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A FAIR EXCHANGE
‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father 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. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’ (Mark 10: 28-32).
Sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it? A hundredfold return! Really? But was Jesus speaking literally? If He was, it was not true. What would a person do with a hundred houses, for instance?
Jesus was using a literary device here called hyperbole – exaggeration. It was a common rabbinic teaching method to make a point. What was He getting at? Peter had just commented that he and his fellow disciples had left everything to follow Him. Peter focussed on what they had given up. Loss. For them, following Jesus meant loss. But again, was that true?
If they only took into consideration their material possessions and blood family relationships then yes, it was true. But Jesus wanted them to see the bigger picture. Way back in the book of Psalms, King David recorded a discovery he had made as a young shepherd boy. Translated from the Hebrew,it reads like this:
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall lack nothing (Psa. 23:1).
Another meaning of lack can be, “I shall never be diminished.’ David has learned that anyone who trusted and obeyed the Lord was never a loser. In the natural, of course, many people who have followed the Lord have lost everything, including their lives. However, Jesus always looked beyond the natural because that was only a part of this life. Life in “this present age”, as He called it, is transient at best. Humans have a limited time on earth and then it’s over. But is it?
There is an “age to come” in which God will restore everything that has been damaged and destroyed by Adam’s disobedience. This present age is a preparation for that eternal age where everything will be restored to its original perfection to fulfil God’s original purpose. To be a part of that realm where God’s reign will extend over everything and everyone who submits to Him as God and Lord, we must submit to His instructions in this life. God’s intention is to have a family of human beings who are exactly like His Son, living in union with the Godhead in perfect harmony because He created us to be one with Him.
This is the background to Jesus’ promise to His disciples. They had left their earthly families and possessions to follow Him, but He promised them many more homes and families because they had become members of God’s “forever” family through faith in Jesus. It was His intention that His children share everything they had with one another so that no one would ever experience lack. They did not have to wait until they left this earth to know what it was like to be members of God’s redeemed family.
One of the first signs, according to Jesus, of a new heart is a new attitude to our money and possessions. We are stewards of what God has entrusted to us, not owners. Jesus commended Zacchaeus for the turnaround that had happened to him when he met Him.
Salvation has come to this house, He said, ‘because this man, too, is a son of Abraham (Luke 19: 9)
Since we do not own our “stuff” – it all belongs to God – He has the right to tell us how to use it.
The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psa. 24:1).
Unfortunately, many of God’s children have not grasped this truth and, because of that, there is not equality in the family of God. He does not want us to hoard what we have. Of course, it is right that we make provision for the future. The attitude that “I can spend it all now because God will take care of me” is not spiritual; it’s stupid. But at the same time, we have a duty to take care of those for whom we are responsible, which includes our spiritual authority, i.e., our pastor and those who are full-time employees of the church, our families and the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien.
When we obey God’s instructions and do what is right, He has promised that we will never be diminished by our association with Him. Why then are there so many believers who are in want. Has Jesus failed to keep His promise? No. His people have failed to believe Him and do what He says. We, in the end set the measure of what we receive from God.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you again (Luke 6: 38).
Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.
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