Mark 11:22

Have faith in God - And who could find fault, if the Creator and Proprietor of all things were to destroy, by a single word of his mouth, a thousand of his inanimate creatures, were it only to imprint this important lesson more deeply on one immortal spirit?

They admired the power of Christ's word of command; "Why," said Christ, "a lively active faith would put as great a power into your prayers,

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

Have faith in God - Εχετε πιϚιν θεου is a mere Hebraism: have the faith of God, i.e. have strong faith, or the strongest faith, for thus the Hebrews expressed the superlative degree; so the mountains of God mean exceeding great mountains - the hail of God, exceeding great hail, etc.

Let us learn from these words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the immense importance of faith. This is a lesson which our Lord teaches first by a proverbial saying. Faith shall enable a man to accomplish works, and overcome difficulties, as great and formidable as the "removing of a mountain, and casting it into the sea." Afterwards the lesson is impressed upon us still further, by a general exhortation to exercise faith when we pray. "Whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them."

Let us learn from these words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the immense importance of faith. This is a lesson which our Lord teaches first by a proverbial saying. Faith shall enable a man to accomplish works, and overcome difficulties, as great and formidable as the "removing of a mountain, and casting it into the sea." Afterwards the lesson is impressed upon us still further, by a general exhortation to exercise faith when we pray. "Whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them." This promise must of course be taken with a reasonable qualification. It assumes that a believer will ask things which are not sinful, and which are in accordance with the will of God. When He asks such things, he may confidently believe that his prayer will be answered. To use the words of James, "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." (James 1:6.) The faith here commended must be distinguished from that faith which is essential to justification. In principle undoubtedly all true faith is one and the same. It is always trust or belief. But in the object and operations of faith, there are diversities, which it is useful to understand. Justifying faith is that act of the soul by which a man lays hold on Christ, and has peace with God. Its special object is the atonement for sin which Jesus made on the cross. The faith spoken of in the passage now before us is a grace of more general signification, the fruit and companion of justifying faith, but still not to be confounded with it. It is rather a general confidence in God's power, wisdom, and goodwill towards believers. And its special objects are the promises, the word, and the character of God in Christ. Confidence in God's power and will to help every believer in Christ, and in the truth of every word that God has spoken, is the grand secret of success and prosperity in our religion.

THIS exhortation stands in connection with the miracle of the withering of the fig tree that was clad with leaves but bore no fruit. The peculiarity of the parable calls for a few words of explanation, before we proceed, to enforce the moral appended to it. To many readers it seems strange and inconsistent that as it was not the time for figs, our Lord should have expected to find figs upon the tree at all. They wonder how it was that He should blame the fig tree for not having figs when the time of figs was not yet come. But it is because we do not live in the land of fig trees that we do not understand this, for, according to the natural order of production, the fig fruit precedes the foliage. The fig tree, first of all, puts forth its figs at the end of the shoots—the little knobs beginning to form in the early spring and the figs becoming very fairly developed before any leaves appear—so that if a fig tree has leaves upon it, it ought to have figs in a considerable state of ripeness. This fig tree, at a time when no figs were expected and far less any leaves, seemed to have outstripped all its fellow fig trees. It seemed to have gone far ahead of them—to have been in advance of its own responsibilities as a fig tree. It seemed to have exceeded all the demands of the season and to have reached a state of supernatural fruit-bearing which no other fig tree had dreamed of reaching. There were leaves. The Savior went up and, finding the leaves which ought to have denoted figs in a considerable state of ripeness, He glanced around, but finding no single fig to justify the large pretense, He said, "Henceforth let no fruit grow on you forever." You know that occasionally trees do leaf at abnormal times.

THIS exhortation stands in connection with the miracle of the withering of the fig tree that was clad with leaves but bore no fruit. The peculiarity of the parable calls for a few words of explanation, before we proceed, to enforce the moral appended to it. To many readers it seems strange and inconsistent that as it was not the time for figs, our Lord should have expected to find figs upon the tree at all.