis. It means to be a citizen.

This terminology would ring a bell with the Philippians.

Paul wants them and us to understand that Christians are citizens of a heavenly kingdomthe kingdom of God.

Sometimes Christians get the feeling of being disfranchised. They cannot feel at home in this worldeverything they think is opposed to it, nothing in it satisfies them, they know it is going to be destroyed, BUT THEY MUST REMEMBER THEY ARE CITIZENS THEY DO HAVE A CITIZENSHIP . . . THEY DO HAVE A KING.

The Greek verb is in the imperativeit is a command from Paul.

Conduct yourself!

It will not happen automatically, It takes determination, decision, and action.

It is something the Christian has to consciously do.

It ought to be passionate, like patriotism. Patriotism is not automatic. It is not something one just talks aboutit is something demonstratedsomething done.

III.

BE WORTHY. . . .

The Greek word is axios.

It is the word from which we get the English word, axiom, axiology.

It means literally, value, acceptable, a standard of values.

That which the Christian, the citizen of the kingdom of God, is to walk worthy of is THE GOSPEL.

The gospel is a heritage. It is not a religionit is not something we attach to our worldly lives.

The gospel is a lifeit is a citizenship. We belong to it.

The Pioneer of our faith, Jesus, came to earth as the Perfect Man and struggled, fought the enemy, gave Himself up to humiliation and death, but victoriously won for us the New Beulah Land. THIS IS OUR HERITAGE . . . struggle, fight, self-sacrifice and victory.

Being worthy means being loyal; it means being a person of integrity, a person of conviction. It means ones conduct measures up to this heritage of the gospel.

The classic illustration of this for me is the military service. There is a great pride (or was, anyway) among Americas military men in their calling. This is true of both officers and enlisted men. The oldest of the military academies, West Point and Anapolis, have tried and true traditions and codes of honor by which all cadets conduct themselves.
Those codes of honor have their power, however, in the great heritage of the academies which have produced men who have struggled, fought, died and won victories for the principles of human freedom and dignity.
Ill never forget the pride that swelled up in me as I put on my first set of dress blues in the Navy and marched to some of the stirring John Philip Sousas marches. I thought about the Yorktown, the Enterprise, Halsey, Nimitiz. I was willing to give my life in that uniform, for that flag.
I challenge you this morning, that we must have an even more intense and passionate patriotism for the heritage of the Gospel. Let loyalty to your Christian citizenship swell up in you here and now and regret that you have but one life to give to Christ. Remember John the Baptist, Peter the fisherman, Paul the tentmaker; remember Gethsemane, remember Calvary, remember the empty tomb; remember Jesus!
Our text will tell us how to conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel because patriotism is something you do, something I do.

DISCUSSION

STAND FIRM

The Greek word is stekete. It is present and imperative. It means to be immovable.

Christians will not be moved from their citizenship in the Kingdom of God by anything, nor anyone.

They will not be moved by circumstances.

They will not be moved by fads or fashions or social pressures.

They will not be moved by feelings or fleshly urges and desires.

They will not be swayed by expediency, ease or comfort.

They will not be moved by persecution, ridicule or slander.

This does not mean the Christian will not grow, that he stays on one level of spiritual development all his life.

It means he takes an immovable, unflinching, absolute stand for truth and goodness.

Wherever he finds truth and goodness he appropriates it and makes it hishe stands for it.

Wherever he finds evil, falsehood and wrong, he stands against it.

The early 1940s were the darkest days the citizens of England would ever know. Hitler controlled all of Europe from the borders of Russia to the coast of France. He was sending his V2 rockets (buzz-bombs) indiscriminately into English cities, killing hundreds. Britains army had suffered the decimating defeat at Dunkirk. There was rumor that the powerful and ruthless German armies were poised to invade England.
Winston Churchill rallied his people: We shall go on to the end . . . we shall defend our Island whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. . . .
Long dark months of trials and tribulations lie before us. Not only great dangers, but many more misfortunes, many shortcomings, many mistakes, many disappointments will surely be our lot. Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible. . . .

The trouble with many of youand youIm talking about you here, in this building, on this campusIS THAT YOU HAVE NEVER TAKEN A STAND, INFLEXIBLY, FOR THE GOSPEL.

You look around you and it looks like everybody else is indulging themselves in worldliness and you dont have the grit and courage to swim against the streamto brace yourselves against the winds of fad and fashion.

It is easier, more comfortable, more popular to vacillate . . . to drift with the majority.

Why would you let someone you care for very much talk you into taking liberties with your body when you know it is wrong?

Why would you let a buddy or friend talk you into destroying school property (really Gods property) by senseless pranks, when you know it is wrong?
Why would you skip the chapel worship service or sleep in on Sunday morning, or waste money on trivialities and not pay your school debt?

WHY? BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT TAKEN AN INFLEXIBLE, UNBENDING, UNYIELDING STAND FOR THE TRUTH . . . FOR WHAT IS RIGHT . . . FOR THE GOSPEL!

And why havent we taken an unyielding stand for what is right? BECAUSE WE VALUE POPULARITY OR OUR OWN COMFORT MORE WORTHY THAN OUR SPIRITUAL HERITAGE . . . OUR HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP.

Some of you have been lulled into complacency thinking that because you came from a Christian family and are now in Bible College your being a Christian is inevitable. DONT BELIEVE IT!
YOU MUST TAKE A STAND ALL BY YOURSELF. IT IS YOUR FIGHT, YOUR STRUGGLE, YOUR PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Being a Christian doesnt just happen to you.
Albert Barnes (of Barnes Commentaries) wrote: A man who has been redeemed by the Blood of the Son of God should be pure. He who is attended by celestial beings, and is soonhe knows not how soonto be translated into Heaven, should be holy. Are angels my attendants? Then I should walk worthy of my companions. Am I soon to go and dwell with angels? Then I should be pure. Are these feet soon to tread the courts of Heaven? Is my tongue soon to unite with holy beings in praising God? Are these eyes soon to look on the throne of eternal glory, and the ascended Redeemer? Then these feet and eyes and lips should be pure and holy, and I should be dead to the world and live for Heaven.
It is said that when Napoleons army was invading Russia his soldiers came to a village from which all the inhabitants had fled except one man. He was a Russian peasant, a woodsman, and still carried his ax in his leather belt. When the French captain saw him he ordered that he be shot immediately. The French soldiers leveled their guns at his head but he did not flinch. The captain was frustrated by this old mans courage.
Telling his soldiers to lower their guns, he said, We will spare his life, but we will put a mark on himwe will brand him. So his soldiers brought a branding iron, got it red hot, and placed it on his hand. The man saw and felt his own flesh burn, but still he did not flinch. When the branding iron was removed the peasant saw the letter N branded on his palm. What is that? he asked. This is the letter N and it stands for Napoleon; you belong to Napoleon now, replied the captain.
For a moment the old man did not know what to do or say. His pain was intense, but his loyalty and patriotism was even more passionate, so he placed his burned hand on something solid, and as the soldiers were laughing and jeering at him, he took his ax from his belt with his other hand and brought it swiftly and forcefully down and severed his branded hand at the wrist.
There, he said to the soldiers, the hand may belong to Napoleon, but I am a Russian. If I must die, I will die a Russian.

NOW THAT IS PRETTY SEVERE, YOU SAY. THATS A GOOD ILLUSTRATION, BUT WOULD JESUS ASK US TO DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT?

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. . . . And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Mat. 5:29-30). WHO DO YOU THINK SAID THAT? TO WHOM DID HE SAY IT?

JESUS IS SERIOUS ABOUT THIS MATTER OF TAKING A STAND . . . INFLEXIBLE, UNYIELDING STAND.
Paul wrote to the Christians at Colossae that they were reconciled to God by Christs death, provided they continued in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which they had heard . . . (Col. 1:22-23).

STAND . . . STAND FOR THE GOSPEL . . . DONT BEND, DONT YIELD, DONT BE MOVED. DO IT TODAY! DO IT EVERY DAY! IT MUST BE DONE EVERY DAY. THERE ARE NO VACATIONS FROM STANDING . . . NO R & R . . . IT DOESNT GET EASIER AS YOU GET OLDER! NOW IS THE TIME TO SAY, I AM DETERMINED, IVE MADE UP MY MIND. . . . EVERY TIME YOU HEDGE, EVERY TIME YOU COMPROMISE, EVERY TIME YOU BEND IT BECOMES EASIER TO DO SO! STABILITY AND STEADFASTNESS ARE THE MARKS OF TRUE SPIRITUALITY!

II.

STRIVING SIDE BY SIDE

The Greek word is sunathlountes. From it we get the English word, athletics, athlete. It was used of those who contended in the Greek Olympic games.

Striving in athletic contests demands:

Self discipline, forcing oneself to give up any hindrance to the contest.

Training, practice, repetition, until excellence is achieved (which is never).

Expending energy, working, sweating.

Concentration of the mind, thinking, alertness.

The will to win.

You all know that. We dont really have trouble around here getting people to play gamesto strive in contests of physical prowess; they run, jump, kick, tackle, throw things, hit things, shoot things, yell, shout and scream.

THEY DO IT IN AN ORGANIZED WAY, UNORGANIZED WAYS AND UNGODLY WAYS.
THEY DO IT FOR CLOTH LETTERS, METAL TROPHIES, AND THE UNGODLY ATHLETICS OR ANTICS ARE ENGAGED IN FOR THE FALSE JOY OF SELF-INDULGENCE AND REBELLION.

Paul wanted the Christians at Philippi to strive together for their spiritual prize, their spiritual heritage with the same intensity athletes strive for the glory of their country in the Olympics, or for the glory of their college alma mater.

That is what Christ wants for you here too.

When you are assigned a research paper, do you strive or sluff-off? Do you force yourselves to do hours of research in the library, to write and rewrite until excellence is achieved, concentrate, sweat, think, work?

WHY NOT? YOU DO WHEN YOU PLAY BALL, WHEN YOU ROUGH-HOUSE WHERE YOU SHOULDNT!

When someone asks you to help at missions emphasis, or ambassadors or survey calling or rest-home visiting, do you force yourself, give up comforts, work, run, jump, yell and shout? WHY NOT?

JUST HOW MUCH IS THE GOSPEL WORTH TO YOU? HOW MUCH DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO STRIVE FOR YOUR HEAVENLY COUNTRY. . . . TO WIN FOR YOUR KING?

Paul probably meant striving to face the enemies of the Philippians who were without.

But the enemy (the devil) without has a willing tool that is within US, SELF.

Weve got to strive with the enemy within us mightilySELF MUST BE FOUGHT, SELF MUST BE BROUGHT UNDER THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRISTS SPIRIT.

Have you ever been to boot-camp in the Marines or the Navy? A lot of you need it! Talk about striving, side by side. Reville at Luk. 5:30 a.m.; each person has 5 minutes to shower shave and get dressed; march in formation to breakfast; return to the barracks in formation; 5 minutes to get inside, get your pack and piece and fall out in formation; then it is close-order drill, rifle range, obstacle course, close-order drill, etc., etc. until you fall exhausted in your bunk and lights out at 10.

Why such agony, such torture, such striving? Because SELF must be whipped, self-control is an absolute must. Because when a marine is on the front lines, facing the enemy without, there is no way he can win if he has not striven with and conquered the enemy within!

The Christian life and the Christian ministry is no pleasure cruise. We are not here sailing along on the Love Boatthis is not Fantasy Island.

There is no place in the Christian struggle for the flippant and the blase!

There was nothing blase about Pauls struggle!

Listen to this:

5 times 40 lashes

3 times beaten with rods

once stoned

3 times shipwrecked; a night and a day adrift at sea

danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from his own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren

in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night

in hunger and thirst, often without food

in cold and exposure

daily pressure and anxiety for all the churches

PAUL HAD NO OCCASION TO BE BLASE . . . HE WAS CONSTANTLY STRIVING WITH THE ENEMY WITHIN . . . He fought and fought, conquered, and then strained more, Php. 3:7-16.

What is your citizenship in the kingdom of God worth? Have you any sense of honor about being called into the army of Christ?

Is it worth striving against the profane, irreligious and immoral worldliness of a brother?

Is it worth going against a father when he is wrong?

Is it worth having to flee from your home?

Is it worth suffering exploitation and injustice and ridicule?

Is it worth working hard and honestly for?

Is it worth being a pilgrim in this world?

Is it worth going to a foreign country and dying there?

THAT IS WHAT IT WAS WORTH TO JACOB, God said: Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel (prince of God) for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed (Gen. 32:28).

WE HAVE TOO MANY DON QUIXOTES IN THE KINGDOM, PLAY-PRETENDING, JOUSTING WITH WINDMILLS. They never get down to the hard realities of everyday striving with the real battles of lust, dishonesty, laziness, rebelliousness, greed, envy. Theyre out knocking down the imaginary enemies.

Who are we to think we can enter into that rest without striving when it was our Master who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, who with loud crying and tears experienced obedience through the things He suffered. Nothing blase about Gethsemane!

This same Paul, in prison later (after this), facing the end of his race, wrote to his young Timothy, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing . . . (2Ti. 4:6 ff.).

SO I SAY TO YOU THIS MORNING, STRIVE, STRIVE WITH YOURSELF AND BRING SELF INTO SUBJECTION TO THE SPIRIT AND WORD OF CHRIST . . . STRIVE SIDE BY SIDE AGAINST THE ENEMY, THE DEVIL AND HIS TOOLS . . . AND WHEN YOUR RACE IS OVER, YOU TOO WILL RECEIVE YOUR CROWN!

III.

NOT FRIGHTENED IN ANYTHING BY YOUR OPPONENTS

The enemy cannot shame you or enslave you, or make you less than you are.

You are the citizen of an unshakable kingdom.

Babylon fell, the glory of Greece is gone, Rome remains only in legend and crumbling ruins. Someday the glory that is America will disappear.

BUT NOT SO WITH YOUR KINGDOM, YOUR CITIZENSHIP . . . IT IS FOREVER YOUR KING CONQUERED DEATH, HERE, IN HISTORY, TO PROVE IT!

You are exalted to joint-heirship with Christ. You are royalty. No matter that now you must wear the tatters and rags of finite fleshsome day you shall wear the star-studded, celestial robes fitted for you from the heavenly closets!

One of the great temptations that has caused so much desertion among the ranks of Gods soldiers (ministers of the gospel) today is male mid-life crisis.

There is an interesting parallel to this in a story I once read in Readers Digest, August 1978, Portrait of a Traitor.

