Later, after not many days, the younger son gathered all things together and traveled abroad into a distant country, and there squandered his property by living a debauched life. When he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred throughout that country, and he started to be in need. He even went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to herd swine.

10. How are many today like the younger son of Jesus’ illustration?

¹⁰ A considerable number of persons today have taken a course much like that of the younger son when leaving his father’s house.a Some, to escape temporary abuse or persecution from friends, relatives or others, have abandoned true worship. Others have preferred the course of independence from God because of wanting to engage in the very things that are condemned by him, including sexual immorality, thievery and drunkenness. (1 Cor. 6:9, 10) Still others, believing that serving Jehovah takes too much time away from the pursuit of pleasure or hinders one from getting ahead in the world, have stopped their study of the Bible. Regardless of whatever other reasons there may be, those who have held back from doing the divine will or who have stopped doing it show that there is something more important or worth while to them than faithfully serving their Creator.

11, 12. What is the condition of those who have gone astray?

¹¹ All such persons are spiritually famished and far removed from Jehovah God, as if in a distant country. They are a part of Satan’s world and in slavery to him, for “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Compared with the service of the Creator, their slavery to Satan and his world is no more rewarding than the job of herding swine (animals that were unclean according to the terms of the Mosaic law) would have been for a Jew in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Those who have chosen to lead a debauched life as adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals, thieves, and the like, are in a state of spiritual ruin and degradation.