Parable of the King's War Preparations
Jesus gives a parable describing a king's war preparations and compares this to the cost of being his disciple in Luke 14:31-33:
Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:31-33.
The meaning of this parable is simple: those who want to follow Jesus and be a disciple of Jesus must be willing to give up everything of this world. There is nothing in this world that is more important than the Kingdom of Heaven. One must be a follower and a disciple of Jesus in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as the king in the parable must use everything he has in order to go to war and battle against another king, a follower of Jesus must give up everything he has in order to be a disciple. There are two forces in the world: good and evil. While God is the King of everything that is good and righteous, Satan is the king of evil. If a disciple wants to be on the good side, he must resist and eliminate all forces or all parts of his life from the evil side. A man cannot serve both good and evil and likewise, man must choose which king he will serve. Just as the outnumbered king cannot defeat the king with a larger army, a man cannot defeat Satan by himself. A man needs God in order to resist and defeat all of the forces of evil that come from Satan. In order to resist all of the temptations of evil in this world, man needs to embrace the full spiritual armor of God, which is freely given through the Holy Spirit and the salvation through Jesus Christ. God gives us the spiritual weapons to fight Satan, weapons that we do not have by ourselves. Simply by seeking God through prayer and having faith, one can obtain the spiritual weapons to fight the evil of this world.
Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:31-33.
The meaning of this parable is simple: those who want to follow Jesus and be a disciple of Jesus must be willing to give up everything of this world. There is nothing in this world that is more important than the Kingdom of Heaven. One must be a follower and a disciple of Jesus in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as the king in the parable must use everything he has in order to go to war and battle against another king, a follower of Jesus must give up everything he has in order to be a disciple. There are two forces in the world: good and evil. While God is the King of everything that is good and righteous, Satan is the king of evil. If a disciple wants to be on the good side, he must resist and eliminate all forces or all parts of his life from the evil side. A man cannot serve both good and evil and likewise, man must choose which king he will serve. Just as the outnumbered king cannot defeat the king with a larger army, a man cannot defeat Satan by himself. A man needs God in order to resist and defeat all of the forces of evil that come from Satan. In order to resist all of the temptations of evil in this world, man needs to embrace the full spiritual armor of God, which is freely given through the Holy Spirit and the salvation through Jesus Christ. God gives us the spiritual weapons to fight Satan, weapons that we do not have by ourselves. Simply by seeking God through prayer and having faith, one can obtain the spiritual weapons to fight the evil of this world.
