He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Ver. 37. He that loveth father or mother] Levi said unto his father and his mother, "I have not seen him;" neither did he acknowledge his brethren, in that cause of God, nor knew his own children, Deuteronomy 33:9; "If the Lord Christ call me to him," saith Jerome, "although my father should lie in my way, my mother hang about my neck to hinder me, I would go over my father, shake off my mother," &c. Nazianzen was glad that he had something of value (to wit, his Athenian learning) to part with for Christ. Nicholas Shetterden, martyr, in a letter to his mother, wrote thus: "Dear mother, embrace the counsel of God's word with hearty affection, read it with obedience, &c. So shall we meet in joy at the last day; or else I bid you farewell for evermore." "Away from me, Satan," said Rebezies, a French martyr, when Satan set before him his parents, to stop him in his course. And I know not by what reason they so called them my friends (said Borthwick, a Scotch martyr), that so greatly laboured to convert (indeed to pervert) me, neither will I more esteem them than the Midianites, which in times past called the children of Israel to do sacrifice to their idols.
He that loveth son or daughter, &c.] As did Eli, who honoured his sons above God, 1 Samuel 2:29. This the Lord took so heinously, that he swore that this iniquity of Eli's house should not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever,1 Samuel 3:14. Samuel, who brought the old priest this heavy tidings, was afterwards unhappy enough in his two sons; and succeeded Eli in his cross as well as his place. It can hardly be imagined that he succeeded him in his sin after so fair a warning. But good David was surely too fond a father, and therefore smarted in his children, whom he cockered. God will have us to hold him to be better to us than ten sons: and to bestow all our love upon him, as most worthy. What he gives us back again, we may bestow upon others; loving our friends in God, and our enemies for God. But the love of Christ must constrain us to part with all, though never so dear and near unto us, for his sake. Mr Bradford, while he was a prisoner, wrote earnestly to his mother to pray God to make him worthy to suffer, not only imprisonment, but even very death for his truth, religion, and gospel. Femella Amatriciana, a most godly woman, understanding that her son went heavily on to his death for Christ, met him and encouraged him, bidding him look up to heaven, and behold the sun in his glory. Which when he had done, "Knowest thou not, my son," said she, "thou shalt shortly be in that heavenly palace, and there outshine the sun itself!" William Hunter the martyr's mother, said unto him, standing at the stake, that she was glad that ever she was so happy as to bear such a child as could find in his heart to lose his life for Christ's name's sake. Then William said to his mother, "For my little pain which I shall suffer, which is but for a short braid, Christ hath promised me a crown of joy; may you not be glad of that, mother?" with that his mother kneeled down on her knees, saying, "I pray God strengthen thee, my son, to the end; yea, I think thee as well bestowed as any child that ever I bare." John Clark, of Melden in France, being, for Christ's sake, whipped three different days, and afterward having a mark set in his forehead as a note of infamy, his mother beholding it (though his father was an adversary) encouraged her son, crying with a loud voice, "Blessed be Christ, and welcome be these his prints and marks." Vivat Christus, eiusque insignia. (Scultet. Annul.)
Is not worthy of me] viz. Because he holdeth not me worthy of more love than his best friends. Eli, for seeking to please his sons, Moses his wife, had like to have lost a friend of God, who had much ado to forbear killing him, Exodus 4:24 .