Did the Lord Jesus Teach His Followers to Turn Against Their Parents?
Another of the lowest accusations by this world is that Jesus taught His followers to disrespect their parents and thus He sinned. The following verses are being used to try and show Jesus taught such a terrible act:
Matthew 10:35-37 - For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 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.
Luke 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.
Okay, so it says that the Lord Jesus said that no man should never love their father, mother, daughter or son more than Him. What does that mean? Looking at how the ten commandments get arranged we get:
- No other gods beside Me
- No graven images for worship
- Take not God's name in vain
- Keep the Sabbath holy
- Honor your parents
- Do not murder
- Do not steal
- Do not commit adultery
- Do not lie
- Do not covet
First, it's important to realize that God comes FIRST above parents in God's ten commandments. As much as God commanded people to honor their parents, sadly many parents DO NOT honor the LORD God. Also, when an unbelieving child becomes a Christian, it's only natural that the parents will dislike what the child did and consider it to be a great act of dishonor against them. For that cause, a child can be antagonized by their own parents and being disowned all because of their Christianity. However if the Lord Jesus taught disrespect to parents to His followers, He would have not taught the virtue of loving your enemies (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:35). Instead, He would have taught them to pray for their parents even if they got disowned for their faith.
Also, what does "hate" really mean? Again, this "hate" here refers to "to choose over" meaning to love Christ above parents. Then again, if a Christian loves Christ, they ought to love their parents but Jesus comes first. That is, loving them ENOUGH to tell them about Jesus and not to hate them if they get persecuted. That is here would be the following scenario like having a druglord for parents. Of course, no Christian is to EVER help in any illegal activities. He/she has to refuse the criminal parent, turn that parent over if need be but NEVER to disown the parent or to hate that parent in the sense, grudgingly.