SHOULD WE LOVE, OR HATE, OUR PARENTS?

Ephesians 6:2  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) (KJV) Luke 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.  (KJV)

The Luke passage must be read within context.  Jesus is not telling us that we shouldn't love our parents, wife, etc.  He is telling us that we must put God first in our life, before anything else.  He is definitely using strong language, letting us know the cost of following Him.  We should love our family members as we love all people, but if we are somehow forced to choose between our families and God, God must come first.  I would recommend reading Luke 14:12-26 for anyone who wants full explanation for this passage.  Another example of this kind of language is in Luke 16:13 which says, "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other."  There's no reason someone serving two masters must actually hate or despise one of them, but he will always end up favoring one over the other, so Jesus is using the words 'love' and 'hate' to show the difference.  Another example is in Genesis 29:30-31.  Jacob is said to "love Rachel more than Leah", and then it says that "Leah was hated".  Clearly Jacob had no reason to hate Leah, but extreme language is used here to point out the fact that Jacob was more devoted to Rachel than to Leah.  This is not a contradiction.