After announcing God's plan with the Sermon on the Mount and his beatitudes, Jesus healed the servant of a Roman Centurion and resurrected a girl. In this way, the message of Jesus began to reveal itself progressively to the recipients of his message. And the Gospel of Matthew teaches that after all these signs and teachings, Jesus gathered all his disciples and gave them power to heal diseases and instructed them on how to preach the Kingdom of God to the children of Israel according to the flesh.
And during his discourse, Jesus revealed to them a very important requirement concerning this new spiritual kingdom, and said: "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" Matthew 10:37. And this expression of Jesus has a very special meaning.
This teaching connects with Jesus' parables; the Kingdom of God is that hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44) and pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46). This dominion or empire announced by Jesus is the most valuable thing a Christian or follower of Jesus can possess. In other words, a Christian must love Jesus above all things, and not act like the rich young man who asked the divine teacher how to inherit the spiritual gift of eternal life and could not follow Jesus because he loved riches.
This demand of Jesus to his disciples is one spiritual expression of the commandment of love: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" Matthew 22:37. The love demanded by Jesus ultimately consists of a total surrender to the grace of God and his eternal providence. If a Christian does not love Jesus more than anything in the world, he cannot be born again; that is, he cannot be born in the spirit and become a new creature made in the image and likeness of God in essence. In other words, what Jesus said was that loving him more than anything in the world is to know the true face of God, which is revealed in the Son.
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