familial love

In the Gospel According to Matthew 10:37 (NABRE), Jesus makes a bold statement about love that is easy to misconstrue. The statement is: “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.” As with many of Jesus’ more radical statements, it’s easy here to look for comfortable ways to interpret this statement to fit the circumstances of our lives.

One way people have made this statement more palatable is by suggesting that our love for God is a different thing from our love for family so that the two don’t really compare. The Greek word used here in both parts of this statement, φιλέω (phileo), comes from a word describing friendly or familial closeness. From a linguistic point of view, Jesus very much seems to be asking to be treated as a member of the family and to be held above all other members of the family.

This passage shows us powerfully the type of relationship God wants to have with us. He’s not merely a distantly removed God to whom we pay occasional respect. God wants to be the closest, most essential, and most foundational relationship in our lives, and he says that unless we put him in that place, we are not worthy of him. Consider your own familial relationships. Do you see Jesus as a part of your family?

you also may like our study of the book of Genesis
The first seven lessons of In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provide an in-depth look at the very earliest biblical history—including the two accounts of Creation, events surrounding the Fall of Adam and Eve, the relationship between Cain and Abel, and the baptismal foreshadowing present in the account of Noah and the Flood. Remaining lessons look at lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Click here to view a sample of the first lesson.

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