Shall we rethink Luke 9:62?

 Jesus was engaging some would-be disciples and He made this important declaration: “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”.

Growing up, I'd been taught that this meant that if one backslides - meaning falls back into sin after they've repented of them - then they will not make heaven. On the surface, it would seem that this is the case. However, we thank God for better insight now into interpretation of Scriptures, and in view of this, it will be imperative that we revisit this text to understand what it is really talking about.

One important aspect of hermeneutics (interpreting Scriptures) is to understand that to understand better, you don't look at verses on their own. Verses would draw meaning from the paragraphs or chapter(s) that they belong to. Which means to get what Luke 9:62 is saying, we would be have to consider the context, and from the pre and post text, we would see that Jesus is looking at the checklist of being a disciple; and the responses of the would-be disciples is what informed what Jesus said.

Each of the people who indicated that they wanted to follow Jesus kept bringing up one excuse or the other. One to bury their father; the other to say his farewell. But one thing they kept saying was: 'let me first'. First. Whatever it was that they wanted to do, took precedence and had priority over Jesus. This was contrary to Kingdom behaviour...which is Jesus's response: "this behaviour/mindset is not a brand-fit or a culture-fit in the Kingdom. We don't do things like that here. Here, the Kingdom and the King take precedence. Nothing comes first before them". You can't be My disciple and place anything or anyone above me. It won't work. 

So no, Jesus is not referring to losing your salvation here. He's saying, if you can't put the Kingdom first, you'll be in it, but you will be unfruitful and ineffective. Meaning you will not fit in well. You'll be like the soil with thorns, receiving the Word but it's not yielding any fruit because you're chasing other things but God's instructions.

So this is a call to set our priorities straight...it won't be ideal to have run this race and end up without fruits, without reward. Keep Jesus first, and let kingdom business - missioning - have precedence and priority.

Selah

 

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