Luke 9:61-62 And another also said, Lord, I will follow you; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.… To put the hand to the plough, is to enter ostensibly upon some undertaking, to embark in some pursuit with an apparent purpose of securing its object; and to look back, implies that divided state of mind, and that irresoluteness of purpose which are a virtual abandonment of the end proposed, and are, therefore, fatal to success. We are thus taught that a wavering and undetermined state of mind in religion is as fatal as it is in any other pursuit, that it can never form that character which qualifies for the kingdom of God. I. Among those who, in the language of the text, put the hand to the plough and look back may be mentioned the following classes. 1. Those who would become religious were it not that they wish first to secure some worldly good. 2. The same thing is true of those who are prevented from coming to a decided purpose in religion by certain embarrassments and difficulties. 3. The same thing is true of those who, in times of deep affliction, sudden danger, or alarming sickness, have formed resolutions to become religious, and who abandon them on a change of circumstances. 4. The same charge lies against those who have been the subjects of special religious awakening, and who afterward return to stupidity in sin. II. Its utter insufficiency to form the Christian character. 1. An undecided purpose in religion is sure, sooner or later, to abandon its object. 2. An undecided, fluctuating purpose in religion greatly impairs the energies of the mind, and thus defeats its object. 3. That an undecided purpose in religion cannot form the Christian character, is evident from the fact that it still leaves the soul as completely under the dominion of sin as if it had no existence. 4. An undecided purpose in religion grieves the Holy Ghost and fearfully exposes to judicial abandonment of God. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. |
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