"It is in the nature of faith to mortify not only corrupt and sinful lusts, but also our natural affections, and their most vehement inclinations (though in themselves innocent) if they are in any way uncompliant with duties of obedience to the commands of God. Yes, herein lies the principal trial/test of the sincerity and power of faith.
"Our lives, parents, wives, children, houses, possessions, our country -- are the principal, proper, lawful objects of our natural affections; but when they together, or any of them individually, stand in the way of God's commands, or if they are hindrances to the doing or suffering anything according to his will, faith does not only mortify, weaken and cut off that love, but it even gives us a comparative hatred of them (Matt. 10:37; Luke 14:26; John 12:25)."
-- John Owen, commentary on Hebrews 11:15
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