If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed?

Question

How can a mustard seed have faith?

(Luke 17:6) And the Lord said, If 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.

Answer 1

In Matthew's parable using the mustard seed (a parallel passage), Jesus clearly explained this in the passage immediately following:

"Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." (Matthew 13:31)

He uses hyperbole to get the point across. The point is, if a mustard seed, though it is small, can grow so large, so too can small faith do great things.

Answer 2

have you ever seen a mustard seed? just look at how small it is!!

what Jesus was saying was this, "All you have to do is have faith in God that is the size of a mustard seed and you can move mountains and do anything through that faith in God."

My mom always told me, that everyone is born with faith that is the size of a mustard seed, but when you look to God and believe, God will begin to water that faith(the size of a mustard seed) and that faith will begin to sprout into something even bigger! thus the mustard seed will now grow in size.

If you read about Jesus' miracles He always asked the people if they believed He can do it or not. He even got a response from a man who asked to strengthen his belief that Jesus can do it and Jesus did! Martha believed and had faith in Jesus when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

All you need is faith the size of a mustard seed and look what Jesus did for the people because of their faith.

Answer 3

The Lord was referring to how much faith you need in order to change things in your life by having a little faith in him and a mustard seed is more like the quantity of faith it takes to get things rolling.

Answer 4

This is figurative. The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. Jesus was saying that if one had even the smallest amount of faith they would be able to accomplish remarkable things through Him.

Answer 5

The mustard seed is one of the tiniest of all seeds,yet yields such a large tree,with very little effort.

Jesus was simply saying,a tiny bit of faith goes a long way and is limitless in power and prospective capabilities.

Answer 6

*** w08 1/15 p. 30 par. 8 Highlights From the Book of Matthew *** 17:20. We need faith to overcome mountainlike obstacles that interfere with our spiritual progress and to cope with difficulties. We should not be negligent about building and strengthening our faith in Jehovah and his promises.—Mark 11:23; Luke 17:6. *** gt chap. 105 Beginning of a Crucial Day *** But why did Jesus kill the tree? He indicates why when he goes on to say: “Truly I say to you, If only you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what I did to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain [the Mount of Olives on which they are standing], ‘Be lifted up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all the things you ask in prayer, having faith, you will receive.” So by causing the tree to wither, Jesus is providing for his disciples an object lesson on their need to have faith in God. As he states: “All the things you pray and ask for have faith that you have practically received, and you will have them.” What an important lesson for them to learn, especially in view of the awesome tests that are soon to come! *** cj chap. 2 p. 71 Chapter 2 *** the individual who claims to keep practically all the Law, and therefore, to be righteous. It is the tendency of men to choose the parts of the Scriptures that they want to follow, but to minimize the importance of the other parts. he has become an offender against them all The Law made up of many decrees is an entirety and is not to be fractionalized. (Col. 2:13, 14, 16; Gal. 5:14) Consequently, if a person breaks one of the commandments of the Law, he mars the whole code, and thus he is “an offender against them all.” A person cannot claim that he is really being obedient to God and showing love to him and at the same time be violating any part of his law. In worldly courts, a person is tried for breaking a specific law. Say, for example, that a man embezzles a sum of money. It may be true that he has always kept all the other laws; this violation is his first offense. Yet his past record does not excuse him before the court for breaking this law regarding embezzling. He is treated as a transgressor of the law for that offense, a lawbreaker, no matter how upright he may be in other matters (though his sentence may be lighter than that of a habitual lawbreaker). The judge does not say, ‘He kept a thousand other laws; he only broke the one on stealing, so we will excuse him for breaking this one.’ According to the foregoing facts, the Mosaic law showed all to be sinners because no one could keep it perfectly. The apostle Paul explained: “Now the Law does not adhere to faith, but ‘he that does them shall live by means of them [by actual obedience to every commandment].’” (Gal. 3:12) It is not through the attempted keeping of that law that one can be justified before God—he is, instead, actually convicted as a transgressor because of not really keeping the law.

Answer 7

He was speaking in regard to the size of the mustard seed. It is almost microscopic in size. It takes very little faith in God to be able to accomplish much in His name. We can't take credit for what is accomplished, for it is His accomplishment not ours.

Answer 8

i think it's talking about the amount of faith (i.e. even as small as a seed).

Answer 9

Are you being serious or playing around? if you are playing its cute. If you are serious than you must be a child who needs to have explained to him the meaning of phrasing

Answer 10

It only refers to the amount of faith. It seems then that the Christian church is made up entirely of faithless people, or perhaps all of their faith has been misplaced.