losing life

Matthew 10:34-39 (ESV)
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. [35] For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. [36] And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. [37] Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. [38] And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. [39] Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
This passage haunts the evangelist among Mormons. It is a rather tough thing to deal with. Here family is everything, and leaving “the church” as they arrogantly refer to themselves, often means turning your family turning their backs on you. And the Christian churches don’t always supply a suitable replacement for family.
I think that more than anything was behind the commune mentality of the early Christians in Acts. These early Christians had lost their families. They had lost their jobs. The church became their family, and the church began to act like a family. We can be quit critical of that episode in church history, others praise it as some sort of show that we are all supposed to be socialists if we are really Christian. But that wasn’t the point. These people weren’t creating a commune out of high ideals predating Marx. They were bonding together as family does, trying to support each other through some hard times. They were loving Christ more than family, by loving the body of Christ with all their resources, to help support each other. It was necessity.
So often today when one leaves the LDS and becomes Christian they are all but left on their own to deal with a family that is angry with them. There isn’t much there to fill in the gaps. But there is Christ. Our lives are wrapped up in family. When we lose our lives for the sake of Christ, it is only then that we truly find it. Then comes the task of learning to love as Christ loves, loving even the enemies of one’s own household, so that they too might know the love of Christ.