Matthew-067

Today, we continue to study in the teaching of our Lord Jesus. We may already be familiar with Matthew 18:23-35, concerning the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant which the Lord Jesus told after the question was put to him by Peter: “How often should one forgive a brother or a sister who offends against us?” The Lord Jesus knows that by nature, we are extremely unforgiving, extremely small-minded, extremely hard of heart; that although we offend against others constantly, we are not willing to forgive when we are of­fended. So he told his disciples three vital principles of the Christian life derived from the parable, which sum up what Christianity and what the gospel are about. We are talking about these three princi­ples because they will connect to his teaching in the Gospel of Luke that we will look at today.

First principle of the gospel: God freely forgives those who truly repent

The first of the vital principles concerning the Christian life is that God in his grace freely forgives those who truly repent. Therefore when this man who owes an enormous debt, fell on his knees before his lord and said, “There is no way that I am guiltless. I plead guilty for the fact that I have squandered your funds, and I understand that I am deserving to be sold into slavery. I plead your forgiveness.” (He is forfeiting his life forever in the sense that he will no longer be a free agent. Often, being a slave is worse than being dead because it’s a kind of living death.) So God in his grace freely forgives. That is the first principle of the Christian life and the gospel.

What is essential to observe is that because of your sins, you may be so far separated from God that you don’t even know whether or not God exists, and whether or not this God can rightly be called your Father. You are completely estranged from God. Your state is exceedingly pitiful!

I compare this to myself when I was a very young child in China, during the war with Japan and the civil war. My father went to fight the Japanese for China, so I didn’t see him for many years. When he came back, I didn’t know whether or not this person who says he was my father was indeed my father; or whether I even had a father, since I was out of touch with him for so long.

Apart from being cut off from God because of your sins, how can this communication be re-established? The first principle of the gospel is that if you truly repent of your sins that have separated you from God, He will freely forgive your sins. Why do you need God to forgive you? Either you perish or God has to forgive you. There is no alternative. There is no way you can pay the debt of your sins, or remove this barrier between you and God. God is going to give you a chance. He will forgive, and he paid your debt in Christ. I hope that this first principle of the gospel is perfectly clear to you, especially if you have been a Christian for any length of time.

Yet so many Christians only know the first principle, but they don’t know the second and the third. I expect every Christian in our church to understand the first principle of God’s forgiving grace and God’s unlimited mercy to those who repent, so I often stress the second and third principles. If you think that God’s unlimited mercy places no demand or responsibility upon you, you have not understood either the second or the third principles of the gospel.

Second principle: Forgiving conduct must follow

What is the second principle? Since God has forgiven us, we are under obligation to forgive. You and I must deal with others in the same way as God has dealt with you and me. It’s not an option. We see in Luke 17:4 that the Lord Jesus says, “You must forgive as you have been forgiven.” He makes this teaching absolutely clear to us beyond any shadow of doubt. Is God being unreasonably demand­ing? No, we yield ourselves to be transformed by God’s effectual grace because we have experienced his unbounded love for us. Therefore, if you accept God’s love, you must convey that love to others, or else you will forfeit that love. This is the second principle.

Let us think back to the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. He was forgiven, therefore his master expected of necessity that he would deal with his debtor in the same way. If you offend against me, I cannot but forgive you because I have been forgiven. I have no option. A Christian cannot say I have received the grace of God there­fore, I can be rude, nasty and unforgiving. You cannot! Therefore, if I harbor an unforgiving spirit in me, I prove thereby that God’s love is not effectual in me, in causing me to love you in the same way as he has loved me.

Strangely enough, so many Christians don’t understand this second principle. They have only been taught the first principle. If you don’t practice the second principle, you will prove unworthy of the first. That is, if you don’t deal with others in the same way as God has dealt with you, you will prove unworthy of his grace in the first place. In the same way, this unforgiving servant proved unworthy of his master’s forgiveness because he did not forgive, and he was made to repay the original debt that he owed. Now this second principle is extremely vital for you to understand.

