The episode of healing the possessed man, of freeing him from the power of dark forces, is remarkable for a detail to which the evangelist pays special attention...
The episode of healing the possessed man, of freeing him from the power of dark forces, is remarkable for a detail to which the evangelist pays special attention. He writes that Jesus' disciples could not drive the demon out of the man possessed by it, and that only the Savior Himself succeeded. His words about the faithless generation, or "race," are often understood as addressed to the possessed man's relatives, first of all to his father, who had brought his son to Jesus' disciples.
Yet the question of the addressee of these words remains open. They could equally have been addressed to the disciples, who could not do what they had already had to do more than once, at least during the mission on which their Teacher had once sent them. Then, during that mission, they had had to drive out demons and free possessed people from the power of dark forces. Perhaps this is precisely why the possessed man's father turns to them: reports of healings performed by the disciples of this mysterious Man had most likely reached him.
It turned out, however, that even the disciples were not as strong as people said, and then all that remained was to turn to their Teacher. If even He could not help, then the case was hopeless. Jesus, of course, succeeds, and He pronounces those very words about the faithless generation. Later the disciples ask Him: why did it not work for us? The question was reasonable. They remembered that it had worked before, and they must have perceived their failure as an annoying mistake whose cause they needed to learn in order to avoid such errors in the future. Jesus answers by speaking about prayer, without which nothing will work.
In later editions of the Gospel text, a mention of fasting is added to prayer; it is absent from the earlier editions. But this addition, which probably existed originally as a marginal note, changes nothing essential, since fasting has meaning only when it contributes to intensified prayer. The meaning of the answer is clear: the disciples' main mistake was that they decided they had already achieved something, received something, acquired some new quality of spiritual life that was now inalienable. Jesus tells them this is not so, that all their achievements are possible only in the context of continuous spiritual movement connected with continuous prayer; only then are miracles, healings, and the casting out of evil spirits possible.
Once a person stops spiritually and falls out of this spiritual movement, he loses everything and becomes completely powerless, as the disciples were before the possessed man. This is no surprise: miracles and healings are possible only by the power of the Kingdom and its breath, and they exist only in continuous movement, which in turn is possible only with continuous conscious relationships with Christ. It is no accident that Jesus speaks of a faithless generation, for precisely such relationships are called faith, and this is what the disciples lacked.
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1:19 Let every man be swift to hear - This is treated of from Jam 1:21 to the end of the next chapter. Slow to speak - Which is treated of in he third chapter.Slow to wrath - Neither murmuring at God, nor angry at his neighbour. This is treated of in the third, and throughout the fourth and fifth chapters.
1:20 The righteousness of God here includes all duties prescribed by him, and pleasing to him.
1:21 Therefore laying aside - As a dirty garment. All the filthiness and superfluity of wickedness - For however specious or necessary it may appear to worldly wisdom, all wickedness is both vile, hateful, contemptible, and really superfluous.Every reasonable end may be effectually answered without any kind or degree of it. Lay this, every known sin, aside, or all your hearing is vain. With meekness - Constant evenness and serenity of mind. Receive - Into your ears, your heart, your life. The word - Of the gospel. Ingrafted - In believers, by regeneration, Jam 1:18 and by habit, Heb 5:14.Which is able to save your souls - The hope of salvation nourishes meekness.
1:23 Beholding his face in a glass - How exactly does the scripture glass show a man the face of his soul!
1:24 He beheld himself, and went away - To other business.And forgot - But such forgetting does not excuse.
1:25 But he that looketh diligently - Not with a transient glance, but bending down, fixing his eyes, and searching all to the bottom. Into the perfect law - Of love as established by faith. St. James here guards us against misunderstanding what St. Paul says concerning the "yoke and bondage of the law." He who keeps the law of love is free, Joh 8:31, etc He that does not, is not free, but a slave to sin, and a criminal before God, Jam 2:10.And continueth therein - Not like him who forgot it, and went away. This man - There is a peculiar force in the repetition of the word. Shall be happy - Not barely in hearing, but doing the will of God.
1:26 If any one be ever so religious - Exact in the outward offices of religion. And bridleth not his tongue - From backbiting, talebearing, evilspeaking, he only deceiveth his own heart, if he fancies he has any true religion at all.
1:27 The only true religion in the sight of God, is this, to visit - With counsel, comfort, and relief. The fatherless and widows - Those who need it most. In their affliction - In their most helpless and hopeless state. And to keep himself unspotted from the world - From the maxims, tempers, and customs of it. But this cannot be done, till we have given our hearts to God, and love our neighbour as ourselves.