Counting The Cost

‘If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother…’ St. Lu 14:26
The Bible is all things to all men. Many sects with their strange practices and exclusiveness owe their being to some verses scattered here and there in it. These sects or cults have a form of godliness but for any one seeking spiritual nourishment and an all round growth, a system that is built on superfluities than God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as the core value, shall come indeed short of His Will. A tree planted by the river of water is of a different league than a seed swept along the current willy-nilly by some isolated verses. (Ps 1:3)
Did Jesus literally want Peter, Andrew, John and others to hate their kith and kin or families in order to be considered his disciples? If this were truly as intended why did Jesus assign to Peter the building of the Church he had in mind? (Mt 16:18)
We read from the gospels that Peter was married (Mk1:30) and his wife traveled with him in his later ministry(1 Co 9:5). It seems to me that the significance of the key verse cannot be taken in a literal sense. Perhaps the key to the problem of deciphering this hard saying is not in hate but in the verses that follow. Our Christian growth is gradual and we need to take stock of what our abilities are and whom we have put our trust in. We have been called to glory through Jesus Christ. Then it is not works but Grace ( 1 Pe 5:10) that we bank on.
Who will wait to set up a home till one is hundred percent mature? Is it not more of a challenge that each partner hopes to be made mature from marriage than out of it? Maturity comes from a spirit of accommodation, love and shared responsibilities etc., that marriage enjoins on each partner. We are more likely to cast ourselves into the business of living with all that is at our command and leave the rest on Him to supply our shortfall.
Christianity in practice has always been the enterprise of the imperfect to work its way up on the wings of faith and grace. What a Christian could supply in that pursuit unto excellence has been faith,- and of course to keep flying. The matter of the other pinion, that of grace, would be the testimony of all believers, without any exception.
benny