We can put this in theological terms. The first principle is the principle of justification, that is, God freely forgives you. The second principle is the principle of sanctification namely, your conduct. Sanctification must follow justification. Conversely, justification must result in corresponding conduct. Using theological language, there is an inseparable bond between sanctification (conduct) and justification (God’s forgiveness). The Scripture puts it in black and white: If you don’t live like a Christian, you will prove unworthy of eternal life. That is not my interpretation. If you don’t live like a Christian, don’t boast: “God forgave me and I got baptized, and I’m a Christian!” I’d rather that if you don’t live like a Christian, don’t even claim to be a Christian. That is the least damage you can do to the gospel because the world is fully conscious that churches are full of people who profess to be Christians and behave worse than non-Christians.

The Lord Jesus warns that if your conduct does not match your calling, you will not be fit for the kingdom of God. That means unless God’s grace is effectual in changing my attitude and conduct, grace will not avail for me. The only way that God’s grace will avail for you, and you know that it avails for you, is you realize that your conduct has changed, not that you are already perfect, but that you are changing and are in the process of becoming another kind of person than what you were before. Now this second principle is neglected in most churches and preaching today. They have neither observed nor implemented the second principle that conduct must follow from being forgiven. I am very distressed about this, and this is the whole point of my constant preaching down through the years.

Third principle: Every man is judged by his conduct

From this follows the third principle of judgment. In the Bible, judgment is always based upon your works. The Bible repeatedly tells us that every man is judged according to his works (conduct), not according to what faith he professes. Everyone should know this standard principle. Yet strangely enough, some don’t seem to be aware of this. To put this third principle in the picture of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, it is that God will deal with us in the same way as we are now dealing with others. Therefore this future judgment reinforces the second principle of change in conduct.

You can see that these three principles are past, present and future. The past speaks about justification, that God has forgiven us if we are Christians. The present speaks about sanctification – our living in sanctification now. And the future is the judgment that we will all have to face. That judgment could be whichever of the two – condem­nation or commendation. It could be condemnation, like this servant in the parable who was condemned because he did not forgive. Or it could be commendation, which means the Lord Jesus, the Judge says to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have done a good job!” It’s true that you do that job by God’s grace, nevertheless that grace is manifested through you.

It’s exceedingly important to understand this third point that God will deal with you in the same way as you deal with others. So the next time you are dealing with someone, think for a moment first: “How am I dealing with this brother or this sister right now? That is the way God is going to deal with me!” As the Lord Jesus says, “By your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” How you speak to others, how you conduct yourself with others will be the measure God will deal with you. He cannot be fairer than that. That is justice at its ultimate, that God deals with each person in the same way as he deals with others.

Do good to others as you would have God do good to you

Now this third principle that God will deal with you in the same way as you deal with others, can be broken down into two subsidiary points for the purpose of applying this principle. The first subsidiary point is: Do to others as you would have God do to you. That is basically what it means. If you want to have God be kind to you in the future, as he has been kind to you in the past, then be kind to others. If you are unkind to others, you forfeit the right to expect his kindness. You don’t have to be a genius to understand this. The Lord Jesus has said the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount: “It shall be given to you in the measure with which you give” (Mt. 7:2). It’s very easy to understand that God will deal with you in the same measure as you deal with others. So it becomes a guiding principle by which we know how to conduct ourselves as Christians.

This third principle is also not understood in these days for some reason or other, so that Christians don’t know what principle to live by in daily life. God is going to deal with me in whatever way I deal with others. So if I want God to continue to increase his grace to me, I must learn to be gracious to others, to be forgiving to others. It also means that if I fail to apply this principle, that if I am nasty to others, my spiritual life will go in the reverse. I can also very much expect that God’s discipline will come on me.

