Whispers of His Power – AUGUST 23

Luke 14.26:  If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 

If any man come to Me, and hate not…  That is the point that halts us.  We must remember that here we have the Oriental idiom of sharp contrasts, and the word hate is used as the opposite of love.  Our Lord was not claiming that we should have a malicious attitude of heart towards our loved ones, in order to be His disciples.  He was facing the possibility of competition in loyalty with the things that He names.  

He did not name a low thing, an ignoble thing.  He was facing the possibility, which often occurs, of a conflict between that which is beautiful in itself and loyalty to Him.  Nothing is fairer, finer, more beautiful in human life than love of father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers and sisters.  Yet these fair things may, and often do, challenge our loyalty to our Lord.

Thus He was declaring that, if ever an hour strikes when there is a conflict between the call of the highest earthly love and the call of Christ, then there is only one thing to be done.  We must trample across our own hearts and go after Him, without any compromise and any questionings.

oooOOOooo

These words are from ’Whispers of His Power’ a collection of writings that Amy Carmichael wrote for her ‘children’ and others associated with the Dohnavur Fellowship. and are Copyright © The Dohnavur Fellowship 1982

Unless otherwise stated, biblical quotations are from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

The following abbreviations are used to refer to other versions and sources:

BCP:               Book of Common Prayer, the Great Bible of Coverdale

Conybeare:       W. J. Conybeare, The Epistles of Paul (a translation)

Delitzsch:        F. Delitzsch, Notes on Job and the Psalms

Kay:                W. Kay, The Psalms (a translation)

LXX:              The Septuagint

Moffatt:           J. Moffatt, The New Testament: a new translation

Rotherham:      J. B. Rotherham, The Emphasized Bible Revised Version

RV:                 Revised Version

Way:              A. Way, The Letters of St Paul (a translation)

Westcott:         F. Westcott, Notes on the Gospel of St John

Weymouth:      R. F. Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech

Young:            R. Young, A Literal Translation of the Bible

Verses of poetry without quotation marks were written by Amy Carmichael.