The Reward For Those Who Follow JESUS

"Peter spoke up and said, 'We have given up everything to follow YOU.  JESUS answered, 'Truly, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands, for MY sake, and for the gospel, who will not receive his reward.  I say to you: even in the midst of persecution, he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in the present time; and, in the world to come, eternal life.  Do pay attention: many who now are the first will be last, and the last, first.'" - Mark 10:28-31 

(There is no one who has left house... These words of JESUS that we find again in Mathew 19:29 and Luke 18:29 have been given here a notable addition: with persecution.  Once the Gospel had been preached the Church began to suffer persecution: From the year 34, then again in 41 and 62 in Jerusalem, in 64 in Rome with the great persecution ordered by the emperor Nero.  During these persecutions Christians experienced the bonds that united them, often stronger than family relationships.  Hunted, obliged to hide, they found hundreds of brothers and sisters ready with houses to give them refuge.  JESUS does not only speak of reward in the next life.  Already in this world, in the midst of persecution, those who sacrifice themselves for the kingdom will find friendship, joy an human fulfillment far greater than anything they could have hoped for.)

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