These principles all presume on the principle that God is the living God. If God is not living, how will these principles be effectual? The whole gospel is based on the fact that God is the living God, and you cannot have been a Christian not to have realized until now that God is the living God. I am a Christian because I know God is the living God. I know that the way I deal with others is exactly how God will deal with me. Try it and see. God will deal with you sooner or later. Don’t think that you will escape for the moment if you have been nasty to others and you didn’t get it back yet.

God has established the principle that you will reap what you sow. Be sure of what Paul said in Galatians 6:7. “God is not mocked. You will reap what you sow.” If you sow nastiness, you will reap nasti­ness. What do you expect? Do you think that you will reap something beautiful if you sow nastiness? Sow beauty if you want to reap beauty. Sow fruit if you want to reap fruit. You don’t hope to get some nice, delicious wheat or barley if you sow weeds, do you? If you sow weeds, you will get weeds. If you sow thorns, you will get thorns. That is exactly the same principle in the spiritual life. You can be sure that God will make his principles work! The first subsidiary point is the positive side, stressing more that God will do to you what good you do to others.

If you deal in judgment with others, God will deal in judgment with you

The other subsidiary point that God will deal with us in the same way that we deal with others is on the negative side, that if you deal in judgment with others, God will deal in judgment with you in such a way that not only will you be disciplined, but you will also find yourself unfit for the kingdom of God.

Many times, when I look through a congregation as I preach the Word of God, there is one deep concern within my heart. I say to myself, “I wonder how many will be declared unfit for the kingdom of God on that Day when God’s plenipotentiary, the Lord Jesus will say, ‘I don’t know who you are. Step aside.’” And most will begin to say like the man in Matthew chapter 7, “But, but I went to church regularly.” “But I was baptized.” “But I was active in Sunday School, and I was active in this and that and the other thing.” The Lord Jesus will say, “Step aside. I don’t know who you are. Your conduct has proved you unfit for the kingdom.”

That is the parable of him separating the sheep from the goats in Matthew Chapter 25. Sheep and goats are from the same family but their character is different. Their character is expressed in the way they behaved. Sheep that go to the right are accepted, and the goats that go to the left are rejected. Be sure of one thing: God’s grace cannot be taken in vain. God is not mocked, that is, you cannot make a fool of God. God will deal with each person in justice.

These three fundamental principles sum up the gospel and Chris­tianity.

Luke 9:61-62

Following upon this, we will look at only this one verse Luke 9:62, which follows closely in substance to the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:23-35. Let us read Luke 9:61-62.

Here is a person who is seen to be unfit for the kingdom of God even though he put his hand to the plough, wanting to be Jesus’ disciple. Now more plain and obvious a statement than that one cannot get. Likewise, the servant who was forgiven but refused to forgive others in Matthew 18 is unfit for the kingdom of God. I have expounded the whole passage of Luke 9:57-62, way back in June 1977, but we did not pay particular attention to this verse.

What does the Lord Jesus want to say to us in verse 62? Of course, it doesn’t take great logic to be able to see that the kind of person who is fit for the kingdom of God does two things: He puts his hand to the plough, which is the basic condition, and he does not look back. There are five points I would like you to notice about this verse.

1. Luke 9:62 applies to every Christian

The first point is that the word, “no one” is used very often in the Lord Jesus’ teaching to state a general principle which is applied universally to any person. It doesn’t apply to some select group of people. Therefore, these words apply to you and to me. If you and I put our hand to the plough and look back, we will thereby prove that we are not fit for the kingdom of God.

2. Becoming a Christian is to put his hand to the plough, to serve God

The second point is that the words, “puts his hand to the plough” tells us something very important. It tells us what disciples or Christians must do. Many people have the notion that to become a disciple or a Christian is simply to embrace a certain religion to comfort your own heart, or to have some kind of moral, or religious, or mental support. It certainly gives you some support and comfort, but that is not the essence of being a Christian. Being called to be a Christian is the call to put your hand to the plough, to serve. (Ploughing is to put your hand on the farming tool that digs into the ground to turn over the soil.) Any man or woman who is truly a Christian understands that becoming a Christian means to serve God. I’m neither talking about being a preacher nor about some kind of full-time missionary training. I am talking about what the Lord Jesus is talking about. No matter how young or old a Christian you are, every Christian in the Bible is in God’s service. If you didn’t realize that, you have not understood what being a Christian is. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you sign up in the church registry so that you are now a member of Gospel Church, or a member of this or that church. That doesn’t make you a Christian. Becoming a Christian means that you have put your hand to God’s plough. You are now going to do some work for him. We shall see in a moment what that work is.

