SixTo tell a lie… Make it big! Luke who says: If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. .– Luke 14:26At first glance, the Bible appears to encourage hatred of immediate family members. Despite some strange cults, do you know of a church that has a “hate your family” rule? Does the Bible teach the necessity of disloving or separating oneself from one's parents, siblings, children, or spouse in order to be part of the Church? Of course not! Why not? Because we know that hating family members is not the heart of God. We know his character and his love for family. We also know of many other scriptures that contradict such an absurd notion. For example, we are exhorted to provide for our families, especially those in our own household (1 Timothy 5:8). All Jesus is saying in this verse from Luke is don't let your family, or anyone else for that matter, be idols to you. Do not put them before God in your life, because the enemy may use them to trip you up. That's all He says. Your love and devotion to Him must be first and foremost. We never hear of a house of God requiring its members to hate their family. Maybe some crazy cult would do it, but no sane Christian church would promote such a thing. Why not? Because we know that is not the heart of God! Our problem is that the enemy has been able to influence and affect our interpretive filters. Since the fall, Satan has distorted our thinking. Tragically, the enemy has sold us a bunch of lies, and because we believe those lies to be the truth, we read a verse like "women are to be silent in church", and we actually frame it as if that were the case. .. middle of paper ...... I can't teach them and be faithful to the full context of the discussion in 1 Corinthians. Either Paul meant what he said literally and women are not to utter a single sound when the church meets, or he was using hyperbole to confront false teaching. Paul used humor and exaggeration to mock an obviously ridiculous belief. I have actually heard some otherwise brilliant men claim that Paul only meant that women should be submissive to men in the Church. But unfortunately, even today, this verse is frequently used to prevent women from being pastors, teachers, and elders (1 Timothy 2:12). You can't have both! Either women are not to take leadership roles in the Church, or God is the God of loving inclusion, as Paul so beautifully demonstrates in 1 Corinthians 13. We will look at the subject of elders in more detail in the book No. 8 of this series, The nobility. Ruler.