Mark 10:31

The Lord adds a searching word, "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." This would surely be a warning against the self-satisfaction we are all so prone to, and which seems to have marked Peter's words when he said, "See, we have left everything." What, in fact, had he left, but a few old nets that needed mending! Let us beware of boasting in what we have given up for Christ. The real question is not what we left in the past, but what we are doing today.

There is a solemn word. "But many who are first will be last" — and I will tell you who in particular: those who think much of their losses and talk much about them. They are the very men who get weary of this trial, and the reason is plain. If they were filled with Christ they would not be talking about what they have done and what they have lost. But, thank God, He will always fill up: "and the last first." That is a serious thing for both sides — a blessing in one case, but very humbling in the other.

To leave for the reward would be worthless, and, moreover, never lasts. Christ is the only effective attraction, the motive that governs a renewed heart. There is pasture for the sheep, there is the flock also; but the sheep follow Christ, for they know His voice. Rewards will follow later, but saints do not follow the rewards — they follow the Lord.

The reward is an encouragement, when, for His sake, we are already in the way. This is always true when the New Testament speaks of reward.

The Lord evidently spoke verse 31 as a warning and corrective to Peter. Pushing yourself forward here may not mean the first place there. Everything depends on the motive underlying the service. If Peter wished to drive a bargain — so much following for so much reward — that alone would show a defective motive. Still, it does not say that all who are first will be last, and all the last first. Paul went ahead of all in his day, and who can challenge the purity of his motive, or the reality of his devotion to his Lord?

"But many who are first will be last, and the last first," is added here with weight, as in Matthew. It is not the beginning of the race that decides the contest. The end of it is what counts. In that race there are many changes, and, along with them, not a few slips, falls, and reverses.

Some began to run well, but turned aside from grace to law. And Peter himself was blamed by the last of the apostles — who was also the first — as we know from Galatians.

If one desired the recognition of being first, this might reduce him to the last place. We may hope that Peter did not have this in his thoughts when he spoke as he did, but the one who gladly takes the last place now will very likely receive the first in the end.

In the day to come, a thousand of our fine sermons may prove to be only dust and ashes — sermons we prided ourselves on, and for which others may have praised us. Meanwhile some little bit of Christ in our lives, which we may have entirely forgotten, will shine out in all its beauty and receive its bright reward.