Brig. Gen. Jean-Louis Jeanmaire, a man who had outwardly personified the honor of Switzerland and the devotion of its citizen army, was arrested and discovered to be the worst traitor in the history of Switzerland.

His treason is traced in the article mainly to the fact that in his later years he had been transferred from the infantry to the civil-defense forces. His self-image suffered. He always envisioned himself as a combat officer who would lead his men against invading hordes. Now he felt that his career was floundering and the possibility of fulfilling his boyhood dreams was fading.

Your opponents, the devil and his ambassadors, will try to ridicule, slander, and deceive you and destroy your Christian honor.

This is what the Viet Cong tried to do to our POWs. Read again that Book Section of Readers Digest, June 1976, on the POW.

The way the POWs survived was to hold fast to their belief in who they were and the truth of what they had been fighting for.

The devil attacked Adam and Eve at this vulnerable pointself-image. If you will take the forbidden fruit you will be gods for as a believer you are less than you can be! A LIE!

The devil attacked Jesus at this pointself-image, If you are the Son of God. . . .

Remember who you are. You are royalty. You are beautiful in Gods eyes. You are eternally young and alive in Gods eyes. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE DEVIL AND HIS HENCHMEN SEDUCING YOU INTO BELIEVING YOU HAVE TO SIN TO RETAIN YOUR BEAUTY OR YOUR LIFE! AS A BELIEVER YOU ARE EVERYTHING GOD MADE YOU TO BE!

The enemy cannot rob you of your heavenly inheritance.

Moth and rust cannot consume it.

Thieves cannot break through and steal it.

You have an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept for you in heaven. . . . and you are guarded through faith until you receive it (1Pe. 1:4).

Think of the tragic compromises some have made because they have let the enemy frighten them into thinking the only riches, or the only pleasures, or the only fame is IN THIS WORLD!

Esau despised the spiritual birthright which was unseen, for a bowl of bean soup which he could have right then.

This slight momentary affliction of having to stand and strive and be courageous is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison . . . (2Co. 4:17).

THINK OF THAT . . . BEYOND ALL COMPARISON. THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD OF RICHES, ROYALTY, PLEASURE, HONOR, SATISFACTION WITH WHICH TO COMPARE YOUR INHERITANCE!

Dont let the enemy scare you into believing there is!

The enemy says, If God has such great things for you, why doesnt He give them to you now . . . because He doesnt have them for you. . . . Youd better get what you can of riches, pleasure and power now. . . . You only go around once!

But God, if He did not spare His own Son for you, will certainly come through on the promise of your inheritance (Rom. 8:31 ff,).

God has already given you a down payment on your inheritance in the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart, guiding you into the joys of spirituality through His Word, the Bible.

The enemy cannot destroy you.

In 2Ki. 6:11 ff. the king of Syria sent his army to surround the city where Elisha was and take the prophet captive. When the Syrian army surrounded the city the servant of the prophet arose early in the morning and began to be afraid.

Elisha said, Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And the Lord opened the servants eyes and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha from the Lord.

In Rev. 13:1-18 people of the Roman empire worshiped the beast (Roman emperor), saying, Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? THE BEAST IS INVINCIBLE, THEY SAID.

But John wrote, . . . the beast . . . is human . . . its number is 666. THE BEAST IS NOT INVINCIBLE. ROME FELL, AND THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST LIVED ON!

The enemy, using the fear of death, kept most of the world of mankind in slavish bondage to sin, but Jesus came and destroyed that power.

The enemy tried to destroy Jesus, but Jesus rose victorious, having defeated the worst the enemy could do.

The enemy has tried to obliterate the written word of God and cannot even do that, because it is in the hearts of believers generation after generation and will always be.

The enemy has tried to kill the church but he cannot do that. It has survived every stratagem, persecution, false doctrine, materialism.

Johns vision in Revelation saw the church Rome tried to destroy as an innumerable multitude of individuals out of every tribe and tongue and nation, alive, worshipping God around His throne.

The great Admiral Nelson of the long-ago British Fleet was about to engage the enemy at the battle of Trafalgar. He dressed himself in his full uniform and placed all the medals and orders that he had won upon his breast.
His officers remonstrated with him, saying he should take off his decorations, or at least cover them with a handkerchief, as otherwise he would become a prime target for the enemys musketry.
But the gallant Admiral would have none of their advice: I won these distinctions in the face of the enemy, he said, and I shall wear them in the face of the enemy.
YOU HAVE PUT ON CHRIST, YOU ARE A PRIME TARGET OF THE ENEMY. BUT DO NOT BE FRIGHTENED IN ANYTHING BY HIM AND HIS MINIONS. . . . SO LONG AS YOU WEAR THE CHRISTIAN ARMOR, HE CANNOT HARM YOU, MAKE YOU LESS THAN YOU ARE, ROB YOU OR DESTROY YOU!

CONCLUSION

I would like to discuss the rest of this text in this sermon, but time does not permit.
I close with this story: May 12, 1962, a great old American soldier is speaking some of the last words he will say to an Academy filled with young men preparing to become officers and future leaders of the Army of the USA:

DutyHonorCountry. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. . . . The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. . . . But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character; . . . they make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success, not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fail; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. The shadows are lengthening for me, The twilight is here, My days of old have vanished tone and tint; they have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. . . . But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes in my earsDutyHonorCountry. . . .

Douglas MacArthur, at his last roll call at the Point. He died two years later.
If we filled the stage this morning with old soldiers of the gospel, they would say to you:

Down through the years of your ministry may your memory always come back to Gods Word and may this truth echo and re-echo in your heart. . . . Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. . . . STAND FIRM. . . . STRIVE SIDE BY SIDE. . . . AND DO NOT BE FRIGHTENED IN ANYTHING BY YOUR OPPONENTS. . . .

Appleburys Comments

Counting the Cost
Scripture

Luk. 14:25-35 Now there went with him great multitudes: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man cometh unto me, and hateth 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. 27 Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it? 29 Lest haply, when he hath laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31 Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and asketh conditions of peace. 33 So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35 It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Comments

and hateth not his own father, and mother.On another occasion Jesus stated this same lesson in a positive form: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me (Mat. 10:37). Therefore we are forced to understand the expression hate in the light of this positive statement. It simply means that when it comes to a matter of devotion to Christ or parents, Christ must be first in the absolute sense; parents, by contrast, are to be hated, for they cannot be put before Him.

But Jesus upheld the Old Testament law that required children to honor their parents (Exo. 29:2; Deu. 5:6; Eph. 6:2-4). He severely condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who made the Word of God an empty thing by their tradition that said if a man gave to God what he might spend to care for his parents he was not required to care for them (Mat. 15:3-6). Evidently, they were merely saying that they were giving to God, but in reality neither giving to God nor caring for their parents. Actually, caring for aged parents in obedience to Gods command would have been giving to God.

Except for those cases in which parents bitterly opposed Christ, there would be no conflict in loving Him and parents also. See Luk. 12:49-53.

and his own life.This shows that Jesus did not intend for a man to hate his parents in the ordinary sense of the term. But nothingnot even the dearest members of ones own family or life itselfcan be exalted above Christ, if one is to be His disciple.

bear his own cross.Jesus demands absolute priority in the thinking and love of His disciples, Selfish ambition has no place in the life of His followers. He had explained this to the disciples before (Luk. 9:23). Now the multitudes are to learn the same lesson. Jesus was not willing to accept any disciple who was not willing to meet the demands of discipleship. See Luk. 9:57-62. If He had been interested in merely becoming the popular leader of an irresponsible crowda charge made at the time of His trial (Luk. 23:2)He would have made no such demands.

For which of you desiring to build a tower.The high standard of discipleship made it necessary for those who would be His followers to count the cost before entering the service of the Lord. In our eagerness to see people become Christians, do we sometimes fail to observe Jesus warning about counting the cost? Jesus reference to building a tower and to the number of troops necessary to meet the enemy illustrates the lesson. Count the cost before beginning such projects, if you are to avoid the embarrassment of possible failure. Not just those who enlist, but those who fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith are to receive the crown of righteousness (2Ti. 4:7-8; Rev. 2:10).

that renounseth not all that he hath,Paul is an excellent example of one who renounced all for the sake of Christ (Php. 3:8-11). But no less is required of all other followers of Christ. Jesus had already illustrated this in the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price (Mat. 13:44-45). All these remarks explain the meaning of true self-denial. See also Pauls challenge to Timothy as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2Ti. 2:3-4).

he cannot be my disciple.This is absolute! There is no place for half-hearted discipleship in the service of the Lord. See Jesus warning to the lukewarm Laodicean church (Rev. 3:14-22).

Salt therefore is good.This is still another illustration of the necessity of weighing the issues involved and remaining faithful to the end. Salt in this context is a symbol of dedication to Christ. Without dedication, a disciple is ineffective in his efforts to influence others for Christ; he is certainly to be rejected in the end.

Jesus used this same expression in another context (Mar. 9:49-50). He had been discussing the destruction of the wicked in hell and added, For everyone shall be salted with fire. He was referring to His teaching about hell which would act as a deterrent to wickedness. He said, Have salt in yourselvesthat is, have this knowledge about the fate of the wicked in your minds that it might keep you from such destruction.

On still another occasion, Jesus spoke of His disciples as the salt of the earth (Mat. 5:13). In all probability, this means that the disciples by Christ like character and conduct and by teaching the truth of His Word are to preserve others from destruction.

but if the salt have lost its savor.If the salt loses its salty taste, what then? It is fit for nothing but to be cast out. A disciple who loses the necessary dedication and consecration to Christ as suggested by cross-bearing and self-denial will be rejected; such a person cannot be His disciple.

He that hath ears to hear.Thus Jesus emphasizes the lesson He has just taught. His hearers should heed His challenge and His warning.

Summary

Opposition to Jesus became more intense as He came closer to the day when He would lay down His life for His people. His great popularity with the common people was a real challenge to the leaders who were determined to destroy Him, one way or another.
Another Pharisee invited Him to his house to eat. But a man with dropsy was there and they were watching Jesus to see what He would do, for it was the sabbath. He accepted the challenge; He healed the man; He embarrassed those who hoped to embarrass Him, for they were not able to answer the logic of His questions about their own acts on the sabbath.
Jesus was also watching the guests on that occasion. He saw them choosing the chief seats without waiting to be asked by the host to take the place of honor. He taught the powerful lesson, Everyone that exalts himself be humbled and every one that humbles himself shall be exalted, And He was aware that the host had invited his rich friends who would in turn invite him to their homes. Jesus said to him, Invite the poor, and you will be rewarded in the resurrection of the just.
One of the guests began to speak about the fortunate state of those who would be at the heavenly banquet. Jesus responded with the story of the Great Supper. God had invited His chosen people to come to the feast, but they made lame excuses for their insulting disregard for Him. Then Jesus indicated that the gospel invitation would be given to the sinners of all classes and that the heavenly banquet table would be filled, but those who had been invited would not get to taste the supper.

It is a serious matter to be a disciple of Jesus. He demands first place in the hearts of all who would be His followers. Not even father or mother may be put before Him. Before undertaking discipleship, count the cost. Complete dedication to Him is the price. Salt that loses its saltiness is good for nothing. A disciple who loses his devotion to Christ is worthless. Jesus closed His remarks with the solemn warning, He who has ears, let him hear.

Questions

Why did the Pharisees invite Jesus to eat with them?

How account for the presence of the sick man on that occasion?

Why does Luke say that they were watching Him closely?

What day of the week was it?

What question did Jesus put to the lawyers? Why?

Why didnt they answer Him?

How did Jesus defend His action of healing the man on the sabbath?

What contrast did His remarks make between what He had done and what they were accustomed to do?

What were the guests doing that led to Jesus lesson on humility?

10.

What did He suggest that they do?

11.

What happens to the one who exalts himself?

12.

What did Peter say about humility?

13.

What did Jesus say to His host about the guests he had invited?

14.

Where should he have been looking for his reward?

15.

What do the Scriptures teach about the resurrection of the just and unjust?

16.

What was the occasion for the parable of the Great Supper?

17.

What did Jesus show about the attitude in general toward Gods invitation to the Great Supper?

18.

What excuses had the Jews made for not responding?

19.

To what class was the second invitation given?

20.

How was this fulfilled during the ministry of Jesus?

21.

Why was a third invitation given?

22.

What does the third invitation represent?

23.

To whom is the third invitation sent?

24.

How can people be compelled to respond to the invitation?

25.

How did Jesus illustrate the necessity of counting the cost of discipleship?

26.

What did Jesus demand of those who were to be His disciples?

27.

What is the significance of His remarks about salt in this context?

28.

How are we to understand His remarks about ones parents?

29.

What was the Old Testament law about caring for parents?

30.

What had the Pharisees done that had nullified this law?

31.

How does Jesus illustrate the meaning of cross-bearing and self-denial in this context?

32.

Why did Jesus make such demands on His disciples?

33. Is the demand any less now?
34.

What did Jesus mean when He said that everyone shall be salted with fire?

35.

In what sense are His disciples the salt of the earth?

36.

What did He mean by the reference to salt that has lost its taste?

37.

What is to be done with the disciple that is like salt that loses its saltiness?

38.

Why did He say, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

91. JESUS STATES THE DIFFICULTIES OF PROFESSING CHRIST.

25. There went great multitudes These multitudes followed him as friends and partizans perhaps as he walked from the feast to his place of abode.

See note on Luk 13:32. The miracles, the preaching, the power of Jesus’s character, attracted floating multitudes, whose feelings were deeply stirred, but whose souls were not renovated by the truth. They trailed after his footsteps rather than followed his precepts; being followers not in a spiritual but in a mere bodily sense. So it is that, in periods of religious excitement, light minds are often flung upon the Church, which she hardly knows what to do with.

Turned. and said Jesus presents to them that true disperser of such chaff the cross.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Now there went with him great crowds, and he turned, and said to them,’
Great crowds ‘went on together with Him’, as He went on His way to Jerusalem, and they included many would be disciples who were not aware of why He was going there. For in the crowds would be people with different hopes. Some loved to hear Jesus’ stories, others were convinced that He was a great prophet, still others wondered whether He was the Messiah biding His time, and still others were full of enthusiasm and were considering following Him fully.
But Jesus did not want men to follow as disciples unless they had counted the cost. They could believe on Him, and commit themselves to the Kingly Rule of God without doing so. But for them to become His disciples and follow Him involved an extra cost, and He wanted to ensure that if they did follow Him they had taken this into account. So He wanted to warn them what discipleship might involve.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Call To Discipleship (14:25-35).

