Luke 14:25 - Meaning and Application

See how Christ matched his teaching to the people in front of him, and gave each person the right word. To the Pharisees, he preached humility and kindness. Here he speaks to the crowds that followed him closely and seemed eager to be his disciples. He warns them to understand the cost of discipleship before they make that profession.

First, notice how eager the people were to follow Christ, according to (Luke 14:25). Great crowds went with him, many out of love, and more for company, because crowds tend to attract more crowds. It was a mixed crowd, like the group that left Egypt with Israel. We should expect that kind of mixture in the church, so ministers must carefully tell the valuable apart from the worthless.

Second, notice how carefully Christ wanted them to think about their zeal. Those who choose to follow Christ must expect the worst and prepare for it. He assumes they want to be his disciples because they think that will lead to honor in his kingdom. They may have expected him to say, “If anyone comes to me and follows me, he will get wealth and honor in plenty.” But he says the opposite.

They must be ready to give up what is very dear. They must come to him with their hearts already loosened from all earthly comforts, so they can part with them gladly rather than give up their place in Christ. A person cannot be Christ’s disciple unless he is willing to “hate” father, mother, and even his own life, according to (Luke 14:26). This does not mean hating their persons. It means loving Christ more than anyone or anything in this world. If duty to parents conflicts with clear duty to Christ, Christ must come first.

If a person must choose between denying Christ and losing family ties, as many early Christians did, he must choose Christ. Every person loves his own life, but no one can be Christ’s disciple unless he loves Christ more than life itself. He must be ready to bear bitter hardship, even death, rather than dishonor Christ or leave his truth and ways. The joys of spiritual life, and the hope of eternal life, make this hard saying easier to bear.

They must also be ready to carry a heavy burden, according to (Luke 14:27). Whoever does not bear his cross, like a condemned person going out to crucifixion, and come after Christ wherever he leads, cannot be his disciple. In other words, Christ’s service will bring suffering, so it will not suit those who cannot endure it. True disciples may not all die on a cross, but they must all carry a cross in the sense of suffering, shame, and public disgrace.

They must be willing to bear reproach and an ugly name. They must carry the cross in the path of duty, whenever obedience puts it there. When Christ calls them to it, they must look to him for strength and comfort, and keep their hope fixed on the reward he gives.

Christ is fair with us, because he plainly tells us what following him may cost. So we should be fair with ourselves and think carefully before we take on the profession of religion. Joshua made the people consider what they were doing when they promised to serve the Lord, (Joshua 24:19). It is better never to begin than to begin and then stop. So before we begin, we should think about what it means to continue.

This is the wise and proper way to act. We do this in other parts of life, and the cause of Christ can stand careful testing. Satan shows the best side of his path and hides the worst, because his best cannot make up for his worst. Christ’s path can bear a full examination, because what he offers greatly outweighs the cost. Thinking carefully is especially important in times of suffering, because it helps us keep going.

Christ explains this with two pictures. The first teaches that we must count the cost of religion. The second teaches that we must count the danger. When a person begins a profession of faith, he is like someone building a tower or a fine house. He should sit down first and calculate the cost, and he should be sure to count on more than the workers first tell him. He must compare the expense with what he has, or he may be laughed at for starting something he cannot finish.

Everyone who takes up religion is like someone building a tower, not like the tower of Babel, which was built against heaven and left unfinished. This is a tower built in obedience to heaven, and it will have its top stone set in place. Start low, lay the foundation deep, build on the rock, and build carefully. Then aim as high as heaven. Those who mean to build this tower must sit down and count the cost.

Let them think about what it will cost them to put their sins to death, even the sins they love most. It will cost a life of self-denial, careful watchfulness, and steady obedience in holy duties. It may also cost them their good name, their property, their freedom, and everything dear to them in this world, even life itself. And if it should cost us all this, how can that compare with what Christ paid to gain religion’s blessings for us, blessings that come to us without money and without price?