First and foremost, understand that becoming a Christian doesn’t mean to be idle. If you are idle, if you are not active for God daily, you don’t know yet what it is to be a Christian. It’s alarming to me that so often, one is not told that in the churches today. One is told that a person becomes a Christian by raising the hand and going forward to talk to and pray with a counselor and so forth. By all means raise your hand and go forward. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the important thing is that you must realize when you raise your hand and go forward, you have committed your life to God’s service, you have put your hand to the plough. It’s not fair to a person not to help him understand that when he becomes a Christian, he is committed to serving God, ploughing God’s field. I would like you to grasp this second point very clearly from these words of the Lord Jesus.

a. Committed to study God’s Word，and acquire skill by God’s power

Now putting your hand to the plough involves certain things, which also means becoming a Christian involves certain things. Have you tried ploughing? Try and see if you know how to plough. You will probably find that you are driving the plough up into the air instead of ploughing the ground! Or you will find that you just don’t know how to move the oxen because ploughs in those days were usually pulled by a number of oxen. In 1 Kings 19:19, we find that Elisha was ploughing behind twelve yoke of oxen, which is a big team of oxen. He must have been using them to pull a big plough, digging very deep into the ground.

What is our job when we put our hands to the plough? Our job is simply to guide the plough. We are simply not strong enough to push the plough through the ground. The oxen pull the plough. In the same way, we don’t serve God in our own strength. It is God who provides the power, but we are entrusted with the responsibility of directing where the plough goes. So the first point in putting the hand to the plough is that it requires skill, doesn’t it? You and I don’t know how to get the plough going, let alone guide it in a straight line. It requires skill. We don’t even know how to get the oxen to move, apart from futilely telling them to move. Becoming a Christian, which is serving God, is far from being idle. You have to learn how to serve God.

How do you serve? Well, you need to study the Word of God. The mark of a true Christian is somebody who is interested in the Word of God, who likes to go to a Bible study and get his teeth into the Word of God, because he wants to know how to serve God effectively.

There are many people who are quite willing to put their hand to the plough. They could stand there all day but the field doesn’t get ploughed because they don’t know what to do with the plough. Being committed to learn the skill of serving God, that is, studying the Word of God applies to every Christian, not just to full-time workers and pastors.

b. Be patient

The second thing about ploughing is that it requires patience. A plough is not a race car. You don’t put your hand to it and it tears off, so that you can rush through and finish ploughing in only 5 minutes. If a tractor is used to pull a plough instead of oxen, one still needs patience to sit on the tractor to guide the plough because the tractor moves very, very slowly.

c. Every Christian is God’s servant to plough

Another thing I would also like you to notice concerning putting the hand to the plough is that every Christian is a servant of God in ploughing. The Lord Jesus selects a beautiful picture here in Luke 9:62, very much like the picture in Luke 17:7 where again, a disciple is spoken of as a servant of God in ploughing. I would like you to understand that you are called to God’s service to irrigate the ground, even if you don’t know how to plant a church or how to sow the seed. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted and Apollos watered.” In the Bible, sowing the seed is a picture of preaching. Paul tells Timothy to “preach the Word of God in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2), using the picture of sowing for preaching God’s Word. The preacher sows at any time of the year, not only in spring. You may not be called to preach the Word of God, but every Christian is called to plough.

