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Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Of course this is actually not really completely possible. None of us are perfect. Only Jesus himself lived a perfect life without sin. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot not strive to be. Christ ultimately came to save us by living a perfect life and dying an undeserved death on the cross, but he also came to teach. His teaching in parables gave examples of how we should act in certain situations in order to be perfect. We will not be able to be this way in every situation, but we can succeed in some. We will always fail ultimately. This is the reason that Christ died for us, but it is still important to continuously try. His life reflected his teaching which is the example he set for us to follow.

Luke 14:26 says: 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.

Jesus repeated several times in the bible in various ways. Matthew 10:37, John 12:25, Revelation 12:11. So what does this actually mean? Do you really have to hate your mother and father, wife, husband, children, and other loved ones in order to follow God? Of course it doesn’t. Love comes naturally for those people in your life. You usually don’t even have to work for it. As a disciple of Jesus, all that much more to love those people, and even extend that love to perfect strangers, and even your enemies! So what this verse is actually saying is that in order to be a true follower of our savior, our love for him when compared to our earthly love for our parents, spouse, or children should be the equivalent of a comparison of earthly love to earthly hate. In other words, our love should be on a higher scale. A Godly scale, not an earthly scale.

There are consequences when God’s people put other loved ones ahead of him. God sometimes even removes those people from your life in order for you to focus your love back onto him and give him first dibs for your heart. However, God only works for the good of those who love him, and of course, for those who do put him first, he will bless. And those loved ones whom he has removed will either be re-established, or replaced with someone even better!

God’s love for us really is beyond our comprehension. Love is powerful. Even earthly love is a powerful thing. It can make us do things that we don’t normally do. It is an emotion that can overcome boundaries and bring the unlikeliest of people together. It can change lives and hearts! God’s love is all of that and so much more. It is so far beyond anything our minds could ever really understand. It is so great and powerful, just trying to imagine how much he loves us is mind boggling, yet awe inspiring!