Luke closes this section off as he opened it by showing Jesus as challenging His disciples and His would be disciples to consider what was involved in what they were setting out to do. He wanted them to recognise fully what was involved. His challenge to put Him before their own families is a reminder of the division that His coming could cause within families (Luk 12:51-53; compare Luk 8:19-21). His call for them to bear their crosses was a reminder of His words to His disciples in Luk 9:23-27.
Analysis.
a There went with Him great crowds, and He turned, and said to them (Luk 14:25).
b “If any man comes to Me, and does not love less (‘hate’) his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luk 14:26).
c “Whoever does not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luk 14:27).
d “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have that with which to complete it? Lest haply, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him” (Luk 14:28-29).
e “Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish” (Luk 14:30).
d “Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a deputation, and asks for conditions of peace” (Luk 14:31-32).
c “So therefore whoever he be of you who does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be My disciple” (Luk 14:33).
b “Salt therefore is good, but if even the salt has lost its savour, with what shall it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill. Men cast it out” (Luk 14:34-35 a).
a “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luk 14:35 b).
Note in this example the beautiful balance of the chiasmus. Let any part drop out and it loses its balance. In ‘a’ the crowds come to hear Him, and in the parallel Jesus calls on those who to hear who will hear properly. In ‘b’ love for Him is strongly contrasted with their attitude towards all others, and in the example of the salt ‘good salt’ is contrasted with all other salt. In ‘c’ bearing the cross is necessary for a disciple, and in the parallel a man’s renouncing all that he has is necessary for being a disciple. In ‘d’ the weighing up of a situation of a builder is described and in the parallel the weighing up of a situation of a king is described. Central to all in ‘e’ is the question of one who commences but cannot finish what he commences.
The chiasmus may well be the work of Jesus, reworked by Luke by taking the last part of the last sentence and contrasting it with the hearing crowd.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jesus Teaches the Forsaking Family: The Cost of Discipleship ( Mat 10:37-38 ) In Luk 14:25-35 Jesus teaches the people about the cost of discipleship. It will cost more than forsaking the cares of this world. It will also require us to forsake the bonds of those loved ones who are not willing go the journey with us. The emphasis of this passage is found within the context of its narrative material where Jesus is teaching us how to enter into the narrow gate that leads to Heaven by keeping our hearts pure. The need to forsake the bonds of family ties is another virtue that leads us towards a pure heart after humility (Luk 14:7-11), benevolence (Luk 14:12-14) and forsaking the cares of this world (Luk 14:15-24).
Following Christ is a Daily Decision – Our decision to be a Christian is not a one-time decision that is made on a Sunday morning. Rather, it is a spiritual journey that we take, which involves much sacrifice. There is conversion, and discipleship. Discipleship involved the process of our sanctification. The process of sanctification involved our indoctrination, our calling and our perseverance. All disciples must follow this path; otherwise, our life looks like a person who started to build a house, or a tower, and did not finish it: or, it is like a person who went to war without considering the costs of winning the war.
Luk 14:25 Comments – Many people began with Jesus. Everybody wants to be a part of something good; but when the road gets rough, many fall short. Jesus sensed in His spirit that there were those following Him who were not serious enough to endure the journey of serving Him. Many would soon fall away, distracted by the cares of this world. For example, in the Parable of the Sower, people fell away due to persecutions and the cares of this world.
Luk 14:26 Comments – F. F. Bruce comments on this verse by saying that the Hebrew thought and speech is making an extreme contrast in this passage for the sake of emphasis. He explains that the Hebrew language (and Aramaic) lacks the abstract words that the Greek language later developed. Since Jesus was speaking Aramaic when He taught, He uses this extreme language in Luk 14:26 to illustrate this Hebrew way of saying that someone must love God far more than his earthly family.
Luk 14:26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
This is exactly what the parallel passage in Mat 10:37 says when Jesus tells us that we must love Him more than our parents or children.
Mat 10:37, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Thus, God is not saying that we are to literally develop a hatred for our family members, but that our love for Him must be far more than any earthly love that we should have. This deep love for God will appear to our family members as if we no longer love them. This verse says that our ties to this world and its tradition, which are so strongly bound to us by family ties, must be overcome.
F. F. Bruce gives an Old Testament example of when God says that He loved Jacob and hated Esau.
Mal 1:2-3, “I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.”
God was saying that He loved Jacob far more than his closest blood kin. This statement is meant to place emphasis upon the immeasurable love and involvement that God has for His people when compared to that of the world. [233]
[233] F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1963), 46-7.
Luk 14:27 “And whosoever doth not bear his cross” – Comments – In those times, the condemned man would take his own cross to the site of his own crucifixion. So, Jesus is saying that we should not become offended because of suffering and persecutions. Many did not continue with Jesus (Joh 6:66). If we do not continue with Him, we are not worthy of Jesus and the Kingdom (Mat 10:38).
Joh 6:66, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
Mat 10:38, “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”
Luk 14:27 “and come after me” – Comments – Jesus is our example to conduct our lives by.
Luk 14:35 “It is neither fit for the land” – Comments The Greek word (G2111), which means, “well-placed, appropriate” ( Strong) is also used in Luk 9:62, “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Salt harms land and makes it unproductive.
Luk 14:35 “nor yet for the dunghill” – Comments – Salt ruins fertilizer.
Luk 14:34-35 Comments – Tasteless Salt ( Mat 5:13 , Mar 9:50 ) In Luk 14:34-35 Jesus gives the illustration of how useless salt becomes when found tasteless in order to illustrate His message on discipleship. Jesus drives His point home regarding the necessary sacrifice of following Him by using an illustration of salt, perhaps the most common and popular seasoning in the ancient world. Foods were seasoned to regain their flavors having been lost in storage. We can imagine food spoilage or loss of flavor in this ancient world without refrigeration. Jesus explains that if the salt, the seasoning, loses its flavor, there is no method of regaining its flavor. Thus, it must be discarded. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called His disciples “the salt of the earth.” If a disciple begins his journey of divine service and turns back because of earthly affections because he did was not willing to pay the sacrifice, he is no longer qualified as a true disciple of Christ. For example, when we quit a job, we can no longer return to that job with the same level of trust and responsibility given to us.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Obligations of Christ’s Discipleship.
Bearing the cross:
v. 25. And there went great multitudes with Him; and He turned and said unto them,
v. 26. If any man come to Me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
v. 27. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
When Jesus left the house of the Pharisee to continue His journey, there followed Him, as usual, great multitudes of people, going with Him for the usual reason, mere external inquisitiveness. To these Jesus expounded the requirements of true discipleship. The mere following after Christ for the sake of seeing miracles signified and availed nothing. If any one comes to Him, with a view to close and permanent discipleship, sacrifices are necessary from the standpoint of this world. First of all, the love of Christ must precede all other love, even that of the nearest friends and relatives, Mat 10:37. Absolute devotion to; Him and to His cause requires that natural love to one’s relatives be relegated to the background, that life itself be denied, that the heart be torn away from temporal possessions, that the cross of Christ be willingly shouldered, though it sink in deeply and bruise unmercifully. All rival masters and interests must be put away that the love of the great Master may be supreme. If this devotion and work should demand the final sacrifice of life, according to His example, even that must be willingly given for the sake of the love He bore us.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Luk 14:25-26 . After the meal was over, Jesus goes forward on His journey towards Jerusalem, and draws with Him much people, as they thronged everywhere in Galilee upon the marvellous teacher (Luk 12:1 , Luk 9:11 , and elsewhere). But the nearer He is to His own painful self-surrender, the more decidedly and ideally His claims emerge. To the dependent and undecided people going with Him He addresses Himself with the claim of the perfect, most self-denying surrender required of His disciples. Comp. Mat 10:37 , where the same claim, although less ideal in form, is made, and is addressed exclusively to the apostles. With the Christian communions (Weizscker) these instructions have even in Luke nothing to do.
] namely, with a view to hearken to me as a confessor and follower.
] not minus amat , or the like (Kuinoel, de Wette, and many others); see, on the other hand, on Mat 6:24 . Father, mother, etc., as even also the special desire for the preservation of one’s own life (comp. Mat 10:39 ), are assumed as being in opposition to fellowship with Christ (comp. Luk 12:53 ), so that, according to Mat 6:24 , comp. Luk 16:3 , in respect of the love of the one Lord the hatred of others must find place. [176]
] besides, also, moreover ; the extreme case of all is yet added. “Saepe qui inferiorem sancti odii gradum visus erat assequi, in altiore deficit,” Bengel.
] Luk 14:27 , . The emphasis in both cases rests on , but in Luk 14:27 more strongly.
[176] Comp. Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 327 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

