It’s one thing for Jesus to say that we need to consider Him as more important than our material possessions – after all, He gave them to all of us. But how can He mean what He says about our family members in today’s passage? Aren’t we supposed to love them no matter what?

Well, in the first place, we need to remember the context – Jesus did indeed come to bring a radically new understanding of God’s plan of salvation to the world. And for the first generation of believers, embracing the claims of Christ often did involve rejection from the people closest to them.

Think about it. At this time, Jewish people had come to believe that they were saved either by following all the rituals of the Old Testament or keeping all the Laws of Moses as the Pharisees explained those laws. Anyone who came from a Jewish family and embraced Christ and His teachings about the grace of God would thus be saying that their family and friends were wrong about everything they believed. That’s not exactly a recipe for peaceful relationships.

First-generation Gentile believers weren’t in any better shape. After all, Gentiles by definition worshipped lots of different gods, and often believed that all these gods were more or less equal in power. But when a Gentile became a Christian, he wasn’t just saying that Jesus was a god. He was saying that Jesus is the only true God, and thus that all the other gods of all his friends and relatives were a bunch of fakes. There’s no way they would want to hear that.

And as our culture continues its decline, these sorts of family conflicts will become both more frequent and more obvious. It is still the case that Christ’s claim to be the only Lord and Savior is offensive to everyone who doesn’t love and trust Him. And it is still the case that the doctrines of grace are offputting to everyone who has chosen to embrace the fiction of legalism, in whatever form it takes.

So, yes, this passage is for first-generation believers of all ages. Muslims who come to faith in Christ, and are thus ostracized from their families today can still resonate with verses 35 and 36. But as younger Americans increasingly turn away from the claims of Christ, the same sort of dynamics will also be seen in reverse, as more and more unbelieving children reject their parents as narrowminded bigots.

But whatever any of our family members think about Jesus, the question for all Christians in all ages is this: will we put our love for them ahead of our love for Christ? Or will we love our family members enough to believe the truth and to tell them the truth and to show them the truth in our lives, no matter how they may react?

Matthew 10:35-39 (ESV)

35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.