Luke 14:25-33
Chapter 14
“If you come to me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters and indeed yourself, you cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not follow me, carrying his own cross, cannot be my disciple.
Do you start building a house without first sitting down to count the cost to see if you have enough to finish it?
Otherwise, if you’ve laid the foundation and can’t complete it, everyone will laugh at you:
‘This fellow started to build and was not able to finish.’
And when a king wages war against another king, does he not first sit down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent?
And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers to arrange peace negotiations.
In the same way, none of you may become my disciple if he does not give up everything he has.
Commentaries
Requirements for Being a Disciple.
Jesus outlines some requirements for those who want to follow him, challenging the security offered by family and material possessions. The disciple must create a new society based on fraternity and solidarity, where structures, including the family, serve the kingdom. Economic security should also be viewed as relative, since the balance between personal and spiritual needs is achieved through working with others in building the new society that the kingdom requires.