Promise 4: Commitment
A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and biblical values.
“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
– Luke 14:25-35
To many readers this passage seems confusing. Hating self and family seems like the opposite of God’s ideal for his people today. But Jesus wasn’t telling his followers they were to hate their families and themselves. Instead, Jesus used this vivid imagery so his hearers would realize that all earthly commitments and affections were to pale in comparison to their love for him.
Amazingly, when we love Jesus above everything else, everything else takes on more meaning. A man who is completely devoted to Christ will allow a Christlike attitude to permeate all of his relationships—even his relationship to himself. This man will soon discover that he’s more devoted to his wife, his children, his work, and his brothers and sisters in Christ.