Counting the cost

Interpretation

Joel B. Green observes that the specific type of tower in the first parable is uncertain, but the core message demands a "thoroughgoing fidelity to God's salvific aim," shown in one's identity as a disciple of Jesus. This requires prioritizing family and possessions second, a theme echoed in Matthew 8:18–22 and Luke 9:57–62. For Anabaptist groups like the Hutterites and Bruderhof, this passage is crucial; they see it as a directive to live without private property.

For them, "to forsake all that he has" means surrendering everything in service to Jesus. Eric Franklin interprets the command to "hate" in Luke 26 as "Semitic exaggeration," while Joseph Benson suggests it "signifies only an inferior degree of love." Cornelius a Lapide comments on verse 33, calling it the post-parable that sums up the teaching: anyone who refuses to give up all to live a life of evangelical perfection cannot be a disciple as the Apostles were.

He adds that it would be better for someone unwilling to surrender everything when persecution or necessity demands it—including possessions, family, or life itself for the gospel—not to take on Christ's yoke at all. To begin a Christian life and then fall away into apostasy is worse, as such a person adds the sin of apostasy to unbelief, referencing 2 Peter 2:21: "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."