The Best Lover

Sunday's gospel (end of Luke 9) included the incident where the man who was called to follow Jesus asked if he might first go back and bury his dad. Jesus replied (in what Pastor referred to as one of His "most callous" responses), "Let the dead bury their own dead." During Bible class there was a brief discussion of the fourth commandment ("Honor your father and your mother") and how that doesn't clash with the verse in Luke 9 or the spot a few chapters later where Jesus says we cannot be His disciple unless we hate our father, mother, brother, sister, and even our own life.

Pastor talked about how our focus is entirely on Christ. Our loved ones can easily become idols. That does not mean we are not to love our loved ones. (After all, they wouldn't be our loved ones if we didn't love them. Righto!)

But when we love Christ, when we look to Christ, when we listen to Christ, His love changes hearts. The mercy we receive spills out to those around us. Those who love Christ most will be the ones who love family best. The husband who loves his Jesus more than he loves his wife will be the husband who loves his wife better than he could otherwise have loved her.