But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time ( ἑκατονταπλασίονα). St. Luke (Luke 18:30) says ( πολλαπλασίονα) "manifold more"—an indefinite increase, to show the greatness and multitude of the recompense.
He who forsakes his own for the sake of Christ will find others, many in number, who will give him the love of brethren and sisters, with even greater affection; so that he will seem not to have lost or forsaken his own, but to have received them again with interest.
For spiritual affections are far deeper than natural; and his love is stronger who burns with heavenly love which God has kindled, than he who is influenced by earthly love only, which only nature has planted.
But in the fullest sense, he who forsakes these earthly things for the sake of Christ, receives instead, God himself. For to those who forsake all for him, he is himself father, brother, sister, and all things.
So that he will have possessions far richer than what earth can supply; only with persecutions ( μετὰ διωγμῶν). This is a very striking addition. Our Lord here includes "persecutions" in the number of the Christian's blessings.
And no doubt there is a noble sense in which persecutions are really amongst the blessings of the believer. "If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you" (1 Peter 4:14).
St. Peter, who must have had in his mind the "with persecutions" of our Lord when he wrote these words, here shows that the blessedness of the Christian when suffering persecution is this, that he has a special sense of the abiding presence of the Spirit of God, bringing with it the assurance of future glory.
"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: far great is your reward in heaven." The words are also, of course, a warning to the disciples as to the persecutions that awaited them. And in the world to come eternal life.
This is that splendid inheritance in which the blessed shall be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; and so shall possess not only the heaven and the earth, and all things that are in them, hut even God himself, and all honor, all glory, all joy, not merely as occupiers, but as heirs for ever; as long as God himself shall be, who is himself "the eternal God."