3. A Christian becomes a plough: Live a sacrificial life in the world

For the third point, we ask the question: What exactly do Christians do to plough? What is a plough? A plough is a farming tool with two parts: there is a bar that goes across the backs of the neck of two, four, or more pairs of oxen; and there is another bar fixed to the middle of the horizontal bar, with a spade-like hook that goes into the ground to turn the soil over as the oxen pull the plough forward. The plough that is working the ground looks very much like a cross. So the Lord Jesus deliberately uses this picture of putting your hand to the plough because it is like taking hold of the cross. That is to say, we are to put our hand to the cross, which is to take up the cross. In this third point, how does a Christian plough? He becomes a plough. Becoming a Christian is to serve God. It’s the call to take up your cross and follow Christ, a call to the sacrificial life. It is the life of the cross that a Christian lives, which is like a plough that ploughs into the hearts of non-Christians or so-called “Christians.”

What does a plough do? It turns over the ground in the field. What is the field? The Lord Jesus has made that clear to us in Matthew 13:38 where he says, “The field is the world.” This world in which people live is the field which we are ploughing.

How do you plough? You put the plough, the cross into the ground and it turns all the soil over, it turns everything upside down. Notice, you cannot sow the seed without ploughing because nothing will grow. What happens if you sow the seed on the ground? The birds will come and eat them up because they cannot penetrate the ground. The ground has to be turned over before the seed can be sown. It is exactly as they said of the apostles Paul and Barnabas in Acts 17:6, that they were turning the world upside down. That is what the cross does.

In the same way, when your life is totally committed to God because you take up the cross and follow Christ Jesus, you will make a mark in the world because you are turning everything upside down wherever you go, and you will impress the non-Christian. Your professing to be a Christian makes no mark on anybody. It is the quality of life that you live that makes a mark, isn’t it?

Think of how you became a Christian, how I became a Christian. Do you think I was impressed that someone said, “I’m a Christian”? So what you’re a Christian? Someone else is a Hindu. What difference does it make? What makes an impression upon on the non-Christian is when he sees the quality of a person’s Christ-like life. The quality of life that has the cross in it, a sacrificial life of love, and that makes a mark. That turns the soil of his heart upside down and prepares it for being receptive to the preaching of God’s Word.

The greatest service you can do for God is not simply going out to preach to others. Or many people have said to me, “I can’t serve God because I don’t know how to preach,” as though the only way you can serve God is to preach. Leave the preaching to somebody else, and live the sacrificial life of loving or helping others, live the God-centered life as Christ lived, and you will make a mark upon the non-Christians. Your life as an ordinary Christian will be like a plough going through his heart, and turning the ground upside down. Later on, when the seed or the Word of God is sown in that person’s heart, it will take root and grow.

I was impressed when I saw people who lived the life of the cross. Their lives were like a plough that ploughed into my life. Before that, I went to a missionary school and I came out with a heart that’s as hard as a stone. I rejected Christianity. I had no time for missionaries because to me, they were all “western imperialists,” and were paid to preach the gospel. Maybe they weren’t good enough to get a job at home. So what do they do? They come travelling around the world at other people’s expense to preach the gospel. Who is interested in missionaries? But the people who made an impression on me were those who had taken up the cross. They were not preachers but ordinary Christians in the church. Their lives were like a plough that went through my life turning the ground over. The soil of my heart was no longer stony and hard So when the gospel was sowed, my heart was receptive to the Word of God.

You and I are all called to be people who plough for God, that the way you have passed through this world will make it a place which has been turned over, ready for someone else to sow the seed later. Perhaps even you will scatter some seeds there that will bring forth fruit for God. Who knows? The world will not be saved because we are good at talking. The world will be saved only when they see the power in our lives, like the plough that turns the ground over.

