Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin
Matthew 17:19-21; Mark 9:28-29; Luke 17:5-6
Matthew 17:19-21; Mark 9:28-29; Luke 17:5-6
Matthew 17:19-21
Mark 9:28-29
Luke 17:5-6
19. Then the disciples, coming to Jesus apart, said, Why could not we cast it out?
20. And Jesus said to them, On account of your unbelief; for verily I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain. Remove thou hence, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21. But this kind 1098 goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
28. And when he had entered into the house, his disciples asked him apart, Why could not we cast out? 29. And he said to them, This kind 1099 cannot go out in any other way than by prayer and fasting.
5. And the apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. 6. And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you might say to this sycamore tree. Be thou rooted up and planted in the sea; and it would obey you.
Matthew 17:19. Then the disciples coming. The disciples wonder that the power which they once possessed has been taken from them; but they had lost it by their own fault. Christ therefore attributes this want of ability to their unbelief, and repeats and illustrates more largely the statement which he had previously made, that nothing is impossible to faith It is a hyperbolical mode of expression, no doubt, when he declares that faith removes trees and mountains; but the meaning amounts to this, that God will never forsake us, if we keep the door open for receiving his grace. He does not mean that God will give us every thing that we may mention, or that may strike our minds at random. On the contrary, as nothing is more at variance with faith than the foolish and irregular desires of our flesh, it follows that those in whom faith reigns do not desire every thing without discrimination, but only that which the Lord promises to give. Let us therefore maintain such moderation as to desire nothing beyond what he has promised to us, and to confine our prayers within that rule
1098"Mais ceste sorte [de diables] ne sort point;" — "but this kind [of devils] goeth not out." 1099"Ceste espece [de diables] ne sort point;" — "this kind [of devils] goeth not out."