During his interview with the Jedi Council in TPM, Anakin expresses that he misses his mother and is upset by the Council’s response.
When Yoda responds that Anakin is “afraid to lose her,” he snaps back a little angrily, “What’s that got to do with anything?”
Yoda replies, “Everything. Fear is the path to the dark side, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”
In Luke 14:26, Jesus shares a difficult statement with the great crowd that was with Him. He states, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
The word translated hate is μισεῖ (misei), which means to hate or to love less than something else.
Our love for Jesus should make our love for our parents look like hate in comparison. That is the level of commitment that Jesus is calling us to and demanding from us.
In James 4:4, James is fired up and writes to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Strong’s Concordance defines enmity (ἔχθρα) as “hostility; by implication, a reason for opposition:–enmity, hatred.”
We are told in Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Therefore, anything we put before God is an idol. That could be relationships or possessions. When we put them ahead of God, we are practicing idolatry.
The good news is, God, will forgive us when we confess it to Him, according to 1 John 1:9.
