Mark 2:18-20 And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say to him… Men of opposing faiths are often united by a common scare. They are more zealous for religious custom than for the interests of truth. Jesus here puts fasting on its true basis. I. FASTING HAS NO MORAL VALUE IN ITSELF. The appetite may have to be denied from prudential motives, and then fasting becomes a duty. But asceticism, per se, is not a virtue. It is the negation of a vice, but it may be the seed of twenty others, e.g., pride, self-righteousness. II. PRESCRIBED FASTING MAY BE INJURIOUS AND ROB THE PRACTICE OF ITS REAL VALUE. III. FASTING IS IMPOSED BY SORROWFUL EVENTS. A natural instinct indicates its fitness. IV. BENEFICIAL FASTING COMES FROM HEAVENLY FEASTING. It is the time for special activities of the soul. The best rule is — so far as fasting helps you in the elevation and improvement of your highest nature, adopt it; so far as it is injurious to this, avoid it. (D. Davies, M. A.) I. The envious are more busied in censuring the conduct of others, than in rectifying their own. This is one vice belonging to a Pharisee, and which is very common. II. It is another, to desire that everyone should regulate his piety by ours, and embrace our particular customs and devotions. III. It is a third, to speak of others, only that we may have an opportunity to speak of and to distinguish ourselves. It is very dangerous for a man to make himself remarkable by such devout practices as are external and singular, when he is not firmly settled and rooted in internal virtues, and, above all, in humility. (Quesnel.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? |
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