Jesus demands from his followers absolute and unconditional loyalty to himself.

To be worthy of Jesus one should love him more than one loves the members of his family(10:37). The cost of following Jesus is such that blood relationships and family ties will have to be sub-ordinated to loyalty to Jesus. Total allegiance also implies that a disciple must be prepared to take up his/her cross and follow him. The cross foreshadows Jesus' fate; any true disciple must be ready to follow him to the cross; it's a question of absolute loyalty leading to martyrdom itself!

His own Jewish community persecuted him and the disciples. Similarly as followers of Christ we too will be disappointed that our blood-relatives friends and even colleagues will discourage us from taking any risks and disapprove our efforts to be true to the mission of Christ, when it disturbs their secure life. Let us remember that there is no permanent loyalty to anyone or anything except to respond to the actions of the Spirit.