What does it mean to have mustard seed faith?

Teaching such as this made the disciples feel that they needed to have their faith increased. The Lord's reply seems to infer that it is not a question of the quantity of faith but of its vitality. A mustard seed is very small but it is alive! Live faith accomplishes results of a supernatural order. Many a time have heavy paving stones been forced up by tender sprouts, proceeding from live seeds embedded beneath them. Even vegetable life has powers which appear miraculous, and much more so faith which is living. Nevertheless no faith that we have and no service that we render gives us any kind of claim upon God. We can never accomplish more than it was our duty to do. This seems to be the truth inculcated in verses 7-10.

The connection and meaning of this passage are very interesting. The Lord had just been teaching the solemnity of being a cause of stumbling to one of His "little ones," and that, to avoid this, we must take heed to ourselves, so that we may never be weary of forgiving our brother if he trespass against us. Rebuke him we may, and should; but if he repent, he is instantly to be forgiven; and if he trespass against us seven times a day, and says on each occasion, "I repent," forgiveness is never to be wanting. This is grace. God never wearies in forgiving us when we confess our sins, and we, as exponents of His heart, are to exhibit the same readiness to forgive the sins of our brother. (Compare Matt. 18:21-22.) The apostles evidently failed to comprehend the far-reaching character of this instruction, and yet as evidently felt their need of something more than they had hitherto received if they were to carry it out in practice. They thus interposed with the prayer, "Lord, increase our faith." In answer to this, the Lord, while graciously recognizing the need that turned to Him, reminds them that it is not so much a question of the increase of their faith, as the exercise of what they already possessed.* "If," He says, "ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you." Now a mustard seed is the "least of all seeds" (Matt. 13:32); and consequently our Lord teaches that all the power of God is linked with the exercise of the smallest degree of faith; that faith, be it small or be it great, takes hold upon omnipotent power; and hence it is that "all things are possible to him that believeth." The father, for example, who cried, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief," received the answer in the healing of his child, equally with the centurion whose faith surpassed that of any in Israel. (Mark 9:24; Luke 7:7-9.) E. D.

Nevertheless the apostles (for so it is expressed here for our instruction) — "the apostles said to the Lord, Give more faith to us." They felt that such a demand was entirely beyond them.426b "But the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard [seed] ye had said unto this sycamine tree,427 Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea; and it would have obeyed you." (Matt. 17:20; Matt. 21:21 Mark 11:23.) Thus faith works what is impossible to man, to nature; and this, too, wherever there is a grain of reality, be it ever so small. For whether faith be little or strong, if real, it brings in God; and God is the same God in answer to little faith as to great. There may be a great difference as regards the result for sensible enjoyment; but God answers in His grace the feeblest exercise of faith in Him. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard [seed], ye had said unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea [an entire contrariety to the course of nature], and it would have obeyed you." We must always hold, as believers, the superiority of God to all circumstances. "Have": so Edd. as ℵABFL, etc., 1, 33, 69. DEGH, Old Lat. "had."

A great difference may be apprehended between these apparently similar scriptures. Both speak, it is true, of an increase of faith (though the word rendered "increase" is not the same in both), but the connection and context widely vary. After the Lord's instruction concerning the unlimited character of grace in forgiving a brother who might trespass against them, and perhaps with the sense of need produced by what they had heard, "The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith." The word "increase" might here mean "add to" our faith, or "give more" faith to us. The Lord's answer would seem to teach two things; first, that the smallest degree of faith is sufficient, when in exercise, for the achievement of the greatest things; and, secondly, that faith is strengthened by exercise, that the feeblest display of confidence in God tends, through His grace, to beget more, for it is faith, whatever its degree, whether small or great, that brings God in, and, when He is brought in, the soul learns that as all things are possible with Him, so are they possible to him that believeth. To justify this interpretation it may be added that verse 6 should read, if ye have (not had) faith; for if the reading of our translation were correct, it might convey the thought that the apostles had hitherto no faith.

The second scripture may be best explained by a contrast. When the Lord was down here, we read that on one occasion He was limited by the unbelief of the people, and so much so that it is said, "He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief." (Mark 6:5-6.) The apostle, on the other hand, had hope, on (we give a more accurate rendering) "your faith increasing to be enlarged amongst you"; meaning thereby that his liberty in service, and the display of power amongst them in preaching the word, were greatly connected with, and influenced by, the faith of the saints. This truth needs to be remembered by God's people; for if the blessed Lord was hindered in His labours by the unbelief of those around Him, how much more are His servants? Nothing can be sadder than the fact that preachers of the word may be received by those to whom they are sent, almost without any faith or expectation. It was because the apostle understood this that he looked for increasing faith in the Corinthian saints ere he returned to labour in their midst.

It is little wonder that the apostles ask in such a case, "Lord, increase our faith," for grace and faith are inseparable companions. Only faith can draw the resources of God's grace. The Lord answered that if their faith was only as large as a tiny mustard seed, their word could root up "this mulberry tree" (which is noted for its deep, spreading roots), and cause it to be planted in the sea. Evidently He was referring to the deep-rooted sin that re-asserts itself even seven times in a day. There is such power in the grace of God, when laid hold of by faith, as to root out and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Certainly this is naturally impossible, but faith recognizes that God's grace is greater than every obstacle: it depends on God.

