Jesus is explaining the choice in all true religions between the passing things of the world of nature, or the eternal things of the world of spirit. The greater house of spirit surrounds and contains and permeates the room of nature, limited by time and space. Spirit weaves nature:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:21-26
Same as above. Jesus is not saying it is a good thing that should happen, but predicting the effect, just as the world rejected and persecuted him, so with his followers -- as the world has always done towards the truth:
“Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.
Matthew 10:21-23
Jesus is not condemning the cities, he is predicting the cause and effect results of choosing the evils of greedy materialism as a way of life, in the same way that we are bringing the same upon ourselves by the treatment of our own living planet and in the same way that
Jonah was sent by God to warn the city of Nineveh, but whose citizens chose to repent and turn away from their evil ways -- unlike those of the cities to which Jesus is speaking, in spite of the miracles they had seen:
Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”
Matthew 11:20-24
This is in the context of the camel and the eye of the needle. It is not in context an exhortation to abandon family, but to follow God above material attachments. The first commandment;
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
… And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Matthew 19:23-29
Not at all. Jesus is speaking in the context of a parable. It is just the way things are. It is the inescapable law of gravity:
Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Mark 4:24-25
See the
parable of Lazarus and the rich man and also the
Sermon on the Mount for Jesus's actual teaching about the fate of the poor in the life to come
Not at all. Jesus is speaking a parable about what happens in the world; it's just the way life is for a slave -- he is not ordering it or condoning it:
And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
Luke 12:47-48
Nobody is required to believe a single word of the Gospel accounts if they don't want to, but when quoting Jesus it is necessary and honest to consider the context and overall intent of the passages, imo
(Remembering Samson)
