Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Luke 14:25 - 14:25
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Ver. 25-27. We met with much the same Mat_10:37,38. The sum of the words is, That no man can be a true disciple of Christ, that giveth any friend, or any thing, a preference to Christ in the affections of his heart. Christ must be loved above all. It appeareth that the words must not be interpreted rigidly, for then they would oblige us to a thing,
1. Impossible in nature: for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, Eph_5:29. Yet life is one of the things mentioned which we ought to hate.
2. It is morally impossible: for the law of God commands us to honour our father and mother.
For the nonobservance of, or teaching contrary to, which law, teaching the people to say, Corban, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, Christ so severely reflected on the Pharisees. Himself therefore doth not here teach others to hate their fathers or mothers, taking hatred in a strict and absolute sense:
If any man hate not signifieth here no more than, If any man doth love his father, wife, children, brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life, more than me,
he cannot be my disciple. Nor is this any sense put upon the term hate, different from what must be the sense of it in other scriptures: Gen_29:31,
When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, that is, less loved, as is expressed, Luk_14:30; so it must be interpreted in Luk_14:33. It also signified less loved, Deu_21:15,17 Mt 6:24 Joh_12:25. We met with the substance of what is here, Luk_14:27, in Mat_10:38, and Mar_8:34. See Poole on "Mat_10:38". See Poole on "Mar_8:34".