And everyone that has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
All Commentaries on Matthew 19:29 Go To Matthew 19
John Chrysostom
AD 407
For lest any after having heard the word ye, should suppose this a thing peculiar to the disciples (I mean now the enjoying the greatest and first honors in the things to come), He extended the word, and spread the promise over the whole earth, and from the things present establishes the things to come also. And to the disciples also at the beginning, when they were in a more imperfect state, He reasoned from the things present. For when He drew them from the sea, and took them from their trade, and commanded them to forsake the ships, He made mention not of Heaven, not of thrones, but of the things here, saying, I will make you fishers of men; but when He had wrought them to be of higher views, then after that He discourses of the things to come also.
But what is, Judging the twelve tribes of Israel? This is, condemning them. For they are not surely to sit as judges, but like as He said the Queen of the South should condemn that generation, and the Ninevites shall condemn them; so now these also. Therefore He said not, the nations, and the world, but the tribes of Israel. For since both the Jews alike and the apostles had been brought up under the same laws, and customs, and polity; when the Jews said, that for this cause they could not believe in Christ, because the law forbade to receive His commandments, by bringing forward these men, who had received the same law, and yet had believed, He condemns all those; like as even already He had said, therefore they shall be your judges. Matthew 12:27
And what great thing does He promise them, it may be said, if what the Ninevites have and the Queen of the South, this these are to have also? In the first place He had promised them many other things before this, and after this does promise them, and this alone is not their reward.
And besides even in this He intimated by the way something more than these things. For of those He simply said, The men of Nineveh shall rise up and condemn this gen eration, Matthew 12:41 and, The Queen of the South shall condemn it; but concerning these, not merely thus, but how? When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, then shall you also sit upon twelve thrones, says He, declaring, that they also shall reign with Him, and partake of that glory. For if we suffer, it is said, we shall also reign with Him. 2 Timothy 2:12 For neither do the thrones signify a sitting (in judgment), for He alone is the one that shall sit and judge, but honor and glory unspeakable did He intimate by the thrones.
To these then He spoke of these things, but to all the rest of eternal life and an hundredfold here. But if to the rest, much more to these too, both these things, and the things in this life.
And this surely came to pass; for when they had left a fishing rod and a net, they possessed with authority the substances of all, the prices of the houses and the lands, and the very bodies of the believers. For often did they choose even to be slain for their sake, as Paul also bears witness to many, when he says, If it had been possible ye would have plucked out your eyes, and given them to me. Galatians 4:51 But when He says, Every one who has forsaken wife, He says not this, for marriages to be broken asunder for nought, but as He says concerning one's life, He that loses his life for my sake shall find it, Matthew 10:39 not that we should destroy ourselves, neither that while yet here we should part it from the body, but that we should prefer godliness to all things; this too He says also with respect to wife and brethren.
But He seems to me here to intimate also the persecutions. For since there were many instances both of fathers urging their sons to ungodliness, and wives their husbands; when they command these things, says He, let them be neither wives nor parents, even as Paul likewise said, But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. 1 Corinthians 7:15