H. The Son of Man opening His Mouth in Parables.
Luk 14:25 to Luk 17:10
1. The Address to the People (Luk 14:25-35)
25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, 27and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Andwhosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,29whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply [perhaps], after he hath laid the30foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying,This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31Or what king, going to make war against [marching to a hostile encounter with] another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh againsthim with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendethan ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33So likewise, whosoever he be of you34that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt [therefore6] is good: but if [even7] the salt have lost his savour [become insipid], wherewith shall itbe seasoned? 35It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men [they] cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk 14:25. And there went great multitudes with Him.This whole Pericope is also peculiar to Luke, and although expressions like Luk 14:26; Luk 14:34, appear elsewhere, yet nothing hinders us from believing that the Saviour repeated, from time to time, pregnant sayings of this kind, not to mention that the form of these varies in different passages. The parables of the Building of the Tower and of the Warring King appear to have been delivered at the same time, and are very well suited for the greater number of those who came after the Lord on this occasion. In order to see the suitableness of this method of teaching, it is above all things necessary that we realize to ourselves the point of time in which we here meet the Saviour. He is about to depart from Galilee, see Luk 13:32-33, but at this very time He sees Himself surrounded by a continually increasing multitude. Are they impelled by a presentiment that they shall not see the Master again in this region, or by Messianic chiliastic expectations, or by the desire, over against the augmenting hatred of His enemies, to give to the Saviour an unequivocal proof of continued adherence? However this may be, the Searcher of hearts allows Himself as little as before to be deceived by an illusive semblance. He has compassion on the people, since He knows how hard it will soon become for well-meaning but superficial friendship to manifest for Him steadfast faithfulness. From love, therefore, He is stern enough to portray to them in the darkest colors the conditions of being His disciples, that they may be held back from foolish fancy, and led to self-examination. Earlier requirements which He had addressed exclusively to the Twelve, He now extends in yet severer form to all without distinction. Whoever, after such seemingly terrifying, but, in fact, attractive, words, did not yet recede, but persevered in the resolution to follow Him in this way of decision, he was to the best of Masters doubly, yea tenfold, welcome.
Luk 14:26. If any man come to Me.The coming to () Jesus is not the same as the coming after () Him, Mat 16:24. The latter presupposes that one is already His disciple, the other that one desires to become such. At the very first, it speaks for the Saviours deep knowledge of man, that the people who, in the literal sense of the word, are coming along behind Him, so that He must turn Himself around in order to address them, are treated by Him as people who have as yet by no means made the first decisive step to Him, but, in the most favorable case, are in the way now for the first time to take this step.
And hate not.Comp. Mat 10:37. The nearer He is to His end, the more decided and idea do His requirements show themselves to the people that are inconstantly and undecidedly accompanying Him. The lax interpretation of = minus amare (Kuinoel, De Wette, and many others), dilutes unnecessarily the powerful sense of this declaration, and finds in Mat 6:24 no support; rather must we compare what is written, in Deu 33:9, of Levi. Not in and of itself is hatred anything antichristian, but only when it is in conflict with the commandment of supreme love, as the Lord, Luk 20:37-40; Joh 13:34-35, has given it. Even to the God of love hatred is ascribed, Rom 9:13; our Lord, who loves what is human in Peter, hates and rebukes what is Satanic in Simon Bar-Jonah, Mat 16:21-23, and we may even assert that he who is not capable of hating has never known love in its full power. This is the deep sense of the famous sentiment of tragedy: Va, je taimais trop, pour ne pas te har [Go, I loved thee too much not to hate thee now]. That the Saviour here means no hatred towards ones nearest relatives in itself, needs no explanation, comp. Eph 5:29. He has only that in them in mind which intervenes irreconcilably between the heart and His kingdom, and defines plainly enough His meaning still more specifically by the concluding clause, . All, therefore, which stands in relation with the sphere of the , instead of that of the , must be hated and given up. Leave must be taken thereof when it comes into conscious conflict with the requirements of the kingdom of heaven. Certain as it is that one may hold his kindred dear in Christ, and that faith does not dissolve family ties, but knits them closer, and sanctifies them, it is at the same time indubitable that not only at the time of our Saviour, but even now, circumstances may occur in which the union of the duties of faith and of merely natural love is impossible, in which, on the contrary, a conflict is absolutely inevitable. Comp. Mat 10:34-36.
Luk 14:27. And whosoever doth not bear his cross.See remarks on Luk 9:23, and the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark. We scarcely need remind the reader that here it is by no means all suffering on earth, but exclusively suffering for Christs sake, that is spoken of.
Luk 14:28. Intending to build a tower, .We are not so particularly to understand a tower in the strict sense of the word, but rather a lofty palace, a sumptuous building, in short, a material erection which requires a more than ordinary development of resources. Here we have the image of seeking after the kingdom of God and of entrance into its discipleship, to which one cannot come without the most strenuous exertion and the most earnest consideration. In a graphic way the Lord sketches the project of the tower-builder. This one has, namely, in the first place, a great plan, which is steadily present to his mind (). He considers next, not only slightly, but at the fullest leisure, what is required for the carrying out of this plan ( . Bengel. Sedens dato sibi spatio ad faciendam summam rerum suarum). Thirdly, he does not pass to the carrying out of the plan before he has on the ground of this calculation well persuaded himself that he has really , that is, that which is necessary for completing it without and within. Thus does he escape scoffing, which does not befall him if he does not begin at all, but certainly will if he begins without consideration.
Luk 14:29. Lest perhaps.As in the following parable it is especially the danger and ruinousness, so in this it is the folly and ridiculousness, of an inconsiderate project which is brought to view. We can scarcely avoid the thought that the recollection of the building of the Babylonian Tower, Gen 11:1-9, floated before the Saviours mind. While the decidedly Christian life constrains the world to involuntary respect, half Christianity provokes it to not unnatural scoffing. Not a little is the force of the representation heightened by this, that the Saviour represents the scoffers themselves as saying to one another, , … In the third person the mockery is yet more delicate than if it were addressed, in the second person, directly to the imprudent tower-builder, comp. Mat 27:40-42.
Luk 14:31. Or what king.Plainly the Saviour is concerned to impress on the hearts of His hearers the same thing again, although the representation this time is a somewhat different one. The words themselves are not hard to understand. belongs together with ; the numbers ten thousand and twenty thousand are designedly chosen to denote a comparatively important, and yet entirely unequal, military power, and the = to the previous , designates, not peace itself, but that which he must entreat from the too powerful enemy, in order to come into the enjoyment of a lasting peace. [It appears to me that the author has not brought out the point of the particular disproportion. Many a battle has been gained by a force only half as large as that of the enemy. Yet, unquestionably, the probabilities are very greatly against this. The numbers, therefore, appear to be chosen to indicate a disproportion so great as to make success improbable, but not so great as to make it impossible.C. C. S.] As respects the subject itself, we may, perhaps, distinguish thus, that the building of the tower is the image of the internal, the war, that of the external, development of the Christian life. So far, Bengel is right in saying that the first image is taken designedly from a res privata, the other from a res publica. Entirely arbitrary is it, on the other hand, to see in the ten thousand soldiers an allusion to the Ten Commandments, and yet more forced to see in the king with twenty thousand a designation of God the Lord Himself (Stier, Lisco). How it can be said of God, in this connection, that He marches against any one to battle, while yet the ten thousand of His adversaries are to be the type of spiritual forces bestowed by Himself, we do not comprehend. The symmetry of the discourse requires imperatively that we should cordinate the thoughts; not to follow Jesus inconsiderately, not to begin the building of the tower without reckoning of the cost, and to beg for peace (that is, not to give up, but to postpone the strife). Comp. Lange, L. J. ii. p. 1041.
Luk 14:33. So likewise, whosoever he be.According to De Wette, this application is not exact. It is, however, at once obvious that the consideration commanded by the Saviour, Luk 14:28-31, must necessarily lead to self-renunciation, and that the building of the tower remains unfinished, the strife undecided, precisely when one is disinclined in his heart to such a renunciation. Precisely because self-denial is required is earnest consideration absolutely unavoidable. (See the , Luk 14:28.)
Luk 14:34. Salt, therefore, is good.Nil sale et sole utilius. Plin. H. Nat. xxxi. 9. According to the (see the notes on the text) this sentence does not stand here independently, but is in some measure the application of the previous remarks, comp. Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50. Adagium hoc spiuscule Christus usurpavit, ut et alia ejus sculi. Grotius. The saying would here be hardly congruous (De Wette) only in case it were addressed to the people in just the same sense now as formerly it was to the Apostles. This is, however, by no means necessary to be assumed; nothing hinders us from supposing that the sense of the declaration is modified by a look at the hearers. As the disciples were a purifying salt with reference to the unbelieving world, so was Israel (here represented in the people following) called to be such a salt for the heathen nations. The Saviour, by the pregnant concluding remark, will lead the throng following Him to deeper reflection as to whether, and how far, they have satisfied this high vocation, and show them that they, persevering in unbelieving and unfaithfulness, run the danger of being condemned as saltless salt, of being cast out upon the highways of the heathen world, and trodden down by unclean feet. On this interpretation the figurative mode of speech is applicable even to a mixed throng, and expresses thus the thought which, as is visible from the parable of the Great Supper, nay, from more than one expression in the foregoing chapter, hovered continually, just in these days, before the Saviours soulthe thought, namely, that Israel, in consequence of rejecting the Messiah, should itself be rejected. Such a warning was, more than any other, worth being crowned with the concluding admonition: Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Compare, moreover, the remarks on the parallel passages.
Luk 14:35. Not fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill.By this addition the figurative expression of the salt in this connection acquires peculiar force. It belongs to the nature of salt that it can only be used for the purpose peculiar to it, and is good for nothing else. It is as little used for manure, as it is necessary to sow upon salt, Psa 107:34. The people of God, as well as each individual who fails of his original high destination, has, therefore, become not merely in a manner less usable, but wholly unusable. The end of the whole address, such a reminder must make the hearers sensible that it helps nothing, even if one originally might have had some ground to expect something of them, so far as they did not advance to victory in the strife begun, and to the completion of the tower already commenced. Whoever is like the inconsiderate builder, and resembles the presumptuous warrior, he deserves no better name than Salt that has lost its savor. Neither directly nor indirectly is he good for anything, who has failed of his high destination.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The whole Pericope presents before our eyes the lofty earnestness and the severe requirements of the Christian life. The word here spoken has the purpose of deterring the inconsiderate and leading the light-minded to self-examination. What the Saviour here holds up before His contemporaries, is now, as ever, of high significance for all impelled to come to Him by a superficial feeling. There exists a remarkable coincidence between the instruction here given, and the answer which the Saviour once gave a well-meaning scribe, Mat 8:19-20.
