John MacArthur

When Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517 by posting his Ninety-five Theses on the door at Wittenberg, he affirmed in the fourth thesis that salvation required self-hate. He wrote that “self-hate remains right up to entrance into the kingdom of heaven.” The original Greek word for “deny” means “to refuse to associate with.” The thought is that if you want to be Christ’s disciple, and receive forgiveness and eternal life, you must refuse to associate any longer with the person you are! You are sick of your sinful self and want nothing to do with you anymore. And it may mean not just you, but your family.

In Matthew 10:32, Jesus talked about confessing Him as Lord and Savior: “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” And then in verses 34-36: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against here mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’”

It’s not a friendly invitation; it’s a warning: If you come to Christ, it may make your family worse, not better. It may send a rift into your family, the likes of which you have never experienced before. If you give your life to Jesus Christ, there will be an impassable gulf between you and people who don’t give their lives to Him. In fact as the New Age Hindu mystic Deepak Chopra said to me on CNN Television: “You and I are in two different universes.” I replied that he was exactly right. And that is not just true for strangers but also for family members, creating a severe breach in those most intimate of all relationships.

Verse 37 adds, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” If you’re not willing to pay the price of a permanent split in your family unless your loved ones come to Christ—if you’re not willing to pay the price of greater trauma, greater conflict, greater suffering in your family—then you’re not worthy to be Jesus’ disciple.

- John MacArthur, Hard to Believe, p.6