{"id":2646,"date":"2017-05-25T14:40:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T18:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2017-09-08T10:00:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T14:00:16","slug":"jesus-and-family-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=2646","title":{"rendered":"Jesus and Family Responsibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">T<strong>he Bible has harsh things to say about those who put family before Jesus \u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matt. 10:37)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTo another he said, \u2018Follow me.\u2019 But he said, \u2018Lord, let me first go and bury my father.\u2019 And Jesus said to him, \u2018Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.\u2019 Yet another said, \u2018I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.\u2019 Jesus said to him, \u2018No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.\u2019\u201d (Luke 9:59-62)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIf 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.\u201d (Luke 14:26)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The Bible has harsh things to say about those who put Jesus before family \u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cAnd he said to them, \u2018You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, \u201cHonor your father and your mother\u201d; and, \u201cWhoever reviles father or mother must surely die.\u201d But you say, \u201cIf a man tells his father or his mother, \u2018Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban\u2019\u201d (that is, given to God)&#8211; then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.\u2019\u201d (Mark 7:9-13)<\/span><\/li>\n<li>\u201cBut if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.\u201d (1 Timothy 5:8)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/elderly.parents.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2648\" src=\"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/elderly.parents-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/elderly.parents-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/elderly.parents-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/elderly.parents-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/elderly.parents-676x451.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So how are we to understand what Jesus wants with regard to our commitments to both Him and to the families He has given us? Here is what I\u2019ve concluded \u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">If my commitment to my family keeps me from fulfilling a Scripturally-defined commitment to Jesus, my commitment to my family is inappropriate and must yield to my commitment to obey Jesus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">If my commitment to Jesus keeps me from fulfilling a Scripturally-defined commitment to my family, my commitment to Jesus is fundamentally wrong-headed and must yield to the commandments of God to care for my family.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>So I need to ask myself some questions, prayerfully before God and honestly assessing my family\u2019s needs \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Am I using love for or loyalty to my family to avoid obeying clear commands of God?<\/li>\n<li>Am I using commands of God to dismiss what may be costly service in the care of my family?<\/li>\n<li>How can my love for and fidelity to Jesus fuel an increasingly righteous, faithful, genuine, and sacrificial love for the family members He has surrounded me with?<\/li>\n<li>If I am growing in my love for Jesus, how ought that find expression in my relationship to my family?<\/li>\n<li>If I love my family as they desire me to, how will that affect my relationship to Jesus?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bible has harsh things to say about those who put family before Jesus \u2026 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matt. 10:37) \u201cTo another he said, \u2018Follow me.\u2019 But he said, \u2018Lord, let [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[85,21,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-miscellaneous","category-parenting","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-GG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2704,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}