No Contest

by - October 17, 2011

Our family is reading Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman together at dinnertime. We rarely get through a chapter without feeling conviction, seeing some aspect of scripture in a brand new light, or making it through the personal testimonies attached to each chapter without a shed tear or two. Chapter 4 explores the time Jesus turned to a crowd and asked, (v 26) “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
Clearly Jesus isn’t asking anyone to hate. That would obviously contradict his other teachings. We’re even called to love our enemies, let alone those we hold dearest. So what was this all about?
Let me paraphrase how Idleman explains it in the book.  
Pretend there is a race for your affections. At the starting block are Jesus, your mom, your brother, your wife, and your baby chick that you protect with every fiber of your being. You might think you are in good standing with Jesus as long as He wins the race. He is clearly your top priority over all the other lesser (but still priority) relationships you have.
But Jesus is telling the crowd that if there is a race for your affections (and there is), He wants to be the only contender. In other words, every other very important relationship for you is like a hate relationship when compared to your exceeding love for Him.
Jesus should be so esteemed that when Jesus enters the race, every other competitor immediately becomes a spectator.
That’s how Jesus defines his relationship with you. It’s also happens to be what He expects from you. This is the definition of abiding in John 15 we looked at yesterday.




 Take Home: Is your mate competing with others for your affections?

Are you beginning to understand what cleave means? (Hint: It’s a bit more radical than you might have thought at the altar. After all, the altar is a place of sacrifice.)

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2 comments

  1. Good post, Dawn. It's always amazed me how the wedding is mostly always seen as the Bride's day; the poor groom is mentioned in passing, if at all. Like Dave says, all that buildup and when women say it was the best day of my life, you just gotta wonder...

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  2. The definiton of cleave really comes to fruition in our mind when we have things pulling us in opposite directions ...the choice to keep the covenant first with Jesus makes cleaving possible for the other two in the three fold cord. Beautiful bride and groom!

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