The question of authority concerned, of course, not the formal legal side, but the spiritual one. The people listening to Jesus, deeply religious people, ask it because they want to know where He gets the power by which He performs His miracles and healings...
The question of authority concerned, of course, not the formal legal side, but the spiritual one. The people listening to Jesus, deeply religious people, ask it because they want to know where He gets the power by which He performs His miracles and healings. Jesus asks them a counterquestion that would seem unrelated to the topic: a question about the washings ("baptisms") that John performed. In reality, however, there is a connection, and it concerns the meaning of the question asked of Jesus, above all its spiritual meaning. Those listening to Jesus, representatives of religious authority and teachers of the Torah, called here "scribes," want to know from whom Jesus received the authorization that allows Him to do what He does.
It might seem strange to speak of authorization in the work of God, but religious consciousness always remains true to itself, and for a religious person even the action of God's power is genuine only when it fits within the framework of certain religious criteria. God can act only "correctly," and if there is a manifestation of power acting "incorrectly," then that power cannot be God's. The question asked of Jesus was precisely a question about criteria; they wanted Him to justify the "correctness" of the power by which He healed and worked miracles.
In such a context the counterquestion about John's washings was entirely appropriate. The point is not only that the power there and here was one and that its Source was one. The point is also the ability to see and recognize. The one who could not or would not see the spiritual authenticity and purity of what John was doing would not see the spiritual authenticity and purity of what the Savior was doing. Meanwhile, those listening to Jesus did not want to see the obvious. They were more concerned with what people would think of them than with the truth. In such a spiritual state one will not see what is real, and this is what Jesus points out to the priests and teachers of the Torah who are listening to Him.
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4:14 Fluctuating to and fro - From within, even when there is no wind. And carried about with every wind - From without; when we are assaulted by others, who are unstable as the wind. By the sleight of men - By their "cogging the dice;" so the original word implies.
4:15 Into him - Into his image and Spirit, and into a full union with him.
4:16 From whom the whole mystical body fitly joined together - All the parts being fitted for and adapted to each other, and most exactly harmonizing with the whole. And compacted - Knit and cemented together with the utmost firmness. Maketh increase by that which every joint supplieth - Or by the mutual help of every joint. According to the effectual working in the measure of every member - According as every member in its measure effectually works for the support and growth of the whole. A beautiful allusion to the human body, composed of different joints and members, knit together by various ligaments, and furnished with vessels of communication from the head to every part.
4:17 This therefore I say - He returns thither where he begun, Eph 4:1.And testify in the Lord - In the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus. In the vanity of their mind - Having lost the knowledge of the true God, Rom 1:21. This is the root of all evil walking.
4:18 Having their understanding darkened, through the ignorance that is in them - So that they are totally void of the light of God, neither have they any knowledge of his will.Being alienated from the life of God - Utter strangers to the divine, the spiritual life. Through the hardness of their hearts - Callous and senseless. And where there is no sense, there can be no life.
4:19 Who being past feeling - The original word is peculiarly significant. It properly means, past feeling pain. Pain urges the sick to seek a remedy, which, where there is no pain, is little thought of. Have given themselves up - Freely, of their own accord. Lasciviousness is but one branch of uncleanness, which implies impurity of every kind.