2. As this instruction has high significance for the beginning, so has it not less for the continuance and completion, of the Christian life. How many a one accounts all as accomplished when he finds a beginning of the new life, a pietistic awakening in his heart, and believes that therewith all is won. The Saviour gives such to consider that it is of the least possible value if one even comes to Him once, but does not go along steadily behind Him, and that a genuine disciple must be recognized at least by two traits of character: by not beginning before all is maturely weighed, and also, after such a beginning, by not ceasing before all is completely accomplished. Thus is the saying justified: It is easier to throw away the life, than to live it Christianly. Nitzsch. The beginning signifies nothing unless it leads to the end; a good ending is impossible without careful calculation and continually renewed exertion of all inward powers. Only then is the lofty destination of the Christian life, which is comprised in two words, Building and Warring, happily attained.
3. The scoffing of the world at so much that calls itself Christian loses much of its surprising character if we consider how much half-Christianity there is, showing itself in all manner of forms, and coming forward with the pretension of being already complete Christianity. So long as the City of God shows so many incomplete towers and heaps of ruins, it cannot possibly make upon its enemies the impression of an impregnable fortress. The world is fully justified in laughing aloud or in secret at so many who have indeed a desire to distinguish themselves from it, but show no power to vanquish it.
4. But what if, even after careful calculation of forces, it should appear that one is not in a condition to build a tower, not in a condition to overcome the enemy? To this question the parable gives no answer, and we should certainly completely misunderstand the Saviour, if we from His words should conclude that in this case it is better not to think at all of building or warring. The tower must be built; the strife must be striven; the kingdom of heaven must at any price and above all be sought. But when the severe requirement of self-denial and of conflict has brought the sinner to the consciousness of his own impotency, then the Gospel composes our distress by assuring us that all which the Lord requires He Himself can give, and that what is impossible with men is now as ever possible with God, Joh 1:17; Mat 19:26. This whole instruction, therefore, is admirably fitted to bring home to us the prayer of the old father: Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis.
5. Three times the Saviour warns His followers against the fate of the salt that has lost its savor, as He elsewhere speaks of the vine that is cut down and cast into the fire, Joh 15:6. To view such warnings as ideal threatenings, because they do not admit of being reconciled with the ecclesiastical dogma of the Perseverantia Sanctorum, is as arbitrary as to emphasize them at the cost of other declarations which appear to intimate exactly the opposite, e. g., Joh 10:28-30. It is obvious enough that the same subject in the Gospel is sometimes regarded from the theological, sometimes from the anthropological side; but that the warnings of the Saviour are quite as earnestly meant as His promises are true and faithful. It belongs to the hardest, but also to the noblest, problems of believing science, to investigate with continually greater profoundness the connection between freedom and the election of grace; to recognize with continually greater impartiality the connection of the Divine and the human factor in the work of salvation, and when the solution of every difficulty in this relation presents itself, perhaps, as impossible on this side the grave, to accord equally its due to the one truth on both sides, and to hope for the full explanation of the problem from the world where our knowledge shall no more be in part, 1Co 13:9. In no case can a difference of opinion in respect to this mystery justify a lasting separation of really believing Evangelical Christians.
6. What is true of every individual and of Israel, is still true also of the Church of the New Testament, which is planted in the midst of the unbelieving world, in order as a purifying salt to preserve it from destruction. If it fails of this destination, it is wholly unprofitable, and deserves, therefore, to be rejected: comp. Rev 2:5; Rev 3:3-16. This word of the Saviour gives, therefore, into our hands the key to the answer of the question why so many a candlestick, whose flame burned lower and lower, has been finally taken away from its place. In the denunciation of this judgment, love speaks; in the carrying out of it, the most inexorable severity reveals itself.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The Saviour is as far from being misled by a great number of followers, as from being discouraged by the decrease of their number, Joh 6:67.The preacher of the Gospel also must propose severer requirements when a varied mixed throng follows him.[Large demands are often more attractive than large concessionsa thought worthy of being well considered by the minister.C. C. S.]The hatred and the love of the genuine disciple of the Saviour.Not all who outwardly follow Jesus come in truth to Him; not all who in the beginning come to Him persevere in following Him.The hard and the easy side of the discipleship of the Saviour.The disinterestedness of the Saviour over against the brief enthusiasm of the people.The requirement of self-denying love to Jesus: 1. A seemingly preposterous and yet extremely simple; 2. a seemingly arbitrary and yet perfectly warranted; 3. a seemingly exaggerated and yet absolutely indispensable; 4. a seemingly harmful and yet infinitely blessed; 5. a seemingly superhuman and yet certainly practicable, requirement.How the Saviour calls His disciples: 1. To earnest consideration before; 2. unconditional surrendery in; 3. to enduring watchfulness after, the resolution to follow Him.The disciple of the Saviour called to build, and at the same time to war, Neh 4:17.Better never begun than only half-ended.The discipleship of the Saviour a matter of special and earnest consideration.We have to see to it: 1. What; 2. how; 3. why, we choose.The Christian a builder: 1. Plan of building; 2. the cost of building; 3. the completion of building.The scoffing of the world at half-religion: 1. Its fully warranted jest; 2. its terrible earnestness.The Christian a valiant warrior: 1. The enemy; 2. the armor; 3. the conflict; 4. the event.Even Christ left all to be our Saviour.It is precisely the noblest things that are exposed to the greatest corruption.The cast-away salt: 1. What it once was; 2. what it now Isaiah 3. what it necessarily becomes.
Starke:Canstein:Christ is not concerned about the great number of hearers, but about the honest heart.Nova Bibl. Tub.:Self-love is death, and the suicide of the old man is life.Believing, doing, and suffering, admit of no separation in religion.Brentius:God is served with no great Babylonian tower.Christians must at the commencement of all things ever look at the end.There is no lack of scoffers at true religion, but let us look to it that we give not cause and occasion for scoffing, comp. 1Pe 3:16; Tit 2:7-8.Satan and the world leave here no peace to true Christians.It is not always true that a Christian must forsake his own for Jesus sake, but a heart prepared thereto is required of all, Act 21:13.Whoever in and with Christ finds all, such a one can very easily for Christs sake lose all.Canstein:True Christians are profitable to themselves and the world, in words and works, Col 4:6, but hypocritical Christians are the most unprofitable men on earth, like spoiled salt.Brentius:That a backsliding or apostasy from Christianity may not be accounted a small thing, for this reason has the Lord Jesus added so strong and powerful an awakening voice: Oh that they were wise.
Zimmermann:Weighty questions for every one that will enter into the kingdom of God: 1. What shouldst and wilt thou build? 2. against what hast thou to combat? 3. hast thou also means and energies for the carrying through of this strife?The whole Pericope admirably adapted for a confirmation discourse. In the sphere of missions also advantageous for the answer of the question whether one can continue the building and conflict begun or not. The pro and contra admit of being weighed successively; the result of the consideration cannot be doubtful, but gives then new excitement to arouse to increased zeal.
Footnotes:
[6]Luk 14:34.On the authority of B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., &c., we receive , with Tischendorf, [Tregelles (brackets it). Alford,] into the text.
[7]Luk 14:34.According to the testimony of B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] X., &c., must be here inserted, by which the force of the language is not a little heightened. If even the salt itself becomes insipid, which least of all might be expected to lose its taste, &c. appears to have been omitted hero only because it is not found in Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
As my view of this Scripture, in those two verses, differs altogether from every Commentator which I have read upon it, I beg the Reader’s indulgence to be somewhat more particular in his attention to my remarks. I shall very freely state the sense which I have of the passage; and if I err, I pray the Lord to forgive the unintentional error, and guard the Reader from adopting it.
It is plain, from the occasion in which Jesus delivered himself on this subject of hatred to our nearest relations, in the bonds of nature, that he meant to inculcate the higher claims of grace; and, as great multitudes were then following him, the Lord gave them to understand, that the life of a real disciple of his, was attended with greater sacrifices than they at first, might suppose. But few have considered the term of hatred to mean anything more, than, in a comparative way, and similar to that passage in Matthew, not to love any person or thing more than Christ, or equal with Christ. Mat 10:37 . But first I would observe, that the word in the original, which in our Testament is translated hate, will admit of no softer expression. It is one of the plainest words in the Greek language, as everyone conversant with the original cannot but allow. And secondly, it should be further observed, that the doctrine is not the language of the New Testament only, but of the Old. Israel was enjoined to have no pity upon the friend, which was as a man’s own soul, if that friend enticed him to leave the Lord: Thine hand (saith the law) shall be first upon him, to put him to death, and then the hand of all the people. See Deu 1:13 , throughout. And the hatred which the Lord Jesus is here speaking of, is wholly commanded upon this principle: namely, that any of those tender affinities of nature rise up to the injury of the more important claims of grace. And they must be indeed really and truly objects of hatred to the soul, if they have a tendency, or make use of their influence to thwart the soul in pursuits of the divine life.
And what, in my view, tends most clearly to prove this, and to throw a light upon the whole doctrine, is the concluding sentence in the passage, in which Jesus, having declared the necessity of hating the nearest ties in nature, if opposing the pursuits of grace, hath added, Yea, and his own life also. Here the point, according to my apprehension, is at once shown. For if a man is to hate his own life, namely, his corrupt, unregenerate, unrenewed part, because he feels daily an opposition in this body of sin and death, to the holy desires of the renewed soul, nothing can be more plain than that Jesus meant exactly what the words express: and in following Christ in the regeneration, there will be daily cause of hatred arising in the soul, to the remains of indwelling and corrupt affections, which oppose the stuff, and too often bring the soul into leanness, and distress, and sorrow.
And I would ask every real believer, every truly regenerated soul of the Lord’s people, whether, on this very account, he doth not groan daily, being burthened? Let him determine the question with his own conscience! let him study the subject, as it relates to holy men of old gone before. What were the woes of Isaiah, the self-reproaches of Job, of David, of Paul, but on this account? See Isa 6:5 ; Job 42:6 ; Psa 51:2-3 ; Rom 7:23-24 . Men who have taken up, with a flimsy view of godliness, and not learnt, from divine teaching, the plague of their own heart, may, in the pride of their heart, be content with a Pharisaical righteousness, and talk of what they never truly enjoyed in themselves, a progressive holiness; but he who is learning in the school of God the Holy Ghost, to be more and more in love with Jesus, will learn from the same lesson, practically, to be more and more out of love with himself, and while he hates the world, and sin, and Satan, he will hate his own life also from the same cause; namely, the opposition he meets with from that quarter; and as Job expresses it, will abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes.
And, Reader! suffer me to add, (however largely I have already trespassed,) is it not this self-hatred, by reason of a body of sin and death, which makes, in part, a cause for the true believer to be reconciled to the prospect of death? Yea, doth not Jesus sweetly and graciously over-rule even this malady of nature, to the higher prospects of grace, and cause his faithful ones to feel as Paul did, and rejoice in the hope as he rejoiced, in the desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better? Phi 1:23 . But I proceed no further. I am free to confess that the language of our Lord, in this memorable passage, strikes me in the sense in which I have represented it. Here, therefore, I leave it with the Lord, and to the Reader’s reflection, under the divine teaching.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

