“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”

Mar 10:29-30

Now, I’m not very clever with mathematics so it seems like an odd mathematical operation to take one type of thing away and get that number back, multiplied by one hundred, but that’s exactly what Jesus said happens when we give up the most precious things in this world, our homes or families or livelihood, to pursue the Good News of Jesus instead.

“Along with persecutions” might seem like an odd addition in there, but let’s look at it in context. After all, people aren’t really giving up those important things for no reason, they are the cost of discipleship! The persecutions are the reason that we must turn to Jesus and get our hundredfold blessings.

Don’t fear loss for the sake of the cross but anticipate the gain that comes from letting go of the world.

Ethan Kirl