Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
This belongs to Christ's teaching and work as He neared the time when He would be taken from His disciples, when His words and actions were to remain in their minds and they needed to understand His work and follow Him with hearts in harmony with Him, as part of His call to make preaching the kingdom of God the priority. It was spoken in reply to a man who asked to bury his father, and it calls for immediate, wholehearted commitment to follow Jesus without hesitation or delay. The command about the dead burying their dead means leaving those who are spiritually dead to their own concerns in order to go and preach.
Following Jesus and preaching the kingdom of God must take priority over earthly ties, personal considerations, family obligations, and any other claims that would delay the work. Family duties remain, but they are secondary to service for God and duty to His work.
For a minister, this applies to refusing the claims of family duties, sickness, death, and temporal interests when they would draw him away from people who need to hear the truth. Christ's followers are to proclaim the truth by words and example, using their influence to represent Him and help others. In seeking the salvation of souls they deal with what exceeds the value of the whole world, for which Christ made an immense sacrifice.
This belongs to Christ's teaching and work as He neared the time when He would be taken from His disciples, when His words and actions were to remain in their minds and they needed to understand His work and follow Him with hearts in harmony with Him, as part of His call to make preaching the kingdom of God the priority. It was spoken in reply to a man who asked to bury his father, and it calls for immediate, wholehearted commitment to follow Jesus without hesitation or delay. The command about the dead burying their dead means leaving those who are spiritually dead to their own concerns in order to go and preach.
Following Jesus and preaching the kingdom of God must take priority over earthly ties, personal considerations, family obligations, and any other claims that would delay the work. Family duties remain, but they are secondary to service for God and duty to His work.
For a minister, this applies to refusing the claims of family duties, sickness, death, and temporal interests when they would draw him away from people who need to hear the truth. Christ's followers are to proclaim the truth by words and example, using their influence to represent Him and help others. In seeking the salvation of souls they deal with what exceeds the value of the whole world, for which Christ made an immense sacrifice.