Mark 10:29

At this point Peter broke in and said, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." I think it was a pity that Peter said that. But the Lord's reply amounts to this: "You have made a very good thing out of it. It is a good thing for you that you did, Peter." If you have left all and followed Jesus, you have made a good thing out of it. You have not lost anything. What have you lost?

Note that only Mark mentions "and the gospel's." It is service that is so prominent here. Others may say, "for His sake." Here we read, "for my sake, and the gospel's." So the worth of Christ Himself is, as it were, tied to the service of Christ in this world.

To leave for the reward would be worthless, and, what is more, it never lasts. Christ is the only effective attraction, the motive that governs a renewed heart... Rewards will follow later, but saints do not follow the rewards; they follow the Lord.

The Lord's words, however, show that it is not the mere fact of leaving all that will be rewarded, but doing so from a right motive. It must not be done to exalt self, or even to gain a reward, but as the Lord says, "For my sake and the gospel's."

We should notice the disjunctive conjunction or in verse 29, and the connecting conjunction and in verse 30. One might be called to surrender "houses, or brothers, or sisters," and so on. Such a person shall receive a hundredfold, which is expanded into "houses, and brothers, and sisters," and so on. These two little words, or and and, add weight to the gracious declaration.

If we leave the circle of our unconverted and natural relations, we shall find we are in the far larger circle of the family of God. This may result in a measure of persecution from the world circle that we have left, but it is the pathway into life.

The Lord here omits "wife" — there is no promise to give him back this; this stands on other and its own ground... The word "mothers" shows that this is not meant in a natural sense only. Yet on the other side it is the enjoyment of real present things. In the Church a person finds what fills the gap a hundredfold, the gap made by these breaks... There may be infinitely more than a hundredfold for giving up a wife, in love to Christ and the Church, yet that is never made up in what is given back... Christ alone can make it up.

Many young men are like Jonathan, when he did not fully follow David. They do not stand for the Lord. They escape persecution, but they escape more than that. They escape the support of Christ; they escape the enjoyment of the love of Christ; and they escape the privilege of being a witness for Christ.