Loss of Life

"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."

Luke 14:26

I have heard this verse interpreted and applied in so many different ways. Some people claim that this verse is just a figure of speech that denotes an appraisal of ultimate love, and yet others have taken it to mean that if "God" calls you can abandon your family. But where does the true interpretation and application lay.

I think we find insight into this verse when we look at it through the lens of John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

One verse says if you do not abandon everything you cannot follow me, and another says it is by your love for each other that people will know that you follow me. Are they contradicting statements made by Jesus? Of course not, I believe that it is conveying this utterly selfless devotion to God, and within the context of this devotion one will experience a love for others that is divine.

Matthew 16:25 "25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." This verse offers us more insight into the passage above. We find a complete eternal life in Christ only after we willing lay down our current lives.

We love our families, but would you serve God if they were taken from you? Most of us love the people, places, and things that our lives are composed of, but would you still follow Christ if all of that was gone. If we come to a place where we know that no matter what we will still follow God, life becomes more abundant at that point. But like Peter, who was so sure that he would never abandon his Jesus, we will never know until we are sifted. All we can do prior to that is live every moment of our lives in unconditional surrender.

In my life I can point out many times when sifted I have failed to show complete devotion to Jesus. But each time I fail it gives me another opportunity to wholly surrender my life to God. It gives me another chance to take my life and lay it down at the foot of the cross. It gives me another chance to become a living sacrifice.

Each of us are on a journey in life, through all the twists and turns I pray that we find ourselves on the narrow path that has us traveling with our God. I pray that each of us can find that place where we know that no matter what our lives belong to Jesus, and in that place I pray that you come to experience life to its fullest.