But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
This verse comes from a larger conversation in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus is responding to his disciple Peter, who has just pointed out that the disciples have left everything — family, homes, livelihoods — to follow him. Jesus makes a striking promise: anyone who has given up family or home or fields for his sake will receive far more in return — a new and larger community of brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and homes. But embedded in the list of blessings is something jarring: persecutions. Jesus doesn't separate the abundance from the suffering — they appear in the same promise. And beyond this life, he promises eternal life. He is not offering an easier existence. He is offering a fuller one, at real cost.
Jesus, you never promised easy — you promised more. More community, more belonging, more life, and yes, more cost. Help me trust that the persecutions and the abundance really do come wrapped together, and that what you're offering is worth whatever I'm still holding too tightly right now. Amen.
Read the list again slowly: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields. Good things. Warm things. The stuff of a life well-lived. And then, right there in the middle of the abundance, like a stone hidden in a handful of raisins — persecutions. Jesus doesn't bury it in the fine print. He doesn't save it for a follow-up conversation when everyone is feeling more spiritually resilient. He says it as plainly as he says the good stuff. Whatever the Christian life is, according to Jesus himself, it is not a vending machine that dispenses blessings in exchange for devotion. It is something stranger, more costly, and somehow — he seems to believe — more beautiful than that. Maybe you came to faith expecting things to get smoother. Maybe you believed, on some level, that following Jesus would iron out the rough edges of life. And then the rough edges got rougher. Here's what Jesus seems to be saying: the abundance is real and the cost is real, and they come together — you don't get to choose one and leave the other. He's not asking you to pretend the hard parts aren't hard. He's asking you to stay anyway, trusting that what waits on the other side of the staying is something that doesn't fit inside any category you've tried yet.
Why do you think Jesus included "persecutions" in the same list as homes, family, and fields? What does that placement tell you about how he understood what it actually means to follow him?
Have you ever experienced unexpected abundance — a sense of belonging, community, or provision — as a direct result of following Jesus? What did that actually look like in your life?
Jesus's promise here doesn't separate blessing from suffering — they arrive together. How does that challenge the common assumption that faith should make life more comfortable or predictable?
Knowing that difficulty is part of the promise (not a sign something has gone wrong with your faith), how does that change the way you relate to someone who is struggling and starting to doubt?
Is there something you've been holding onto too tightly — reluctant to risk or release for the sake of following Jesus? What does his promise here speak into that specific thing?
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Malachi 3:10
For bodily exercise profiteth little : but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
1 Timothy 4:8
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Philippians 3:8
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried , he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
James 1:12
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Matthew 19:29
And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
Matthew 19:16
who will not receive a hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms—along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
AMP
who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
ESV
but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
NASB
will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.
NIV
who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
NKJV
will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property — along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.
NLT
will lose out. They'll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life!
MSG