Ver. 25. And there went great multitudes with him ] Expecting great things from him, and gaping after an earthly felicity. These he strives to undeceive in the following verses.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

25 35. ] DISCOURSE TO THE MULTITUDES. Our Lord is, at some time further on in the journey, going forward, and speaking to the multitude on counting the cost before any man becomes his disciple.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 14:25-35 . Concio ad populum . Jesus now appears on the way, and followed by “many multitudes” ( , Luk 14:25 ) to whom He speaks. Thus sayings which in Mt. and Mk. form part of disciple-instruction ( ) assume the character of popular preaching, as in the case of the Sermon on the Mount (in Lk.), though the subject is the conditions of discipleship.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 14:25-33
25Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26″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. 27Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
Luk 14:25 “Now large crowds were going along with Him” This is an imperfect tense. These large crowds characterize Luke’s Gospel’s structure of Jesus’ ministry since Luk 9:51 as He travels to Jerusalem to die.
Luk 14:26 “If” This is a first class conditional sentence, which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purposes.
“anyone” What a wonderful word! Thank God for the Bible’s invitations to “anyone,” “everyone,” “as many as,” and “whosoever”! However, there are also demands and requirements. Notice it comes contextually after Luk 14:21! All are welcome!
“comes to me” This is the personal requirement for salvation (much like John’s Gospel). Faith (see Special Topic at Luk 1:45) in Jesus is key to forgiveness and a personal relationship with God. We were created (cf. Gen 1:26-27) to know Him and fellowship with Him (cf. Gen 3:8). Life without Him is futile and empty (i.e., Mar 8:36). As Augustine said, there is a God-shaped hole in every human being, and we will never be happy until we find peace with Him.
“hate his own father” This is a Hebrew idiom of comparison (cf. Gen 29:31; Gen 29:33; Deu 21:15; Mal 1:2-3 [Rom 9:13]; Joh 12:25). It is obvious that this cannot be taken literally because of Jesus’ statement of honoring your father and mother in Mat 15:4, which reflects the Ten Commandments. This section speaks of death to self (cf. Gal 2:20) and earthly priorities. In the Near East commitment to family superceded every other commitment, but Jesus must become believers’ first priority (cf. Luk 12:49-53; Mat 10:34-39).
“even his own life” Jesus sets the pattern of ministry (cf. Luk 9:23; Luk 17:33; 1Jn 3:16).
“he cannot be My disciple” This point is emphasized in Luk 14:27; Luk 14:33. It is difficult to balance the grace of God so clearly demonstrated in the parable of the Great Banquet (Luk 14:15-24) with the radical call to a complete sacrifice of self in Luk 14:25-33. Both are true. Grace initiates and provides, but receivers must make a life-altering, priority choice! Followship (Luk 14:25) is not the same as discipleship. Just as in the parable of the soils, germination is not the same as fruit bearing!
Luk 14:27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross” This refers not to problems believers face, but to death itself (cf. Luk 9:23-26; Mat 10:34-39; Mat 16:24; Gal 2:20). It was the custom in Palestine of the first century for condemned prisoners who were to be crucified to carry the cross beam to the place of crucifixion.
Luk 14:28-32 This speaks of the need to recognize the cost of followship! No quick decisions! The gospel is absolutely free, but it costs everything that we are and have (cf. Mat 13:44-46). In light of this, western modern Christianity is a weak manifestation of “what’s in it for me” cultural religion! Modern western Christians have turned biblical faith into a weekly event, a place we park our car for a few hours instead of a 24 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week relationship of service to Christ. We only give the leftovers of our busy lives and plans to Him. We worship and praise Him with peripherals and non-essentials. This is why we have such large, beautiful church buildings and elaborate organizations and programs and NO SPIRITUAL POWER, NO CHANGED LIVES, NO WHATEVER-IT-TAKES ATTITUDES!! God forgive us for cultural, peripheral, easy believism!
Just one additional thought, this emphasis on counting the cost of discipleship must also relate to the age one receives Christ. One must be old enough to
1. know the Scriptures
2. know that they violated them
3. understand the gospel
4. be able to access the “cost of discipleship”
If “decisions” are made too early they result in confused Christians or perpetual “pre-Christians”!
Luk 14:31 “will not first sit down and consider where he is strong enough” This does not mean estimating our own resources, but our deliberate conscious choice of the cost of followship.
Luk 14:33 Before we dismiss this as hyperbole, reread the context and parallels (cf. Luk 9:23-26; Luk 9:61-62; Luk 12:33; Luk 15:22). Biblical faith is a serious priority commitment. Nothing, nothing, nothing must be above Him (family, nation, livelihood, one’s own life). If anything precedes Him, give it away. Whatever is left, use it for Him! See F. F. Bruce, answers to Questions, p. 54.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

25-35.] DISCOURSE TO THE MULTITUDES. Our Lord is, at some time further on in the journey, going forward, and speaking to the multitude on counting the cost before any man becomes his disciple.
Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 14:25. And there went great multitudes with him:
During at least a part of his earthly ministry, Christ was very popular. The people crowded to his feet, and they were willing to make him a king; but you must have observed that he was always faithful in speaking to the populace, he did not flatter them. He dealt in the same fashion also with those who professed to be his followers. He winnowed the heap that was laid upon the floor, and drove away the chaff from the midst of the wheat.
Luk 14:25-26. And he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Do not misunderstand this passage. Our Lord does not use the word hate in our common acceptation of the term, for no man would hate his own life; but he means that the love of all these must be secondary to the love we bear to him. Compared with our love to our Lord, all lower love must be more like hate. We must be willing to give up everything to give up even ourselves our entire selves to him, for Christ will have all or nothing. He will never divide the human heart with any rival. If we profess to serve him, we must have him for our only Master, and not attempt to serve two masters. I fear that this truth greatly needs to be enforced nowadays, for we have numbers of so-called Christians, who are worldlings first, and then Christians afterwards. We have a great many professors who might be accurately described by the words of a little girl concerning her father. When someone asked her, Is your father a Christian? she replied, Yes, but he has not worked much at it lately. There are plenty of that sort. Christianity is their trade, their business, their profession; but they have not worked much at it lately, they carry it on very slightly indeed. Let it not be so with us; if we would be followers of Christ, our whole hearts must be his.
Luk 14:27. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
If there is any cross-bearing involved in Christianity, such as the cross of holy living, or the cross of believing old-fashioned doctrines, and not being abreast of the times, if there is any sort of cross which is involved in the conscientious discharge of our duty as followers of Christ, we must bear it, or else we cannot be his disciples. Our Lords words are very clear and explicit: And whosoever doth not bear his cross, be he who he may, whatever pretensions or professions he may make, if he does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:28-30. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Do you not think that there are a great many towers of that kind about in our day? I mean, unfinished Christian characters, persons who profess to be followers of Christ, but are not. They just exhibit to you their own shortcomings; they are people with good intentions, who did make some attempt to follow Jesus; but, since it involved too much self-denial, they were not able to go that length, so they turned back, and walked no more with him. They began to build a tower, but never finished it. May God, in his mercy, prevent you and me becoming a laughing-stock to all eternity! I believe that, in the last great day, and forever, those persons, who knew enough about the gospel to wish to be Christians, and who were somewhat actuated by right motives, but yet who never went so far as to give up their hearts to Christ, will stand forth as monuments of their own folly and even the demons in hell will point at them, and say, These men began to build, and were not able to finish. Such persons will be unable to answer that contemptuous sneer. If you have conscience enough to begin to follow Christ, even reason itself requires you to go the whole length. If you know that it is right for you to do so, why do you not go through with it? If you are sufficiently convinced of its rightness to go as far as you do, why not go still farther? God grant that you may! Better never begin to build than to commence without having counted the cost, and then to find that you have not sufficient to finish.
Luk 14:31-32. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
If you cannot fight the world, the flesh, and the devil, if there is no power that can help you to do it, or if you are not willing to be helped by the only power that can help you, if you will not surrender yourself to Christ that he may baffle all the hosts of the adversary, then it is of no use for you to begin the war.
Luk 14:33. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
In Christs days, and afterwards, discipleship usually involved the absolute giving up of everything that his followers had, for those were times of persecution; and if such seasons should come to us, we must have such love to Christ that, for his sake, we could forsake all that we have; otherwise we cannot be his disciples.
Luk 14:34. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
Christianity is good; but if the very life has gone out of it, what can you do with it? A dead professor is the most corrupt thing under heaven. Some there are who think that Gods salt can lose its savor, and yet get it back again. I remember one who told me that he knew a person who had been born again four times. That doctrine of re-re-re-regeneration is one that I have never found in the Word of God. I believe that true regeneration never fails to take effect, and that it never loses that effect. It begets within the soul a life that cannot die; but, if that life could die, it could never be brought back again. The apostle Paul puts this matter beyond dispute in Heb 6:4-6 : For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Luk 14:35. It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out.
A dead profession of religion is utterly useless; and if it could be possible that a man should be really quickened by the Spirit of God, and yet that the new life should depart from him, he would be in a hopeless case indeed.
Luk 14:35. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Let all of us give good heed to this injunction, for our Lord Jesus Christs sake! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Luk 14:25-35
19. COUNTING THE COST
Luk 14:25-35
25 Now there went with him great multitudes:-Be it remembered that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem; he had paused in the house of the Pharisee and had remained there at the feast and had spoken the three parables discussed above. It seems that he is now proceeding toward Jerusalem and a great multitude is following him. The Jews traveled in companies to Jerusalem to attend the feast. (Luk 2:44.) This discourse is recorded only by Luke; there are similar declarations in Mat 10:37-38; Mar 9:50. This is another proof that Jesus repeated many of his sayings and interwove them into different connections and discourses. As Jesus proceeded on the way the multitude that followed him increased; however, it is not necessary to infer that the crowds followed him all the way to Jericho and thence to Jerusalem.
26 If any man cometh unto me,-Jesus here shows the cost of being his disciple; the great multitude that enthusiastically followed him at this time thought that the would establish an earthly kingdom, and that they would receive all of its blessings without an change of life. They are to know that they cannot follow Jesus without taking up their own cross, without bearing burdens and suffering persecution: One must hate “his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life” in order to be a disciple of Jesus. “Hateth” does not mean that one must do them evil or hold malice against them; Jesus taught otherwise. (Joh 19:25-27.) “Hate not” frequently means to love less. (Gen 29:31; Deu 13:6; Deu 33:9.) Matthew records Jesus as saying: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mat 10:37.) This shows that “hate”is to be taken in a comparative sense. “To hate” stands for “to love less”; when a choice between relatives or one’s own life and Christ is before us, we must choose to follow Christ; in doing this, we are hating our relatives and loving Christ more.
27 Whosoever doth not bear his own cross,-We are to see here that everything is to be given up for Christ; we must not let anything come between us and Christ. To choose between relatives and Christ is a cross that many must bear; to choose between one’s own life and Christ is a burden placed upon us. Jesus tells whose cross one must bear; it is “his own cross”; all must bear a cross, but not all the same cross; each one must “bear his own cross.” One cannot be a disciples of Christ without taking this cross and following Jesus.
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower,-Jesus had just taught the conditions of discipleship-one must take up his cross and follow Jesus; he now teaches the cost of discipleship. This is illustrated by a man building, or proposing to build a tower. Before doing this a wise, prudent man will “first sit down and count the cost.” The word “tower” may designate a military tower, or one to command a view of the surrounding country, or a watchtower of a mansion, combining adornment with utility. We are not able to determine the kind of tower, for it does not matter; the point is just the same. “First sit down” shows deliberate calculation, it excludes haste and requires ample time and trouble to learn the approximate cost before proceeding. A prudent man will count the cost of building the tower and evaluate all resources and determine whether he has sufficient funds to complete the work.
29, 30 Lest haply, when he hath laid a foundation,-If one does not take sufficient time to estimate his resources as well as the cost of building, one may start the building and be unable to complete it. If he can build only the foundation or any part of it, but unable to complete the building, the unfinished building will stand as a monument to his folly and lack of good judgment and deliberation in the affair. Those who look upon the unfinished building will “begin to mock him.” They will deride and scoff because he had so little judgment to begin that which he could not complete. They will say, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” The imprudent tower builder will be put to shame before his fellows because of his foolish attempt at that which he was unable to do. The enemies of Jesus scoffed at him while he was on the cross. (Mat 27:40-42.) The folly of this man is also seen in the waste of money in laying a foundation upon which he could not complete the building.
31 Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king- The same thought is illustrated more vividly in two kings planning to engage in battle. No king will plan a military campaign without estimating the forces on both sides. He will estimate the number of soldiers that he can command; then he will seek to estimate as far as possible the number of men that he will have to meet; he will seek to find out the strength and weakness of the opposing king. Any other course would be foolish and rash. Like the man planning to build a tower, the king will “sit down first and take counsel” as to whether he will be able to meet his opponent. Again, the term “sit down” means to take deliberate counsel as to the wisdom of taking ten thousand men and arraying them against an opposing king with twenty thousand. It would be very unwise for any king with only ten thousand soldiers to go against one who has twenty thousand; it would be rash folly to do so. Wisdom and prudence would suggest that he not rush blindly against such odds.
32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off,-Good judgment and keen foresight would suggest that he seek some compromise before the enemy engages in battle; it would be too late then. He would not wait until the opposing forces were at his gate, but would make overtures before his enemy discovered his weakness; he would get better terms if he would act before the battle is really joined. While the enemy is afar off, he may meet with his ambassadors on an equal footing with the one who has double his strength.
33 So therefore whosoever he be of you-Here Jesus draws his own conclusion and makes his own application. The one who does not renounce all cannot be a disciple of Jesus. One must “renounce” all; here the principle in the two parables of the rash builder and of the rash king is applied; the minor details do not matter; the spirit of self-sacrifice is the point. One should neither make a false start nor a hopeless stand, but give up all at once for Christ, and give his life to him. The cost is great; one must give his influence, his money, his energy, his life, his all, if he would be a disciple of Jesus.
34, 35 Salt therefore is good:-These two verses seem to have been thrown in without any close connection with what precedes them. Some think that they are intended to emphasize that the disciple of Jesus must keep active in his service. He had already compared them to salt. (Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50.) Jesus shows the uselessness of a false profession and intimates the end of false professors; in this light these two verses further emphasize what he has just taught. Salt is good in its place and for that which it was intended. Salt may lose its savor; it may lose its saltness; it may become insipid and tasteless. There is a true similitude existing between the faithful disciples of Jesus and the properties of salt; hence, Jesus frequently used this likeness to enforce and illustrate the great and important truths that he had just announced.
It is fit neither for the land-When salt has lost its saltness, it has lost its true nature; when it has lost its nature, it cannot function as salt and is unfit for that which people use salt. It is good for nothing and is cast away. Salt that has lost its savor does not make good fertilizer; rather it destroys the fertility of the soil and kills vegetation. There is no place about the house, yard, or garden where it can be used; no one will allow it to be thrown into his field, and the only place for it is in the street, and there it is cast to be trodden under foot of men. “Dunghill” is used here for “manure”; this is its only use in the New Testament; it is used a few times in the Old Testament. Jesus used strong terms to emphasize the worthlessness of a mere professor in his discipleship. He concluded with an oft-repeated saying: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mat 11:15; Mat 13:43; Luk 8:8.)
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

