Meeting guide · command 42

Count the Cost of Following Jesus

Give Jesus first allegiance and accept the costly consequences of following Him.

Read

Read the complete passage aloud.

Primary passage

Matthew 10:34–39

34 “Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 A man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me. 38 He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me isn’t worthy of me. 39 He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

World English Bible

Luke

Luke 14:28–33

28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation and isn’t able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy and asks for conditions of peace. 33 So therefore, whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple.

World English Bible

Jesus warns enthusiastic hearers that discipleship can divide households and demands loyalty beyond family approval, possessions, and self-preservation.

Discuss

Listen carefully to what Jesus says.

  1. What does Jesus command?
  2. What does this passage reveal about Him?
  3. Where do we resist this command?
  4. What is difficult or unclear?
  5. How can first allegiance to Jesus reshape family loyalties without becoming an excuse for neglect, contempt, or manufactured conflict?

Practice

Choose one specific act of obedience.

Name one loyalty, possession, or fear that competes with obedience to Jesus and take one costly but wise step that places Him first.

Return

Come back and discuss what happened.

What competing loyalty became visible, and what cost did faithful action require?

Close together

Pray. Then prepare to teach.

Pray

Jesus, be first in us. Give us courage to bear the real cost of faithfulness with humility and love.

Teach

Explain Jesus' severe comparison as a demand for supreme allegiance, not permission to despise family or seek suffering for its own sake.