Answer: Verses 16-24 show us that salvation is provided by God, as a free gift of grace to whosoever will.
Verses 24-33 is discipleship. It is following Christ, this costs us everything, that is, we own that we and all we have belong to Him. He is our object to live for. Our parents, our husband, or wife, our children, our estate, our servants, our very life is His, and at His disposal. This we see in Ephesians 5:2222Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22) to 6:9; and in Colossians 3:1818Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. (Colossians 3:18) to 4:1.
Refusing to give them the first place, by putting Christ first, and owning His claims paramount, is hating them. They naturally come between us and Christ.
The believer is dead with Christ; that takes him out of all that he was as a man in the flesh. On this ground, a man owns nothing. Then he is risen with Christ, and now He gives him back all he has to love and care for for Him. An unconverted man is ruled by self, so the man in verse 20, says, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”