“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother…” – Luke 14:26, AMP

Can you really consider yourself a disciple of Christ?  Most Christians would be quick to answer, “Yes!”, to this question, but how many of us would be telling the truth?

There is a difference between being a born-again believer and being a disciple. Born-again believers have chosen to accept Christ’s free gift of salvation and, in so doing, have exchanged a life dedicated to sin for a life dedicated to holiness. Disciples have done this AND have chosen to give themselves totally to Christ’s purposes in their lives, exchanging a life of self-actualization for a life of God-actualization. In other words, born-again believers accept Christ’s life of holiness and strive to avoid sin, but they don’t necessarily abandon their own goals in life. Disciples are born-again believers who DO abandon their own goals and strive to do ONLY those things they believe God would have them to do.

For disciples, nothing takes precedence over Christ in their lives. As Christ put it so very clearly in Luke 14:26 (AMP):

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters—[yes] and even his own life also—he cannot be My disciple.

Christ’s statement doesn’t mean that you are unsaved if you regard some relationship or some goal more highly than Christ. If you have met the requirements of salvation, you are saved, period. But, if you are holding onto anything that competes with Christ having complete authority over you, then you do not meet Christ’s own definition of the word “disciple.”

So, can we really consider ourselves disciples of Christ?  Do we meet the qualification laid out by the Master Himself? Most of us cannot truthfully claim the title of “disciple” because we are holding something in our lives in higher esteem than we hold Christ.  Until we place Christ alone on the throne of our lives, then we simply are not Christ’s disciples.

Are you still holding onto something that competes with Christ owning all of you?

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