In the Gospels, Jesus presents us with marks or qualities of His disciples. Now it would be easy to look over these marks and allow ourselves to be motivated by guilt. We could merely declare that if we really loved Jesus, we would do such and such. I would argue that motivation from guilt will quench one’s spirit. Alternatively, I believe these marks represent the life-result of God showering a believer with His grace. In short, the marks give us a picture of what living out and enjoying God’s grace looks like. One mark of such a God-given grace-filled life of a disciple is insisting on loving Christ above all else.
We find these words of Christ in Luke’s gospel:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
Jesus said His disciple will love God more than anything else. Another way of putting this is that our family must not rival God as our first love.
Jesus uses strong language, recorded here in Luke, to make this point. Some have called this a hard saying of Jesus. The word “hate,” used in this verse, denotes a less degree of love. Jesus did not mean that disciple’s of His actually have to loathe their own family. Jesus is merely using strong language to help His hearers to understand the priority they need to place on their relationship with God. Compared to God, all other relationships must be valued much less.
Believers love God to some degree but struggle with loving Him above else at every moment of every day. Although in Christ, His disciple has been freed from the power of sin, this side of paradise, we still must deal with the negative influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil. In short, the negative influences of our culture, our old self, and the enemy fight to remove Christ as our first love. However, our Lord has exchanged our sinfulness for His righteousness on the cross, making us new creations. Thus Paul declares: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). How the truth of this verse enables us to love Christ righty is quite remarkable. We are able to love Him above all else as well as love as He loves because we are now in Him. As we grow in our faith, we grow in our ability to more completely love Him. Therefore, a believer’s path to succeeding to love Christ above all else begins by trusting fully in God’s promise to cover our sinfulness with His righteous life (see: 1 John 4:10) and empowered by the Spirit intentionally growing in our relationship with Him.
At the core of insisting on loving Christ above all else is a matter of priorities. Loving Christ above all else is not merely putting Him at the top of a priority list, but placing Him at the center of our very life. When Christ is central, He is given the freedom to lead and direct how we engage in every relationship and situation in our lives in a way that reflects our love for Him.
Jesus perfectly put God first in His life. His life was characterized by total submission to the Father’s will. Christ was perfect. He had every gift and talent. He had the ability to succeed at whatever He decided to pursue. But there was only one pursuit He considered worthy, and that was to love the Father and bring Him glory in all things.
A believer’s life ought to reflect that of Christ being characterized by an ongoing pursuit of loving and bringing glory to God. This is what it means to love God above all else. We may not do this perfectly, but we can have a perfect intent and a quick response when we stray from this course. The flourishing life God has planned for us rests in recognizing that all we need is found in Him and all we are is due Him. He is to be our all and all. Placing God at the center of our life makes loving Him our absolute highest priority and privilege. After all, when we put Christ first God is glorified, we are blessed, and others are blessed through us. Such a life is how a believer washed over by the grace and transforming power of God lives.
It is a privilege to do life with each of you. Let’s continue to grow in Christ, encouraging one another to love Him above all else. Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone)!