Many who begin to build this tower do not continue or finish it, and that is their foolishness. They lack courage and steady purpose, and they do not have a firm, settled heart, so they never bring their work to completion. It is true that none of us has enough strength in ourselves to finish this tower, but Christ has said, “My grace is enough for you,” and that grace will not fail any of us if we seek it and use it.

Nothing is more shameful than for people who have started well in religion to turn back. Everyone will rightly mock such a person as one who has lost all his effort because he would not persevere. We lose what we have worked for (2 John 1:8), and all we have done and suffered is useless if we turn away (Galatians 3:4).

When we choose to be Christ’s disciples, we are like a man going to war, so we must think about the danger and the difficulties ahead (Luke 14:31, Luke 14:32). A king who declares war on a neighboring prince first considers whether he has enough strength to carry it through, and if he does not, he gives up the plan. The Christian life is a kind of warfare. We have many passages in our path that must be fought over, and we must fight at every step, because our spiritual enemies never stop opposing us.

We should think carefully about whether we can bear the hardness that a good soldier of Jesus Christ must expect, before we enlist under Christ’s banner. We need to ask whether we can face the powers of hell and earth, which come against us in great force. Of the two, it is better to make the best peace we can with the world than to claim we will renounce it and then, when trouble and persecution come because of the word, go back to it. That young man who could not bring himself to part with his possessions for Christ did better to go away from Christ sorrowing than to stay with him while pretending.

This parable can also be used another way. It teaches us to begin being religious quickly rather than cautiously, and it carries the same sense as, “Agree with your adversary quickly” (Matthew 5:25). Those who keep on sinning are making war against God, a most unnatural and unjust war. They rebel against their rightful King, whose rule is perfectly just and good. Even the proudest and boldest sinner is no match for God. The difference in strength is far greater than the one pictured here between ten thousand and twenty thousand.

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is? Certainly not. Who knows the power of his anger? In light of this, it is in our own interest to make peace with him. We do not need to ask for peace terms, because they are already offered to us, and they are fair and very good for us. Let us learn them and be at peace. Do it now, while the other side is still far away, because delay in such a case is very dangerous and makes later appeals harder.

But here the parable is applied to the care we should use when we take on a profession of religion. Solomon says, “With good advice make war” (Proverbs 20:18), because the one who draws the sword throws away the scabbard. In the same way, enter a profession of religion with good thought and seriousness, knowing that unless you forsake all you have, you cannot be Christ’s disciples. That is, you must count on giving up all and agree to it, because all who want to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution and still keep living godly.

He also warns them against falling away and losing the true Christian spirit and character, because that would make them completely useless (Luke 14:34, Luke 14:35). Good Christians are the salt of the earth, and good ministers especially (Matthew 5:13). This salt is good and very useful, because by their teaching and example they season the people around them, keep them from decay, awaken them, and make them more pleasing.

But Christians who turn back, because they will not give up what they have in the world, end up giving up their profession too. Then they become worldly and carnal, and they lose all Christian spirit. They are like salt that has lost its taste, what chemists call the dead remains after everything useful has been taken out. It is the most useless and worthless thing in the world, with no virtue or good quality left in it.

Such salt can never be restored. “With what will it be seasoned?” You cannot salt it again. This shows how hard, and almost impossible, it is to recover an apostate, one who has fallen away (Hebrews 6:4-6). If Christianity will not cure people of worldliness and sensuality, and that remedy has already been tried without success, then their case must be considered hopeless.

It is useless. It is not fit even for manure on the land, and it will not help if it is thrown into the dunghill to rot. Nothing can be gained from it. A religious person whose mind and behavior are spoiled is the most dull and worthless kind of person. If he speaks about the things of God, which he has known something about, he does it so clumsily that no one is helped. It is like a proverb spoken by a fool.

Such a person is cast out, because people want nothing more to do with him. Scandalous professors of religion should be put out of the church, not only because they have lost the honors and privileges of membership, but also because they may infect others by their example. Our Savior ends with a call for everyone to pay attention and take warning: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” What better use could our hearing have than listening to Christ’s word, especially when he warns us about the danger of falling away and the danger we bring on ourselves by falling away?