Don’t be afraid to upset people with your life of total commitment

This following point that I would like you to notice is not understood too well by many Christians. When you plough through someone’s life living the Christ-like life, you may upset a lot of people. They may resent it at first and be upset with you. They are literally upset, turned upside down, knocked over! Many Christians are very afraid of upsetting people, but you shouldn’t worry about it. No plough has ever done its job if it didn’t turn the ground all upside down. But there’s no other way. Maybe your life may upset some people and they think you are too fanatical. Thank God for such fanatics who glorify him! Maybe they think that you are too dedicated, too single-minded, following a straight furrow right through, refusing to turn to the left or to the right. You have made a mark where you have passed by. Thank God for those Christians who are always plough­ing, turning the ground over.

For example, when you set out to serve God, you may upset your father, your mother, your brothers and your sisters. You may upset them all. They may be very angry with you. They feel their lives have been turned over by you; you have disrupted the smoothness of their lives. So you are distressed by this. Why should you be distressed? Remember that unless they are upset, they may never be open to God’s Word.

When I became a Christian, I upset my father and my mother. My mother was so upset with me that she did not even want to see me in the home anymore. But if I had not upset her at that time, she would never have become a Christian. Several years later, she came to God and she really came to him! What I mean is that she did not just get baptized and became some sort of a Christian, her life really turned over! I had ploughed through her life indeed, not because I willingly hurt her, but because I could not but upset her by serving God. The only other alternative was not to serve God so as not to upset her. I couldn’t take that alternative. God had called me. I must serve him even if it upsets everyone else.

Remember not to be afraid to upset people because without upset­ting them, they may never be saved; you may never have turned over the ground like the plough. Understand this principle so well.

That is why, as you will notice, the Lord Jesus was never afraid to upset people in his teaching. Very often, the truth is going to upset people. Are you therefore not going to speak the truth because it’s going to upset them? Not at all! Speak the truth lovingly, and if it still upsets them, it still has to be spoken. The Lord Jesus was never afraid to upset people.

We have seen what the plough is in the third point. The plough is the cross in our lives, living a committed sacrificial life and therefore mak­ing a mark upon the world. What a tragedy that so many Christians go through the world and never left any mark of goodness in their wake. Does anyone in your class know that you are a Christian? Does anyone in your office know that you are a Christian? You probably don’t make any mark at all because you don’t make any waves. So when the seed is sown, there is nowhere for the seed to grow because the ground is not prepared. Your life did not prepare these people for the gospel.

4. Unfit for God’s kingdom: Constantly looking back to the world

The fourth thing the Lord Jesus says is this: why don’t you make any mark on anyone? The reason is: you look back. I suspect the majority of Christians are people who really get nowhere ploughing because they put their hand on the plough and look back. Have you tried ploughing and looking back? Or can you drive a car looking back? Do you drive a tractor looking back and hope to get a straight furrow in front of you? Of course not! Putting the hand to the plough is making a commitment, and the person who has already gone so far as to put the hand to the plough to make a commitment with God is a Christian. We are not talking about non-Christians. A non-Christian has never put his hand on the plough. He has never taken hold of the cross. Even if you have come as far as to take hold of the cross, even if you have put your hand to the plough, you have proved that you are not fit for the kingdom if you are still looking back.

Notice the words: “look back.” It is a present participle in the Greek text, and a present participle in the Greek is a continuous tense which should be translated as: “If any man puts his hand on a plough and he is constantly looking back—not just an occasional glance at the back—he is not fit for the kingdom.”

Why do you look back? Where is your heart as a Christian? It’s still in the world. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What is there to look back to if there is nothing that attracts your heart?

The Israelites came out of Egypt, didn’t they? They did. They were called out of Egypt. They became God’s people but where was their heart? Back in Egypt. Look at the first five books of the Old Testament and you will see the whole old story all the time. They came out of Egypt physically, but their hearts were still in Egypt. They were always looking back at Egypt and always grumbling that out there in the wilderness, there were not enough potatoes, not enough leeks, not enough garlic, and not enough onions and all the nice things they liked that gave delicious taste to the food. They wondered what they were doing in the wilderness when they had all this nice food back in Egypt. Their heart was still there.

