Luke 9:62

Looking back. He who “looks back” is not concentrating on the task at hand. He is, at best, a halfhearted worker (see on Matt. 6:24; Luke 14:26-28). Jesus had “stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51), and anyone who gave thought to following Him must of necessity be steadfast in his decision (cf. John 11:16). As it was, when the time of test came to the Twelve, they all “forsook him and fled” (Matt. 26:56), yet all except Judas returned in due course of time. Absolute and undivided devotion is essential to true discipleship. He who would plow a straight furrow in any service for God must give the task his wholehearted, uninterrupted attention.

The proverb of v. 62 had already been known for centuries in various lands of the ancient Near East. Hesiod, a Greek poet of the 8th century B.C., wrote, “He who would plow straight furrows must not look about him” (Works and Days ii. 60).