The two sayings on leaving and hating kin are reconciled
Clement is interpreting Jesus' hard sayings about leaving family and hating father and mother, showing they do not command real hatred but a right ordering of loves.
Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, whoever leaves his own things and parents and brothers and money for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will receive back a hundredfold” (Mark 10:29-30). But let this not disturb us, nor the still harsher saying uttered elsewhere in the words: “Whoever does not hate father and mother and children, and even his own soul, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). For the God of peace is not introducing hatred and separation from those most loved—he who urges us to love even our enemies. If enemies must be loved, then by the same reasoning, moving upward from them, so must those nearest in family; or if those of one's own blood must be hated, then the saying, moving downward, teaches that enemies must be hated far more, so that the two sayings would be shown to refute each other. But they do not refute each other, nor come close. For from the same mind and disposition and on the same principle a person would hate a father and love an enemy—one who neither takes revenge on an enemy nor reverences a father more than Christ. In the one saying he cuts out hatred and wrongdoing; in the other, the deference toward intimates. If it harms salvation—if, say, a father or son or brother is godless to someone and becomes a hindrance to faith and an obstacle to the life above—let him not join with that one or be of one mind with him, but let him dissolve the fleshly kinship because of the spiritual enmity.
Greek
»Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν ὑμῖν λέγω. ὃς ἂν ἀφῇ τὰ ἴδια καὶ γονεῖς καὶ ἀδελφοὺς καὶ χρήματα ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ καὶ ἕνεκεν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου. ἀπολήψεται ἑκατονταπλασίονα.« ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τοῦθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐπιταρασσέτω μηδὲ τὸ ἔτι τούτου σκληρότερον ἀλλαχοῦ ταῖς φωναῖς ἐξενηνεγμένον· »ὅς οὐ μισεῖ πατέρα καὶ μητέρα καὶ παῖδας. προσέτι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν, ἐμὸς μαθητὴς εἶναι οὐ δύναται.« οὐ γὰρ εἰσηγεῖται μῖσος καὶ διάλυσιν ἀπὸ τῶν φιλτάτων ὁ τῆς εἰρήνης θεός. ὅ γε καὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἀγαπᾶν παραινῶν. εἰ δὲ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἀγαπητέον, ἀνάλογον ἀπ᾿ ἐκείνων ἀνιόντι καὶ τοὺς ἐγγυτάτω γένους· ἢ εἰ μισητέον τοὺς πρὸς αἵματος, πολὺ μᾶλλον τοὺς ἐχθροὺς προβάλλεσθαι κατιὼν ὁ λόγος διδάσκει, ὥστε ἀλλήλους ἀναιροῦντες ἐλέγχοιντ᾿ ἂν οἱ λόγοι. ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἀναιροῦσιν οὐδ᾿ ἐγγύς, ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς αὐτῆς γνώμης καὶ διαθέσεως καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ αὐτῷ ὅρῳ πατέρα μισοίη τις ἂν καὶ ἐχθρὸν ἀγαπώῃ ὁ μήτε ἐχθρὸν ἀμυνόμενος μήτε πατέρα Χριστοῦ πλέον αἰδούμενος. ἐν ἐκείνῳ μὲν γὰρ τῷ λόγῳ μῖσος ἐκκόπτει καὶ κακοποιίαν, ἐν τούτῳ δὲ τὴν πρὸς τὰ σύντροφα δυσωπίαν. εἰ βλάπτοι πρὸς σωτηρίαν, εἰ γοῦν ἄθεος εἴη τινὶ πατὴρ ἢ υἱὸς ἢ ἀδελφὸς καὶ κώλυμα τῆς πίστεως γένοιτο καὶ ἐμπόδιον τῆς ἄνω ζωῆς, τούτῳ μὴ συμφερέσθω μηδὲ ὁμονοείτω. ἀλλὰ τὴν σαρκικὴν οἰκειότητα διὰ τὴν πνευματικὴν ἔχθραν διαλυσάτω.