Number Two

2. Kinship, national, ethnic, and other worldly ties have only relative importance.

It is probably difficult to exaggerate the importance of kinship ties in the ancient world. In Jesus' world one was nobody without one's relationship to one's family. We of the 21st century, especially in America with our hyper-individualism, probably think that we do not need the warning against unthinking kinship allegiance that Jesus and the early Christian movement demanded.

However, there is certainly a belief in some Christian quarters that loyalty to family and to nation has a sacred status. Think of how easily the phrase "God and country" flows from our lips.

Jesus understood that our worldly loyalties could easily divert us from our calling to the new beloved community that is coming into being as we become student followers of him.

There is a kind of selfishness, of course, that might divert one from appropriate duty toward one's family or, indeed, one's country. Sometimes calls to family or national loyalty are reminders that one may well have legitimate obligations beyond oneself. But when these calls would divert one from following Jesus, they must be left behind.