Context No. 3498 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 13:6-11: in context

6If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods”—which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; 7of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth— 8you shall not consent to him nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him; 9but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. 10You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 11All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.

This is one of the severe laws of the old covenant, and we read it soberly, understanding that its penalties belonged to Israel's life as a covenant nation and are not ours to carry out. The enduring truth it presses home is startling: not even the closest human bond, a brother, a child, a spouse, a beloved friend, may be allowed to draw us away from God into the worship of other gods.

Loyalty to God is to be so complete that it outranks even our closest relationships when those relationships would pull us away from him. Jesus himself echoes this radical priority: whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me. The point is not to devalue love for family, which Scripture everywhere commands, but to say that God's claim on us is supreme, above every other loyalty. Nothing and no one, however dear, is to be allowed to take God's place in our hearts or to lead us away from him.

Is my loyalty to God supreme, above every human bond, so that nothing and no one, however dear, could draw me away from him?

Sources

Deuteronomy 13:6: "If your brother... or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, Let's go and serve other gods."
Deuteronomy 13:8: "You shall not consent to him nor listen to him."
Matthew 10:37: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me."