Ver. 20: That is very solemn "because of your unbelief." We are unbelieving believers in many ways. What the Lord does is always worthy of Himself. This was a perfect cure. It is very blessed to put together what God puts together "With God all things are possible" and "All things are possible to him that believeth." I do not like to hear a saint of God speaking much of "my faith," and God answering it; leave out "my" faith. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." I do not hear the Lord once commending the disciples about their great faith, but He often tells them of their little faith. He never says anything to make us pleased with ourselves. It is rather striking that in the introductions to both the Epistles to Timothy the apostle speaks of faith "unfeigned"; so there is a feigned faith. A grain of mustard seed is very small, but an old writer says, "You bite it, and you will find some heat there!" So this grain of faith is true faith though it be but small. I suppose a mountain is a figure of that which looks immoveable, something with a wide firm base. Whatever it is, God can remove it. "Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." when God is going to bring back His people.

In answer to the disciples' question, the Lord tells them that their unbelief was the reason for their inability to cast out the demon. "This mountain" of which the Lord speaks then is the obstacle of their own weak spiritual condition. Genuine simplicity of faith would banish the obstacle, and make nothing impossible. Certainly this implies that nothing consistent with the will of God would be impossible, for faith sees the will of God as predominant. It is impossible to have faith for anything that is contrary to His will. He has laid down the path for faith in His word: if we do not follow it, the obstacle is in ourselves.

But He remained still, only the more seen as the unique dependence of His people. "Bring him to Me," is the assurance of resources that cannot be overtaxed, at the command of a love that cannot be too absolutely relied on. Accordingly the demon departs, and the child is healed. Matthew does not give us the details which we find in Mark, but leaves thus the main point clearer, the glorious power so freely used, where disciples have failed, with all else. But the failure must be searched out, and the disciples themselves inquire about it. They are not conscious of the cause of it, which the Lord had already implicitly declared, and now does explicitly: "Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain; Depart hence, and it shall depart; and nothing shall be impossible to you." This implies, of course, that we are on the path of His appointment for us: for, indeed, faith is impossible for any other; and the suggestive figure of the mountain speaks clearly of the disappearance of the most firmly rooted obstacles in a path like this. In the path of self-will and self-indulgence, how vain would it be to expect anything of this kind! And this the closing words here show: for "prayer" is vain ― "we ask and have not," when we "ask amiss, to consume it upon our lusts" ― or "pleasures" (James 4:3); ― and "fasting," if it is to have any spiritual value, implies self-mortification. People often speak of having (or not having) faith for the path; the truth is, we must have the path for faith: faith for any other path than God's is plainly an impossibility.

It is clear, from chap. 3:15, that there was no excuse for the inability of the disciples to cast out the demon from this poor child. The power had been bestowed upon them, but when this opportunity for its exercise was presented to them, they could not use it. Combining the narrative in Matthew with this in Mark, we learn the whole secret of their failure. In answer to the disciples' own question, "Why could not we cast him out?" Jesus said, "Because of your unbelief"; and He, moreover, told them that nothing would be impossible to them, if they even had faith as a grain of mustard seed. We learn likewise, from both gospels, that for such faith, for the exercise of such victorious power, over the enemy, there must be a corresponding state of soul: "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29.) Prayer is the expression, in confidence in God, of the realization of absolute dependence; and fasting will mean that Nazarite state which refuses lawful things and lawful enjoyments (See Numbers 6:3-7) for the sake of more entire devotedness to the Lord's service. It may sometimes include abstinence from food, but to confine it to this is to miss its main import. A fasting soul is one so filled with the marrow and fatness of heavenly joys, as to be superior to, and independent of, the gratifications of earth. In this condition, faith will be in such vigorous exercise that "mountains" will be removed. (Matthew 17:20.) The same blessed instruction concerning the action of faith may be gathered from the Lord's words to the father of the child, who had cried, "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." The answer was as to its meaning, "the 'If thou canst,' is, 'If thou canst believe' - all things are possible to him that believeth." Whether, therefore, in the Lord's service, or in deep personal need, the indispensable requisite for calling in divine power for succour and deliverance, is faith - faith that looks beyond all difficulties and obstacles, and lays hold of the arm of Omnipotence. And this unutterable grace and privilege are of divine permission and appointment.

Let us then enquire what was the secret of their failure. It lies on the surface, that they knew not how to avail themselves of the power which their Lord had conferred upon them; and He expressly tells them that the cause of this was their unbelief. So plainly does He lead their hearts into the secret of their failure that He adds, "For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." Without the present operation of faith therefore, there can be no display of power through the servant, whatever his earnestness or zeal for the glory of God; whereas, on the other hand, if there be but the smallest degree of faith in exercise, divine power is so brought in that obstacles as large as mountains are removed, and all difficulties are victoriously surmounted.

But this is not all. Had the Lord paused here, it might have been concluded that this victorious faith could easily be obtained and become a common possession. The Lord therefore goes deeper, down to the root of the failure to use the power entrusted to His servants, when He says, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." By these words He teaches most distinctly that faith can only thrive in a congenial soil, that a certain state of soul is requisite for that confidence in God which can call Him in, and avail itself of His power in the emergencies of service.