hyperbole for effect, love is the very essence of Jesus' message, being a disciple means transcending those familial relations and considerations to follow his message
The other day it was raining a lot and I got trapped in this tiny local store with like 5 people I didn't know, including this guy who by his looks didn't seem to have very much education outside normal school and was like 50 years old.
I spent about an hour hearing him ramble about this rains not being normal and being the wrath of god because apparently god is pissed that we're sending stuff to the moon and that we shouldn't anger him with all our techonology (he said techonology) or we would suffer another flood like the one in the bible.