Cost of Discipleship     Luke 14:25-35

This post concerns decisions to follow Jesus and the cost of discipleship.

Cost of Discipleship discusses what Jesus taught about following Him. Earlier, Jesus stressed the importance of accepting discipleship in God’s kingdom. Here, Jesus stresses what discipleship cost.

Jesus used two strong words to talk about discipleship.

1) A disciple must hate both his own relatives and even his own life. Jesus’ concept of hate means love less, as we are taught elsewhere to love our families—see Eph. 5:28 and other passages. Thus, Jesus taught that He must come first before everyone, even self.

2) Jesus uses the verb, cannot, three times to stress loving Him above everything else. The question concerns loving Jesus, but not equal to loving self or having a great love for Him. He demands that He occupy first in our lives, or we cannot become His disciple.

Then, Jesus uses two word pictures to stress evaluating the cost of discipleship. The first example concerns one who sets out to build a tower and cannot complete it, because he did not assess the costs before beginning. Thus, a follower of Jesus should count the costs before beginning to build the life of a disciple.

The second example shows a king who realizes that he cannot win a war using his inferior army and must sue for peace. Likewise, the would-be disciple should first realize what it will cost to complete his life as a disciple of Jesus before he begins.

Note Jesus’ strong admonition: If you are unwilling to give up everything, you cannot be my disciple.

Next, Jesus discusses life after beginning as a disciple. The comparison to salt acknowledges the role of the disciple as an influence for good. However, if salt looses its taste, it becomes useless. In order for salt to lose its taste, it must be changed to something different. Jesus describes how a person can lose their saving ability by changing to be worldly instead of continuing as a saving influence.

Jesus summarized: the person with ears attuned to learning will understand.

So, what did we learn?

1.Jesus must be first in our lives.

2.Disciples must continue to be a saving influence in the world.

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