the Cost of Discipleship
Luk 14:25-35
Here we have our Lords use of the winnowing-fan. Amid the teeming crowds He knew that there were many light and superficial souls who had not realized the cost involved in discipleship. Mark the thrice-repeated words-cannot be my disciple.
Our love must be greater than the ties of family affection, Luk 14:26; must be greater than our love for our own way, which must be nailed to the Cross, Luk 14:27; must be greater than our love of possessions and property, Luk 14:33. Christ has done more than any other teacher to cement the relationships of human love, but He always asks that they should be subordinated to the claims of God. Oh, for the love that Paul had! See Php 3:8.
What a comfort it is to realize that God counted the cost before He set about the task of redemption, whether of a world or of us as individuals. He knew all that it would cost, and surely He did not begin what He cannot complete!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Counting The Cost — Luk 14:25-35
And there went great multitudes with Him: and He turned, and said unto them, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear- Luk 14:25-35.
The last verses of this chapter constitute a challenge to everyone of us. They were intended to be such to our Lords listeners when He was here on earth, and they have continued to speak powerfully through all the centuries He has been in the glory. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear! In this entire passage the Lord Jesus is dealing with the responsibility of discipleship. He is not telling how poor, lost sinners may be saved, nor is He speaking of the cost of that salvation. Gods salvation is without money, but we pay bitterly if we do not accept it. Have you counted the cost if your soul should be lost? After having heard the gospel, after listening to the message of Christ, if you turn away from it, expecting some day to accept Him, and you live and die having neglected this great salvation, you will find you have done so at a terrible price. I remember hearing that great man of God, Dr. Walter B. Hinson, a number of years ago, preach on the text: What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Before he discussed the text itself he turned it roundabout and said, Think first of this: what shall it profit a man though he lose the whole world and lose his own soul in the bargain? It is at awful cost that men go out into a lost eternity. Some people seem to think that they are doing God a favor by trusting His Son and following Him; but it is quite the other way. God is offering to you eternal favor in saving you from an endless judgment, and if you refuse His mercy you do so at your own great loss.
In the verses we have read, there is no question raised of salvation but rather of discipleship. Our Lords words here are addressed to those who have already trusted Him, to those who believe Him to be the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel and Saviour of sinners. Those who have put their faith in Him are now called upon to be His disciples. And discipleship costs! We cannot serve our Lord Jesus Christ as we should without tremendous cost to ourselves. So when great multitudes were gathering about Him, He turned and said unto them, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. This is a hard saying, but we need to remember that sometimes the Lord uses very strong expressions in a different way from that in which we use them. For instance, in the Old Testament, in the book of Malachi, we find the words, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Now God did not really hate anyone in the sense we use the word sometimes. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So we may be sure that God loved the children of Esau just as He loved the children of Jacob; but when He said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated, He was referring to special privileges here on earth. God had given certain privileges to the children of Jacob which had been denied the children of Esau. He had given the people of Israel a holy Law and a special care that were not given to any other nation, and He gave them teachers such as no other people had ever had; He gave them a land flowing with milk and honey, and made them the people of His own peculiar concern. The children of Esau dwelt in the wilderness, a dry, barren and thirsty land. They had very few privileges such as the people of Israel enjoyed. But this does not mean that God was not interested in the children of Esau. We may be sure His grace went out to every individual Edomite who repented of his sin and idolatry. So here our Lord says, If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. This does not mean that we are to have ill will toward our loved ones; it does not mean that we are to bear malice toward them. But our consideration for Christ, our love for Him who died for us is to be so great that, in comparison to our interest in our dearest on earth, if they oppose what is right, our attitude will seem almost as hatred. I have seen very definite examples of this. I remember a dear, young Jewish girl who came to the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved. When she was to be baptized her Jewish mother, who loved her tenderly, said in a paroxysm of anger, Oh, my daughter, do you hate your mother so much that you would go down to that church and be baptized? The daughter insisted that she loved her mother, but that she loved Christ more. Her mother said, You do not love me, or you would never be baptized. You hate me; that is why you are being baptized. The daughter knew that faithfulness demanded that she turn away from her dear mother as though she hated her, although it was almost more than she could endure. This illustrates what our Lord meant. Nothing must come between you and faithfulness to Christ; you must be true to Him whatever it means. So discipleship does cost. Many people have had to leave their homes for Christs sake, and their names have been cast down as evil, because they loved Him supremely. Many of us belong to Christian families and have been brought up in homes where loved ones were interested in our salvation; nevertheless, the challenge comes to us just the same. If anyone, no matter how dear, would come between Christ and us we are to hate that person in comparison with our love for Him.
Yea, and his own life also. Elsewhere we read, He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. There are many people who have to give up splendid prospects on earth in order to put Christs interests first. He who refuses to do this will lose his life, while the one who counts all things as dross for Christs sake will keep it unto life eternal. Many young men and women are facing this question. Is Christ to have the preeminent place in your heart? Are you so yielded to Him that you are prepared to let Him have His way in your life? You know Christ and you have the message the world needs. Will you give up worldly interests and go forth at His call to proclaim the gospel to those who are sitting in darkness? Do you think of your pleasant prospects and how well you are getting on in the world, and are you so intent on making money that you have turned away from the call of God? I know everyone is not called to relinquish all secular employment in order to give-full time to Christian service, but it means much to be yielded to God for whatever plan He has for you. How terrible it is in the end for one, for instance, who has been called to be a missionary, but who remains at home, and as the years go on he perhaps makes a good home and accumulates a comfortable fortune, but misses entirely the path the Lord had for him. How blessed the reward in that day for one who renounces all this and goes out in faith, trusting the Lord, to a distant land, among people who are often very disagreeable, but who need someone to tell them of Jesus. Those who, for Christs sake and the gospels sake, have hated their own lives, what a reward will be theirs at the judgment-seat of Christ!
There is something here for everyone of us to consider thoughtfully. The Lord adds, Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. Just what does whosoever mean? The Scottish laddies answer is a true one: You, me, or any ither body. It is not a question of bearing Christs cross. You and I cannot bear His cross, though we may glory in it. The apostle Paul said, But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. My substitute died in my stead. His death is my death, and I am dead to all to which He died as a Man. I am one with Him whom the world has rejected. That is what it means to enter into the truth of His cross. Here the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of the disciple carrying his own cross. If you had been in Palestine and seen a man going along a road carrying a cross, you would have known that he was going out to die. Our blessed Lord went forth bearing His cross to Calvary. During the centuries of Roman dominion those who died upon the cross were under the ban of the Government, and everyone was expected to carry his own cross to the place of execution. So what the Lord Jesus meant when He said, Whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple, was that, unless one is willing to go even to death for Christs sake, he is not a true disciple. I repeat: it is not a question of salvation; it is a question of devotion to Christ in discipleship. The path of dis-cipleship may lead to death, and of course this is not something to enter into thoughtlessly and carelessly. Many people fail to realize the seriousness of this matter of discipleship. It is not for one emotionally aroused to say, I am ready to be a missionary or a preacher. One needs to weigh the question thoughtfully and seriously to realize the truth of the oft-repeated verse:
Only one life, twill soon be past;
Only whats done for Christ will last.
What shall I do with this life? Shall I live for myself, or shall I live for Christ? Count the cost! The Lord Jesus used the illustration of the builder and the tower, For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. We have heard of men attempting to build a great mansion or tower without counting the cost. They have started the building and have found themselves financially embarrassed, and so they could not continue. Such buildings have been pointed out to me-unfinished structures-because) someone started to build and could not finish. So when you are called to devote your lives to God it is well to count the cost, and ask yourselves the question, am I ready to face all that is involved in discipleship and loyalty to my Lord Jesus Christ?
The second illustration is somewhat similar: Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. Those who began the Second World War, those who were responsible for it, felt that the democratic nations were decayed, that they would never be able to rise up against the Fascist powers, and that before these nations could even begin a defence the Fascist powers would have dominion of the world. So they started a conflict which they were not able to bring to a successful conclusion. In the great spiritual warfare with the evil hosts in heavenly places, how you and I need to consider whether we are ready to yield ourselves wholly to the control of our blessed Lord through the Holy Spirit, that we may be able to fight the good fight of faith. The apostle Paul was one who counted the cost. He faced everything; and having looked all the gains and losses in the face, he said, But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. God grant that we may be motivated by the same spirit of devotion! So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple. Do not misunderstand that. It does not mean that if you have a home you are to give it away; it does not mean that if God has intrusted you with wealth you have to toss it to the wind; it does not mean that if you have friends you must spurn them: but it does mean that you must hold everything you have as -subject to God Himself. David Livingstone expressed it, I think, when he wrote in his diary, I am determined not to look upon anything that I possess except as in relation to the kingdom of God. That is what it means to hold everything for Him.
There is a solemn warning in the last two verses. They suggest the possibility of a disciple, who was at one time a bright witness for the Lord, becoming useless and worthless to God and to man in so far as being a testimony to the world is concerned. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Salt is good. It preserves from corruption, and the people of God in this world are the preserving salt. Jesus said, Ye are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its savour it is no good. Salt, when exposed to certain chemical influences, loses its saltiness, and it is worthless. It does not fulfil the purpose for which it was intended. It is possible for the Christian to become so careless and so contaminated by the principles of the world that he fails to fulfil the purpose for which God made him.
If Gods only thought were to save our souls for heaven He could have taken us away five minutes after our conversion. I can never be any more fit for heaven than I was five minutes after I was saved. The dying robber on the cross was railing against our Lord, until suddenly he discerned the Person of the Son of God in that One on the central cross, and his heart went out to Him in repentance, and he confessed Him as the sinless One. He prayed, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. Jesus said, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. We might have gone home the moment He saved us if that were His only purpose; but He has saved us that we may serve Him here, that we may witness for Him, and be His disciples. Oh, God grant that we may never become salt that has lost its savour!
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear! Have you counted the cost? Jesus did, and He endured the cross of shame. Shall we shrink from the privileges extended to us? Are we more concerned about our prospects here below than we are about hearing the Well done, thou good and faithful servant from His lips when we stand at the judgment-seat of Christ?
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Chapter 11
The One Issue Between God And Man
Everywhere I go in the United States and abroad I meet with men and women who see the withered, lifeless condition of the church. They know that something is wrong, both with themselves and with the church. And they are looking for something. They know that something is missing in their own religious experience and in the church, but do not know what it is. The fact is they have never been confronted with the one issue between God and man. The preachers they hear and the churches they attend do not even know what that one issue is. Do you?
The issue between you and God is not what you do or do not do. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that it does not matter how you live. It matters a great deal. God has told us how to live in this world. And we are responsible to obey him. But I am saying the issue between you and God is not what you do. There are a great many people in hell today who lived much better lives than either you or me. The rich young ruler and the Pharisees stand as indisputable examples of that fact (Mat 5:20).
The issue between you and God is not what you have felt, experienced, and done in the spiritual realm. We hear much talk these days about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, miracles, and emotionalism as evidences of Gods blessings and the absence of these things as an evidence of his disapproval and wrath. But that is not the case at all. In the Day of Judgment many will be damned who felt more, experienced more, and did more in what we call the spiritual realm than you or me (Mat 7:22-23).
And the issue between you and God is not what, or how much you know and believe about the Person and work of Christ. Again, let me be understood. Doctrinal truth, gospel knowledge is vital. You must know and believe the doctrine of the gospel. But accurate, factual, orthodox knowledge is not salvation. A person can believe the truth about Christ and not be saved. A man can believe the doctrine of the gospel and yet be lost. Judas Iscariot, Demas, and Diotrephes stand as glaring beacons to warn us of the fact that the issue between God and man is not what you believe.
The Lordship Of Christ
The issue between God and man is the Lordship of Christ. The issue between God and man is, who is going to be boss? Who is going to rule? Christ or you? Rolfe Barnard told a story about a young preacher he met who started a church with nine families. In a short while the congregation grew in number and caused the city where they lived to sit up and take notice. That church, Barnard said, was A fellowship of men and women who lived in the power of the resurrection life of the risen Lord. When Barnard asked him the secret to his ministry, the young preacher said, Bro. Barnard, there isnt but one message to be preached, and that is Gods eternal purpose in Jesus Christ, that on the basis of his life laid down God has purposed to set up his totalitarian rule in the hearts of men.
What a message! If it ever penetrates our hearts, the people around us will sit up and take notice. God Almighty has made Christ Lord of all things (Joh 17:2; Rom 14:9; Heb 10:10-14; Php 2:5-11); and he is determined to put all things under his feet, in particular to bring you and me to bow to the rule of his Son.
The one issue between God and man is the absolute Lordship of Christ. It always has been and always will be. The issue is not whether you want to go to heaven or to hell when you die. Everybody wants to go to heaven. The issue is not do you want to have peace, or do you want to live in turmoil. Everybody wants to live in peace. The issue between you and God is his Son. Will you, or will you not bow to the claims of Christ, your sovereign Lord? Everyone is going to bow, either willingly or unwillingly, either now or at the judgment seat. If you willingly bow to Christ now, that is salvation. But bow you will to Jesus Christ the Lord. God has purposed it. And God will do it. Even if he sends you to hell, God is going to put you in subjection to his Son (Isa 9:6-7; Psa 110:1). This has always been the issue.
In The Garden
This was the issue in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:15-17). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whatever it was, was the symbol of Gods dominion, his rule, his authority. When Adam ate of the fruit of that tree, he was saying, God has no right to be God. I will not have him to rule over me, even if I suffer his wrath forever. Remember, Adam was not deceived (1Ti 2:14). He knew exactly what he was doing in his rebellion; and you do too.
Your problem is not that you are ignorant, or deceived. You know your depravity, your guilt, your sinfulness. You know who God is and what God requires (righteousness and satisfaction). And you know what Christ has done for sinners. Your problem is that you will not have Christ to reign over you.
At Calvary
This was the issue at Calvary. That mob of rebels did not crucify the Lord of Glory because they did not believe his words, but because they would not submit to his rule on his terms. They wanted to take Jesus and make him king on their terms, a king whom they controlled (Joh 6:14-15). But they would not bow to his dominion and be ruled by him. They said, We will not have this man to reign over us (Luk 19:14).
Today
This is still the issue today. This is the issue with men, with preachers, and in churches. Does God have the right to be God and does he exercise that right? Does God have the right to sit on his throne and do whatsoever he will? The Bible says he does. Does God exercise that right? The Bible says he does (Psa 115:3; Psa 135:6).
God Almighty will not abdicate his throne. He will not step down. He will not quit announcing his commands, pressing his claims and meddling with our lives. God demands that we surrender, that we give ourselves up to the rule of Christ his Son. Saving faith is nothing less than surrender to Christ the Lord. If I would be saved, I must lose my life to Christ (Mar 8:34-35): not my heart, not my soul, not my mind, not one day in seven, not a tithe, not a little time each morning and evening, but my life! Christ will not have me unless he has all of me. And he will not have you unless he has all of you (Luk 14:33).
C. H. Spurgeon said, No man has truly given himself to Christ unless he has said, My Lord, I give Thee this day my body, my soul, my powers, my talents, my goods, my house, my children, and all that I have. Henceforth, I hold them at Thy will, as a steward under Thee. Thine they are. As for me, I have nothing. I have surrendered all to Thee!
If we want to understand the mess we are in now, we have to understand how we got in this mess. It all began in the Garden of Eden. When Adam, with his eyes fully open, ate the forbidden fruit, two things happened. First, Gods throne was threatened by his creature. If Adam had won, had he gotten his way, God would have been out of business. God would have ceased to rule the world. And if the sons of Adam had their way today, God would cease to rule. But that cannot be. God will never give up his dominion.
Second, man lost his wholeness. The scriptures speak of the natural man. That is man in his fallen condition. The natural man is out of kilter. He is depraved, beside himself. He must be brought to himself, or he will never be reconciled to God. As the insane prodigal had to return to the rule of his fathers house before he could enjoy the peace of his fathers house, so we must return to the rule of God, we must bow to the dominion of Christ, before we can be made whole. The throne rights of King Jesus have to be settled and acknowledged in our hearts.
Barnard said, Mans wholeness was lost in Eden. Man was made to be governed. And theres never been any government placed on anybodys shoulders, except Jesus Christs! The government shall be upon his shoulder. (Isa 9:6). This whole outfit has been turned over to him. Nobody now has the right to make the decisions except Christ. If ever we come to know Christ the Lord, we will surrender everything to his dominion.
Christ Must Reign
One of these days God is going to accomplish his purpose. It is written of the Lord Jesus, He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet (1Co 15:25). Sooner or later, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Php 2:8-11). That is the Fathers decree (Psalms 110). That is what the Father promised the Son in the covenant (Psa 2:8). That is the reward of our Saviours obedience (Joh 17:1-2; Rom 14:9). That is the end for which all things were made (Revelation 4) and shall be the everlasting delight of his saints (Revelation 5). Therefore, He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet!
The one issue between God and man is the dominion of Christ. Who is going to be boss? Man was made to be governed. An ungoverned man is an incomplete man. The only way man can be made complete is by being ruled. The personality of manhood was designed for something greater than a self-centred animal existence. Man was not made to be alone, to live unto himself, but to be lost in the purpose of God. We were made to serve God! Only in his service can we find perfect freedom. Sin is slavery. Rebellion is bondage. To be free, we must be brought under the yoke and dominion of the Son of God. Salvation is nothing less than the restoration of Gods throne in the heart of man.
Our Threefold Message
If the one issue between God and man is the rule and dominion of Christ as Lord, what must our message to man be? Every gospel preacher is an ambassador of the King of heaven and earth. God has sent each with a message to proclaim to rebels throughout his kingdom. And that message is threefold.
First, God sends his servants to declare that Jesus Christ, his Son, is the Lord and King of the universe (2Co 4:5; Act 2:36-38). The message of the gospel is not a proposal, a plan, or a proposition, but a Person, Jesus Christ the Lord. God has not sent me to define and defend a doctrine, but to proclaim a Person. To preach the gospel is to preach him for whom, through whom, and in whom God has purposed to fulfil all things.
The message which the Apostles preached, by which they turned the world upside down was the Lordship of Christ (Act 2:36). They went everywhere preaching Jesus and the resurrection[4]. The whole creation shall soon be brought in subjection to his throne. God is going to redeem this world. He is going to restore everything to the rule of Christ (Eph 1:10). The gospel is the story of how God has put all his purposes in Christ. It is as broad as Christ and as narrow as Christ. It shuts the door of hope everywhere else, except in Christ. In Christ alone the door is open. He is the Door.
[4] In the Book of Acts the words preach, preaching, and preached are used 37 times. In every place where those words are found the subject preached was Christ the Lord.
The issue of the hour is mans rebellion to Gods throne. And the message of the gospel is Christ Jesus the Lord, the person in whom God has established and will establish his dominion over his creatures. To be saved is to be in agreement with Gods purpose. To be lost is to be in rebellion to Gods purpose. To be reconciled to God is to be reconciled to his revelation, to his righteousness, to his redemption, and to his rule.
Second, the message of the gospel is a word of reconciliation (2Co 5:18-21). To be saved is to be converted to the rule of God in Christ. To be saved is to be reconciled to the rule of God in Christ. Salvation is the free consent of my heart to the sovereign throne of almighty God. Sin is much more than an act. It is a condition, a condition of rebellion against the sovereign rule of Christ. And salvation is much more than an act. It is a condition, a condition of reconciliation to the sovereign dominion of God in Christ. The message of reconciliation is redemption fully accomplished by Christ (2Co 5:18-21). The condition of reconciliation is surrender, unconditional surrender to the rule of Christ. That is what faith is. Faith believes the record God has given of his Son. And faith acts upon that belief. Faith is belief in action. Salvation is conversion to God. It is the life-long pursuit of God, his will, and his glory.
Third, the message of the gospel is a message of Gods rule restored. I know that God rules everywhere and in all things now. He always has and always will. But one of these days, God is going to put down all rebellion and bring everything in captivity to the rule of Christ (Rev 19:1-6).
Two Kinds Of Faith
There are two kinds of faith. There is a faith that centres in me, and what I can get from God. And there is a faith that centres in God and his glory. If my faith is primarily concerned with me, and what I want, then the object of my faith is me. I really worship myself. If my faith is primarily concerned with God and his glory, then God is the Object of my faith. I worship him. Martin Luther once defined salvation as the realization of Gods will and purpose, whatever it might be, rather than the satisfaction of human need. He saw that true faith is not seeking something from God, but bowing to the rule of God. Calvin said, True faith is having confidence in God, regardless of profit or loss. It is the hearts willing affirmation of Gods right to be God. This is the one issue between God and man. That is exactly what our Lord Jesus Christ asserts in Luk 14:26-33.
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
If we would have Christ, we must surrender all to him. Christianity, true Christianity, true saving faith involves a total surrender to Christ the Lord. Either you will be a servant under the dominion of King Jesus, voluntarily giving up all to his claims, or you will go to hell. Our Lord Jesus Christ requires total and unreserved surrender to himself. Christ will be Lord of all, or he will not be Lord at all. Is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, your Lord? Is he truly your Lord?
That is the one issue between God and man.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

