(Luke 9:57-62)
Jesus gave several teachings in this short section of scripture which discuss the fact that our home is in heaven and warns us to get our priorities in order.
Our Home is in Heaven
A man said to the Lord that he would follow him wherever he would go. Buit Jesus says to the man, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Verse 58)
The Lord’s home was in heaven not here on the earth. In this statement he shows that his home was not here but was with God in heaven. Jesus was not of the earth. John the Baptist testified to this fact saying, “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks; he who comes from heaven is above all.” (John 3:31)
And we too need to have this same thought in our minds. We need to recognise that when we come to God through Jesus Christ, our life is not of this world but a life in the Spirit. As Paul testified, “For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)
Our home is in heaven with Christ and in the spirit we are already seated at the right hand of the Father in Jesus Christ. So let us live our lives accordingly and act and behave in a manner that befits a people who bear the name of Jesus Christ. We should think as the great men and woman of faith thought as spoken of in Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
Get Your Priorities in Order
The second teaching that the Lord gave in this part of Luke 9 was to get our priorities in order.
Just consider for a moment. If you had something so valuable and so important that it outweighed anything and everything by comparison, wouldn’t you want to put it first in your life?
Well that is what we have received in Christ Jesus. We have the promise of eternal life with Jesus, and it is given to us as a free gift, provided we don’t reject it. Our number one priority is to ensure we take hold of the gift he has given us. This does not mean that we reject friends and loved ones because if we are living as Christ lived we will embrace our friends in the love of God.
But when we are being led astray or taken away from the Lord through the things of this world that is when we need to get out priorities sorted out. We cannot serve two masters and we cannot let anything get between us and the Lord.
The final verse in this section makes it plain. “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Verse 62) If you look back in your walk with Christ you are lost.
Think about it when you are driving. Could you drive your car by only looking in the rear view mirror? Of course not! Likewise a farmer could not plough a straight path by looking at where he has been. He needs to look where he is going. And so do we. We cannot walk a straight path to the Lord if we look back to the things of the world from which we have escaped. Look forward to Christ and find the pathway to life.
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Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.
