More than. ( John 21 v 15 )

Becoming a Christian brings with it real challenges, when people came to Jesus,he would tell them to count the cost, in Luke 14 v 25 -34 Jesus tells the crowd.That if they  are going to follow Him ,they must hate their nearest and dearest,immediately we may be stunned at such a statement, hate, surely not?.What on earth did He mean? it is W. Hendriksen who tells us,''The word hate has the same meaning- to love less- in Gen.29 v 31  ,'Jehovah saw that Leah was hated,v 30, clarifies this by reading, ''Jacob....loved  Leah less than Rachel ( They were both his wives) Jacob had a favourite son Joseph, he loved him more than any of his other sons.( Gen 37 v 3 ) In Matthew 10 v 37 ,our dear Saviour said  ,''He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me''. We see this illustrated in Gen 22 when Abraham is commanded to take his only son, whom he loved and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering.God was testing Abraham,  what was that test? would he reverence God more than his son,he passed the test, he was restrained at the last minute from actually slaying Isaac.Jesus says to all, if you want to follow me then you must love me more than anyone else, or anything else.Yes there is a cost in following Jesus ,are we willing  to pay the cost?