Luk 12:1, Joh 6:24-27
Reciprocal: Jos 24:19 – Ye cannot Jdg 7:3 – Whosoever Rth 1:8 – Go Mat 8:1 – great Mat 8:19 – I will Luk 5:15 – great Luk 11:29 – when Joh 1:38 – turned Joh 6:67 – Will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5
The crowds that walked after Jesus did not all have the same motives (Joh 6:26), and that called forth the teaching of several verses following.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

WE learn, firstly, from this passage, that true Christians must be ready, if need be, to give up everything for Christ’s sake. This is a lesson which is taught in very remarkable language. Our Lord says, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
This expression must doubtless be interpreted with some qualification. We must never explain any text of Scripture in such a manner as to make it contradict another. Our Lord did not mean us to understand that it is the duty of Christians to hate their relatives. This would have been to contradict the fifth commandment. He only meant that those who follow Him must love Him with a deeper love even than their nearest and dearest connections, or their own lives.-He did not mean that it is an essential part of Christianity to quarrel with our relatives and friends. But He did mean that if the claims of our relatives and the claims of Christ come into collision, the claims of relatives must give way. We must choose rather to displease those we love most upon earth, than to displease Him who died for us on the cross.
The demand which our Lord makes upon us here is peculiarly stringent and heart-searching. Yet it is a wise and a necessary one. Experience shows, both in the church at home, and in the mission-field abroad, that the greatest foes to a man’s soul are sometimes those of his own house. It sometimes happens that the greatest hindrance in the way of an awakened conscience, is the opposition of relatives and friends. Ungodly fathers cannot bear to see their sons “taking up new views” of religion. Worldly mothers are vexed to see their daughters unwilling to enter into the gaieties of the world. A collision of opinion takes place frequently, as soon as grace enters into a family. And then comes the time when the true Christian must remember the spirit of our Lord’s words in this passage. He must be willing to offend his family, rather than offend Christ.
The line of duty in such cases is doubtless very painful. It is a heavy cross to disagree with those we love, and especially about spiritual things. But if this cross be laid upon us, we must remember that firmness and decision are true kindness. It can never be true love to relatives to do wrong, in order to please them. And, best of all, firmness accompanied by gentleness and consistency, in the long run of life, often brings its own reward. Thousands of Christians will bless God at the last day, that they had relatives and friends who chose to displease them rather than Christ. That very decision was the first thing that made them think seriously, and led finally to the conversion of their souls.
We learn secondly, from this passage, that those who are thinking of following Christ should be warned to “count the cost.” This is a lesson which was intended for the multitudes who followed our Lord without thought and consideration, and was enforced by examples drawn from building and from war. It is a lesson which will be found useful in every age of the church.
It costs something to be a true Christian. Let that never be forgotten. To be a mere nominal Christian, and go to church, is cheap and easy work. But to hear Christ’s voice, and follow Christ, and believe in Christ, and confess Christ, requires much self-denial. It will cost us our sins, and our self-righteousness, and our ease, and our worldliness. All-all must be given up. We must fight an enemy who comes against us with twenty thousand followers. We must build a tower in troublous times. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have us thoroughly understand this. He bids us “count the cost.”
Now, why did our Lord use this language? Did He wish to discourage men from becoming His disciples? Did He mean to make the gate of life appear more narrow than it is? It is not difficult to find an answer to these questions. Our Lord spoke as He did to prevent men following Him lightly and inconsiderately, from mere animal feeling or temporary excitement, who in time of temptation would fall away. He knew that nothing does so much harm to the cause of true religion as backsliding, and that nothing causes so much backsliding as enlisting disciples without letting them know what they take in hand. He had no desire to swell the number of His followers by admitting soldiers who would fail in the hour of need. For this reason He raises a warning voice. He bids all who think of taking service with Him count the cost before they begin.
Well would it be for the Church and the world if the ministers of Christ would always remember their Master’s conduct in this passage. Often,-far too often-people are built up in self-deception, and encouraged to think they are converted when in reality they are not converted at all. Feelings are supposed to be faith. Convictions are supposed to be grace. These things ought not so to be. By all means let us encourage the first beginnings of religion in a soul. But never let us urge people forward without telling them what true Christianity entails. Never let us hide from them the battle and the toil. Let us say to them “come with us”-but let us also say, “count the cost.”
We learn, lastly, from this passage, how miserable is the condition of backsliders and apostates. This is a lesson which is intimately connected with the preceding one. The necessity of “counting the cost” is enforced by a picture of the consequences of neglecting to do so. The man who has once made a profession of religion, but has afterwards gone back from it, is like salt which has “lost its savor.” Such salt is comparatively useless. “It is neither fit for the land, nor fit for the dunghill: but men cast it out.” Yet the state of that salt is a lively emblem of the state of a backslider. No wonder that our Lord said, “He that hath ears to hear let him hear.”
The truth which our Lord brings out in this place is very painful, but very useful and needful to be known. No man, be it remembered, is in so dangerous a state as he who has once known the truth and professed to love it, and has afterwards fallen away from his profession, and gone back to the world. You can tell such a man nothing that he does not know. You can show him no doctrine that he has not heard. He has not sinned in ignorance like many. He has gone away from Christ with his eyes open. He has sinned against a known, and not an unknown God. His case is well nigh desperate. All things are possible with God. Yet it is written, “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened,-if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.” (Heb 6:4-6.)
Let us ponder these things well. The subject is one which is not sufficiently considered. Let us never be afraid of beginning to serve Christ. But let us begin seriously, thoughtfully, and with a due consideration of the step we take. And having once begun, let us pray for grace that we may persevere, and never fall away.
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Notes-
v25.-[Great multitudes…he turned and said, &c.] The conduct of our Lord on this occasion stands out in strong contrast to that of many ministers of the Gospel, in the present day.
The temptation to admit people to full communion, and endorse and approve them as true Christians, before they have given evidence of decided grace, is very strong. The inclination to set before young inquirers the joys and comforts of the Gospel, without any proportionate exhibition of the cross and the fight, requires constant watching against.
The close imitation of our Lord’s conduct in this passage would probably greatly lessen the number of our communicants. But it may be doubted whether we should not gain in quality what we lost in quantity, and whether we should not be freed from many of those disgraceful backslidings, and gross inconsistencies, which so often now-a-days bring discredit on religion.
It may be laid down as a general rule that communicants cheaply admitted are worth little, and that to call people Christians upon lower terms than those which our Lord sets forth, in the long run does more harm than good.
v26.-[Come to me, and hate not.] The expression “hate,” in this verse, must evidently be taken comparatively. The following quotation from Pearce deserves reading.
“Besides the proof from Mat 10:37, that the word ‘hate’ here means ‘love less,’ it may be added, that in Mat 6:24, the word ‘hate’ is used after the same manner. So also when we read in Rom 9:13, ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,’ the meaning is that I have loved Jacob more than Esau. That this is no arbitrary interpretation of the word ‘hate,’ but one agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, appears from what is said in Gen 29:30-31, where Leah being ‘hated,’ is explained by Rachel being loved more than Leah. See also Deu 21:15-17.”
v28.-[To build a tower.] The following note from Doddridge deserves reading.
“The phrase, ‘build a tower,’ naturally suggests to us the idea of a more magnificent edifice, than our Lord’s hearers might probably think of on this occasion. It is plain that towers were frequently run up, probably of slight materials, to lodge those who had the care of keeping vineyards or flocks; and they were built pretty high in proportion to their base, that they might command the larger prospect.”
There is reason in this comment, when we mark our Lord’s words, “which of you.”
v31.-[What king, &c.] Some regard this “king” as an emblem of a believer, and the king coming “with twenty thousand,” as Satan. I am quite unable to see this. Both here and in the preceding three verses, I believe our Lord is only borrowing an illustration from familiar subjects, and that we are not meant to look further.
v33.-[Forsaketh.] The Greek word so rendered is more commonly translated, “bid farewell,” or “take leave.” The meaning evidently is that a man cannot be Christ’s disciple unless he is deliberately prepared to give up everything for his sake, if need be, and to encounter any enemy, and make any sacrifice.
v34.-[Salt have lost its savour.] The following quotation from Maundrell deserves reading. He is describing the valley of salt, in his travels, and he says, “Along, on one side, there is a small precipice, occasioned by the continual taking away of the salt. I broke a piece of it, of which the part exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it had the sparks and particles of salt, had completely lost its savour. The inner part which was connected with the rock, retained its savour.”
Schottgen speaks of a species of salt in Juda, brought from the Dead Sea, and called bituminous salt, which was easily rendered vapid, and of no other use but to “spread in a part of the temple, on the pavement, to prevent slipping in wet weather.”
This striking and solemn saying about the “salt which has lost its savour,” is found on no less than three distinct occasions in the Gospels. (See Mat 5:13, and Mar 9:50.) The spiritual lesson of the passage is fearfully overlooked. The sinfulness of sins against light and knowledge, and the possibility of being given over to a reprobate mind, are points not sufficiently dwelt upon by preachers, or considered by hearers. Men seem to forget that there is such a thing as an unpardonable sin,-and that if salt has once lost its savor, it cannot be seasoned again.
I should not like to be mistaken in saying this. I cannot find in Scripture any clear proof that there is any decreed reprobation. I hold that the destruction of those who are lost is the consequence of their own sins, and not of God’s predestination. I believe that we have no right to say of any sinner, that he is too bad to be saved.
But the general teaching of the New Testament appears to be that nothing is so displeasing to God as the misuse of knowledge, and the wilful turning away from truth once seen and acknowledged, to the service of sin and the world. The Bible teaches, in fact, that no sinner is so unlikely to be saved as the man who after making a high spiritual profession, falls away and returns to the world, and no heart so unlikely to be changed as the heart which once professed to love the Gospel, but afterwards became cold and indifferent to it.
I can certainly testify, after sixteen year’s ministry, that by far the most hopeless and painful deathbeds I have attended have been those of backsliders. I have seen some such persons go out of the world without hope, whose conscience really appeared dead, buried and gone, and on whom every truth and doctrine, and argument appeared alike thrown away. They seemed to have lost the power of feeling, and could only lie still and despair. I fear the true account of such persons’ state of soul was the sentence of our Lord, on which I have now been dwelling.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Luk 14:25. There went, etc. A continued journeying with Him is meant. The multitudes were probably from different places: Those who originally followed Him from Galilee, others from Perea, and various companies on the way to the approaching Passover feast.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our Saviour by these expressions does not condemn natural love and affection, either to our relations, or our own lives, but only regulates and directs it.
Showing that our first and chief love ought to be bestowed upon himself; we may have, and ought to cherish, tender and relenting affections towards our near and dear relations, but then the consideration of Christ’s truth and religion must take place of these; yea, of life itself; and when they stand in competition with these, we are to regard them no more than if they were objects of our hatred.
Learn hence, 1. That no man can be a sincere disciple of Christ, who gives any relation, or outward enjoyment, a preference to Christ in his heart and affections. Christ must be loved above all, or we love him not at all; less love he accounts and calls hatred. That which we can leave for Christ, we hate in comparison of that love which we bear to Christ. It is both impious and impossible to hate father and mother, and ourselves, absolutely: it must then be understood comparatively only; what we love less, we are comparatively said to hate.
Learn,2. That all the disciples of Christ must be ready and willing, whenever called to it, to quit all their temporal interests and enjoyments, even life itself, and submit to any temporal inconvenience, even death itself, all this willingly and cheerfully, rather than disown their relation to Christ, and quit the profession of his holy religion; upon easier terms than these can none of us be the disciples of Jesus.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Luk 14:25-27. And there went great multitudes with him It seems they accompanied him from place to place, with eager desire, doubtless, to have the Messiahs kingdom erected; proposing to themselves all manner of wealth and temporal advantage therein. One day, therefore, as they were on the road with him, he thought fit to show them plainly their mistake: he turned and said, If any man come to me, and hate not, &c. As all the hopes of temporal felicity under his reign, which his disciples entertained, were to be blasted; as he himself was to suffer an ignominious death; and as they were to be exposed unto all manner of persecutions, he declared publicly to the multitude, that, if they proposed to be his disciples, it was absolutely necessary that they should prefer his service to every thing in the world, and by their conduct show that they hated father, and mother, and wife, and children, that is to say, loved the dearest objects of their affections less than him. As in this, so in several other passages of Scripture, the word hatred signifies only an inferior degree of love. Father and mother, and other relations, are particularly mentioned by our Lord, because, as matters then stood, the profession of the gospel was apt to set a man at variance with his nearest relations. Whosoever doth not bear his cross, &c. See on Mat 10:37-38.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

4. A Warning against hasty Professions: Luk 14:25-35.
The journey resumes its course; great crowds follow Jesus. There is consequently an attraction to His side. This appears in the plurals , multitudes, the adjective , and the imperfect of duration , were accompanying Him. This brief introduction, as in similar cases, gives the key to the following discourse, which embraces: 1 st. A warning (Luk 14:26-27); 2 d. Two parables (Luk 14:28-32); 3 d. A conclusion, clothed in a new figure (Luk 14:33-35).
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

XCI.
COST OF DISCIPLESHIP MUST BE COUNTED.
(Probably Pera.)
cLUKE XIV. 25-35.
c25 Now there went with him great multitudes [he had hitherto spent but little time in Pera, and the people were availing themselves of this opportunity to see and hear him]: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man cometh unto me, and hateth 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. [“Hateth,” as used here, is an example of phenomenal speech, or speaking from appearances. In the cases supposed, the person would appear to hate those whom he abandoned for Christ. It is like repent, anger, etc., when spoken of God. To construe the passage literally as enjoining hatred would be contrary to the fifth commandment as re-enacted at Eph 6:1-3, Col 3:20; and also contrary to our Lord’s own example ( Joh 19:25-27). Seeing the number of those adherents which now surrounded him, Jesus made use of this striking statement that he might startle each hearer, and impress upon him the wide difference between a [497] mere outward appearance upon him and a real, disciple-like adhesion to him. The latter requires that we be ready to sacrifice all, even our animal life, in so far as it tends to separate from Christ– Rom 12:11, Act 20:24.] 27 And whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. [Christ must be followed and imitated even to the extremity of suffering. The costliness of discipleship is illustrated in the two brief parables which follow.] 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it? 29 Lest haply, when he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. [Discipleship is character-building, and shame awaits him who attempts to be a Christian and fails to live up to his profession. Unless his tower rises to the heavenly heights to which it aspired, it is but a Babel at last. The parable is not intended to discourage anyone from attempting to be a disciple. It is meant to warn us against attempting so great an undertaking with the frivolity of spirit and want of determination which insure failure.] 31 Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel, whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and asketh conditions of peace. [Is the adversary here God or the devil? As warring against God is no part of discipleship, it might seem that the conflict was with Satan. But the case supposed is that of a man who, after counting the cost, is about to decline taking up his cross–about to rebel against the claims of God. But while in this rebellious state he sees a superior force coming against him. This superior force can not be the devil’s, for Jesus could not counsel any to make peace with him, as the parable advises. The superior force, then, is God’s, and the lesson here is that however [498] fearful the task of being a disciple may be, it is not so dreadful as to fight against God. As soon as the hesitating man takes in his thought, he will immediately take up the cross which he was about to refuse.] 33 So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. [The tower can not be built by him who spends his time or squanders his money on other enterprises, nor can the peace be maintained by one who does not fully renounce his rebellion.] 34 Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35 It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill: men cast it out. [Our Lord twice before used such language. See Heb 6:4-12, Heb 10:26-39.] He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. [See p. 330.]
[FFG 497-499]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

TERMS OF DISCIPLESHIP
Luk 14:25-27. The multitudes were traveling along with Him, and turning He said to them, If any one comes to Me, and hates not his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even his own soul, he is not able to be My disciple. Whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after Me, is not able to be My disciple. Jesus carried His cross to be crucified on it. Paul says that bearing the cross is denying: all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living holy, righteous, and godly in this present world. Hence you see that bearing the cross is forsaking every sin, in thought, word, and deed, and performing every duty, however arduous, irksome, unpleasant, repellent, unpopular, and embarrassing. In the justified experience, you do all this with an inward conflict. Sanctification is necessary to take out the old man, who fights against your efforts to abstain from sin and live a holy life, so that in the sanctified experience you have no cross to bear, as you have already died on it, and the crucified man no longer bears his cross, but the cross bears him. Therefore the true experience of entire sanctification puts you where you rejoice in tribulation; i.e., shout under crosses, losses, persecutions, and triumph over the antagonism of men and devils. How can you hate father, mother, wife, brother, sister, and even your own life? Hate in this connection is a comparative with love, and a Hebraistic expression for love in a less degree. You may be so cold that ice laid on your body feels warm, and is warmer than you are. These expressions, love and hate, are here in juxtaposition and contrast. While you truly and sincerely love the dear inmates of your home and your own life, you must love Jesus so pre- eminently and supremely as to throw into eclipse all other loves, and contrastively give them a negative signification, so that you would unhesitatingly forsake them all, leave home and family, and die for Jesus if such an emergency should supervene. Hence we see that supreme love i.e., perfect love is the condition of successful discipleship. You can be a disciple in the justified state by carrying your cross. But you can not enter heaven with the cross on your shoulder, as there are no crosses there. Jesus was crucified before He ascended to heaven. If you would be His disciple, you must walk in His footprints, as none but the crucified ever go to heaven. Therefore, if you would be a successful disciple, and go up to heaven to live with Jesus, O pilgrim, come to Calvary this moment, and let the Holy Ghost crucify thee on the cross which thou didst take up on leaving all to follow Jesus. It is heavy on thy shoulder, and high time for the exchange. Let the Holy Ghost crucify thee. Then the cross will carry thee, instead of thee carrying the cross. Hence, you see, you can not be a perfect disciple, such as have admission into heaven, without that supreme love which eclipses and contrastively negatives all other loves, preparing you for martyrdom every moment for Jesus sake. Our Savior has left the festival, and is now traveling along the road, with His face toward Jerusalem, still in Perea, east of the Jordan, and about ten days before He laid down His life for a guilty world.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Luk 14:25-35. Discipleship and its Cost.The passage is a reminder that, despite the universality of the Kingdom, the number of its true subjects is small. To the crowd that is following Him Jesus applies a stringent and sifting test. Few after all will reach the Messianic banquet, and only then after much tribulation. The saying of Luk 14:26 f. is in a harder form than Mat 10:37 f., and it is better to think that Mt. has softened it than for us to do so here. Such uncompromising sayings were quite in Jesus manner, and we have to judge them in the light of His whole spirit and teaching. (We may perhaps compare the Blessing of Levi by Moses in Deu 33:9.) Yet we may very well find in Jesus teaching a distinction between simple entrance into the Kingdom and full discipleship with its absolute and complete consecration. The two parabolic questions which follow teach the lesson of Luk 9:62. It is better not to attempt what one cannot thoroughly accomplish; better never begin to be a full disciple than to put down the cross after once you have taken it up. Luk 14:33 is not exactly the conclusion we should have expected; it may be Lk.s way of fitting the parables into the instruction on renunciation. Luk 14:34 f. (Mat 5:13) is here used in connexion with the idea of full discipleship, absolute renunciation. Those who attain this are the salt of the earth; if they fall away from it they are not fit for the Kingdom of God.
Luk 14:31. Some commentators see a reference here to Herod Antipas, whose army had been routed by Aretas of Arabia, whose daughter Herod had divorced when he married Herodias. Cf. p. 654.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

14:25 {5} And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
(5) Even those affections which are in themselves worthy of praise and commendation must be controlled and kept in order, so that godliness may have the upper hand and have preeminence.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

5. The cost of discipleship 14:25-35
Luke had just recorded Jesus’ teaching about God’s gracious invitation to enjoy the messianic banquet in the kingdom. It was free for all who would respond. Jesus taught elsewhere that responding meant believing on Him. Now Luke recorded Jesus’ teaching that though salvation was free, discipleship was costly. This is important balancing revelation. Salvation guarantees heaven, but it also calls for complete commitment to Jesus, not to secure heaven but to express gratitude for heaven.
"The theme of the cost of accompanying Jesus runs like a refrain throughout Lk. (Luk 9:57-62; Luk 18:24-30)." [Note: Marshall, The Gospel . . ., p. 591.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The setting of these parables 14:25-27
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Luke described a setting different from the preceding meal. Jesus was on the road again heading toward Jerusalem. It was evidently the great size of the multitude that accompanied Him that led Him to say what He did.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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