Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin (continued)
HARMONY OF THE EVANGELISTS
(Colossians 2:7,) "that we may not be tossed and driven about by every wind of doctrine," (Ephesians 4:14) that we may not give way at every attack. The general meaning of the passage is, that true piety is not fully distinguished from its counterfeit,485 till it comes to the trial. For the temptations, by which we are tried, are like billows and storms, which easily overwhelm unsteady minds, whose lightness is not perceived during the season of prosperity.
Who heareth these sayings The relative these denotes not one class of sayings, but the whole amount of doctrine. He means, that the Gospel, if it be not deeply rooted in the mind, is like a wall, which has been raised to a great height, but does not rest on any foundation. "That faith (he says) is true, which has its roots deep in the heart, and rests on an earnest and steady affection as its foundation, that it may not give way to temptations." For such is the vanity of the human mind, that all build upon the sand, who do not dig so deep as to deny themselves.
28. When Jesus had finished these sayings By these sayings I understand not only the discourse which he delivered when he came down from the mountain, but the rest of the doctrine, which had already been made known to the people. The meaning therefore is, that, where he had given the people, on all sides, a taste of his doctrine, all were seized with astonishment, because a strange, indescribable, and unwonted majesty drew to him the minds of men. What is meant by his teaching them as having authority, and not as the scribes, I have already explained.486
485"Qu'on ne peut pas bien discerner la vraye crainte de Dieu, d'avecques une feintise et vaine apparence d' icelle;" — "that the true fear of God cannot be well distinguished from a dissembling and vain appearance of it."
486A parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark (1:22) having already occurred, the reader will find Calvin's exposition of these remarkable words at page 247 of this volume. — Ed.