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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Luke 9:61 - 9:61
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Ver. 61,62. Matthew (who mentioned the other two) mentions not this third person. Some doubt whether we well translate these words, apotaxasyai toiv eiv ton oikon mou, bid them at my house farewell; or whether it were not better translated, to order the things or persons relating to my house. Let it be translated either way, it signifies a too much worldliness of mind in this disciple, which our Saviour checks in the next words, saying,
No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, eiv ta opisw, to the things behind,
is fit for the kingdom of God. Some think it is an allusion to the story of Elisha’s call. 1Ki_19:19,20. Elijah passing by him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth, cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. Be that as it will, here is a plain allusion to the work of a ploughman, and a comparing of a minister of the gospel in his duty with the ploughman in his work. The ploughman is obliged to look forward to his work, or he will never draw his furrows either straight enough, or of a just depth; so must a minister of the gospel: if he be once called out of secular employments to the service of God in the ministry, he is bound to mind and attend that; that is enough to take up the whole man, and his whole strength and time, he had need of no other things to mind or look after, the things of the world are things behind him. Not that God debars his ministers (in case of exigence) to work for their bread with their hands, as Paul did; but they ought not, without apparent necessity, to entangle themselves with the things of this life, so as to make them their business.