So we have just heard how many people refuse the invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven, then that there is lots of room and God makes strenuous efforts to get as many people into heaven as possible. Now we come to another warning. We tend to ask "will everyone get saved", "will lots get saved", "will just a few get saved". The questions we should ask are (i) are we saved; and if the answer is yes, (ii) how are we living our lives.
Some may have taken Jesus' earlier words to mean that anyone can get in, and that it is easy to get in. This is not true. It is all God's work, but it is not easy. We need to "hate" our nearest and dearest and even our own lives. Now "hate" here is being used as hyperbole, but this does not mean we can ignore it! We must love Jesus more than anything, this means there will be times when our lives and loved ones will come a poor second. There will be times when it might seem as if we do hate them. Notice also that Jesus talks about us coming to Him, following Him. If He was not God this would indeed be blasphemous.
Then Jesus uses another analogy. This time a king being opposed by a more powerful army. He cannot win so he makes peace. We cannot win against God. Moreover, the peace terms will be onerous, in the same way God demands everything of us, complete unconditional surrender.
See the mixture of sentiments and metaphors used in Jesus' talk of the kingdom. If we have only a one-sided view of things then our view is wrong.
The saying on salt is given also in Matthew 9:50, I am not quite sure why it is mentioned here.
Some may have taken Jesus' earlier words to mean that anyone can get in, and that it is easy to get in. This is not true. It is all God's work, but it is not easy. We need to "hate" our nearest and dearest and even our own lives. Now "hate" here is being used as hyperbole, but this does not mean we can ignore it! We must love Jesus more than anything, this means there will be times when our lives and loved ones will come a poor second. There will be times when it might seem as if we do hate them. Notice also that Jesus talks about us coming to Him, following Him. If He was not God this would indeed be blasphemous.
Then Jesus uses another analogy. This time a king being opposed by a more powerful army. He cannot win so he makes peace. We cannot win against God. Moreover, the peace terms will be onerous, in the same way God demands everything of us, complete unconditional surrender.
See the mixture of sentiments and metaphors used in Jesus' talk of the kingdom. If we have only a one-sided view of things then our view is wrong.
The saying on salt is given also in Matthew 9:50, I am not quite sure why it is mentioned here.
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