31/05/2026
Peter said this after Jesus’s conversation with the rich man who wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, loving him, had told him to sell everything he had and follow Him, and the man had left him saddened because he had great wealth.
Peter, seeing this, needed reassurance that what he and the other disciples had done had been noticed by Jesus. They’re not like the rich man, they have given up everything to follow Jesus! Jesus’s reply reveals a few things:
① God will never shortchange us. He will reward us, in this age and the age to come, a hundred times as much!
② We will experience suffering and persecution as His followers.
③ To be “first” in this life—whether in status, wealth, education, etc.—isn’t necessarily a leg up in God’s upside down kingdom. While to be “last”, is your opportunity to be “first” in His kingdom.
If you’re like Peter, wondering if God notices your sacrifice, pain, commitment and labour in God’s kingdom, may you be comforted to know that we cannot out-give God, and that His kingdom isn’t like the one we experience in this world, where the strong survives and thrives while the weak languish and perish. And although we will suffer in this life, our hope is in the age to come, and in the promise that He blesses us abundantly while we await eternity. He is for you, He sees you, and He loves you.
