The image Jesus is alluding to here is familiar from many sermon illustrations. The farmer guiding his single plow behind donkey or horse or ox desires to plough a precisely straight furrow from one end of the field to the other.

The injunction against quarreling is fascinating to find among the commands, not because it comes as a surprise, but because of how completely accepted it is in the body of Christ. Is there any more commonplace relational dynamic in the church than this?

Count the cost and Don't look back are in a sense two ways to say the same thing.

The words the mouth speaks are one of the most accurate measures of what lies deep inside. Careless speech reveals careless character.

At first glance, this may seem but a restating of the command we considered previous to the last. Are we splitting hairs to differentiate between the two?

It will be unpopular, in this time when obedience to the marital commands of Scripture has grown so lax within Christendom, to read this command from the mouth of Jesus as strictly forbidding divorce.

Most of us reading this command will not automatically think of ourselves in connection with such clear violations of integrity as these words indicate.

The profound example of the Apostle John's life is as powerful as the words he recorded of Jesus' farewell conversation and charge to his disciples in the upper room.

Consider the fascinating word grumble. At first glance it seems like such a minor violation of gracious speech. What's the big deal? Why does Paul command us not to grumble? Because it is a seed-sin. It acts like a mustard seed. From it, bigger things grow. Grumbling yields fruit. Its fruits lead to more serious sins.