Count the Cost

25Large crowds were traveling with him, and turning, he said to them:

26If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.

27Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

28For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

29otherwise, after he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it may begin to mock him,

30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

31Or what king, going to meet another king in war, will not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

32But if not, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

33So then, every one of you who does not renounce all his own possessions cannot be my disciple.

34Salt, then, is good; but if even the salt becomes tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it outside. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.