Mark 10:29 Commentary and Bible Study

Christ is answering Peter not quite in the way he expects. He is talking about people who give up a settled home, not willingly, but because they are arrested, or persecuted. He is talking about the Jews, who would be converted on the Day of Pentecost and many of them dispossessed, thrown out of their homes. He is talking about Gentiles, who would be converted soon after Pentecost and they would be thrown out of their trade guilds because they were no longer idolaters, and they wouldn’t be able to work if they refused to worship the idols associated with the guilds. He was talking about the ages of persecution and distress to come.There is no one who has left these, as Peter says that the disciples have, ‘But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions;’ – the Lord adds – ‘and in the world to come eternal life.’ That vital phrase – ‘with persecutions’ – tells us that he is speaking about spiritual gains, not earthly gains. Christ is describing the love that exists within the church. A person who has come to Christ may have been rejected by their family. They may come from a family that will not allow a family member to become a Christian without persecution. That persecution takes the form of rejection by the family, and, so in a sense, by coming to Christ that individual has lost their natural brothers, sisters, father, and mother. But in joining the church of Christ they have gained new brothers, sisters, and mothers, for all these relationships exist in figurative terms in the church of Christ. This is why the word mothers is plural. For this reason Mark records on another occasion: ‘And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. ³³ And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? ³⁴ And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! ³⁵ For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother’ (Mark 3:32-35). The same is true of lands. This is not a text that can be used by the Prosperity Gospel teachers. He speaks of course, not of individuals receiving houses and lands, but that they are going to be members of the kingdom of God, the church of Christ, and in this world that will become so enormous, and throughout all lands. As those who now belong to the kingdom of heaven, they belong to the family of God, and that family will share in some way all that they possess with each other, so that you may say that by coming into the kingdom of Christ, you have all these things in the church of Christ. You have everything ‘with persecution’, and then the everlasting glory. You will receive so much more.