A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them,  “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 

Luke 14:25-27

Jesus continued his challenge to those who would want to be His disciples from the ninth chapter of Luke to this passage.

Once again, he challenged the norms of the day. Like most of us, we cherish our families. We’ve learned to honor our parents and we love our children, but for many, loving our family can become an idol of sorts if it hampers our relationship with Christ.

Families are God’s idea from the creation of Adam and Eve and throughout Scripture, we read of how we are to care for and love our families, so Jesus is not dismissing the family, but using hyperbole to demonstrate that He is to be preeminent in all things and only when He is first in our lives can the other loves be ordered rightly.