You may have become some sort of “Christian,” but your heart is not separated from the world. Therefore, your eyes are looking back all the time even though you put your hand to the plough. This fourth point is about a total commitment because putting the hand to the plough is a commitment. The Lord Jesus warns you: It’s not enough to make a commitment. If your commitment is not total in putting your hand to the plough, because you are still looking back at the world, you will not be fit for the kingdom.

That is why I have so constantly proclaimed and warned, that either the commitment is total or it will not be acceptable to God. Don’t say to yourself, “Not only is my hand on the plough, my whole person is at the plough! I am teaching Sunday School. I’m on the church newsletter team. I’m doing this and that.” Certainly, your hand may be put to the plough, but not your heart. God wants to know where is your heart? This is most important. You are committed, but are you totally committed? Your salvation depends on the answer to that question.

5. Endurance in suffering for God’s kingdom

The fifth point is endurance. There is a kind of person who is not fit for the kingdom even though he has come as far as the gates of the kingdom. Look at the servant who was forgiven in the parable. He was forgiven, and he could have made it to the kingdom, but he blew it all at the last moment. He did not live the life that was expected of him. He did not forgive others. What about you? Are you fit for the kingdom? Only one type of person is fit for the kingdom. Why did he not forgive after he was forgiven? He had not changed. Why did God’s grace not transform him? That’s the question.

Think of yourself for a moment. Don’t say to yourself, “I have taken the first step. I have received God’s pardoning grace. Ask yourself another question: Are you dealing with others in the same way God deals with you? If not, why not? Is it because your heart is still in the world? Are you faithfully enduring in your commitment to God? Are you fit for the kingdom? This is the question.

Why keep on looking back?

Before closing, I want to draw your attention to this one verse where Paul is saying virtually the same thing as the Lord Jesus. Why does a person put his hand to the plough and look back? One of the reasons we saw is that his heart is still in the world. There is still something he likes back in the world. Another reason might be that it is so hot while you are ploughing, the sun is beating down on your head, and you think of the nice, cool shade back in the world. Or maybe it’s very cold, windy, blustery, rainy where you are ploughing, and you think of the warm heater. In serving God, in ploughing a straight furrow, you have to experience many trials, perhaps even persecutions.

Look at what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5.

The Thessalonian disciples were suffering persecutions and afflictions—the sun was beating hard upon them when they were ploughing—but their faithfulness in enduring suffering is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and will make them fit for the kingdom of God. Verse 5 expresses exactly the same idea of being fit or not fit for the kingdom. You are being made worthy of God’s kingdom by the very fact that you are enduring the heat of the sun, enduring these trials and persecutions. Are you suffering trials? If you immediately say, “I’m quitting! I’m going back to the world!” whenever you encounter a trial, what kind of commitment do you have? The person who is totally committed does not keep on looking back. He is determined: “I have set my hand to the plough and I press forward toward the mark of my high calling in Christ. I have burned my bridges behind me. There is no more discussion of quitting or looking back. My eyes only know of going forward and no retreat.”

When Christopher Columbus went on his great, historic journey of discovering America, he set out across uncharted seas, and day after day there was no land to be seen! The sailors said, “Let’s go back!” Their hearts were back in Spain or Portugal or wherever their home country was, but Christopher Columbus did not look back. He went forward, and the crew was on the verge of mutiny because the sailors thought that there was no hope they would find land. They had been out on the sea for months and this is enough. But Columbus said, “We will go forward! There’s no turning back!” Day after day he wrote in his diary, “We sailed forward,” until finally, one day, there was land in front!

That is the spirit to which God calls us. You put your hand to the plough and don’t look back. What kind of person is fit for the kingdom of God? The only kind is the totally committed. Let us understand this important warning that the Lord Jesus gives us. Let us examine our hearts before God to see where we stand. Make sure that we will endure in ploughing the kind of furrow that will make a mark upon the world for God, as Christ did. No matter how tough the going will be, we have no thoughts of looking back!