Contradiction in the Bible?

• Exodus 20:12 (NLT)
• Matthew 22:35 (NLT)
• Matthew 22:36 (NLT)
• Matthew 22:37 (NLT)
• Luke 14:26 (NLT)
• Ephesians 3:18 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:7 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:8 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:9 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:10 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:11 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:12 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:13 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:14 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:15 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:16 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:17 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:18 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:19 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:20 (NLT)
• 1 John 4:21 (NLT)

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Has God contradicted Himself? He commands us through Moses to honor our parents ("the 5th commandment" in Exodus 20:12); then, while in the flesh, He tells us to hate our parents (Luke 14:26).

It's not a contradiction at all.

I'm not usually partial to any one version, but the NLT does a good job of expressing the meaning of Jesus's words in Luke 14:26 - "If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison...."

In comparison- our love for anyone else (our parents, our friends, our husband or wife, our own children) should be like hate in comparison to the love we have for our Creator, our Redeemer, our Master.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, He said it is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. The Message version reads, "Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence" (Matthew 22:37). Secondly, we are to love our neighbors as well as we love ourselves.

And by obeying the first - the second follows naturally, as we're taught in 1st John, Chapter 4.

We may never fully understand how deep, far, and wide God's love for us is (Ephesians 3:18) - but let's seek to match it, knowing we'll never succeed, but growing in love for Him and others along the way.

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