Because of your unbelief - Are we preachers of the Gospel? Do the things of God rest upon our minds with a deep and steady conviction? Can we expect that a doctrine which we do not, from conviction, credit ourselves, can be instrumental in our hands of begetting faith in others? So we preached, end so ye believed. The word preached generally begets in the people the same spirit which the preacher possesses. Instead of απιϚιαν, unbelief, the famous Vatican MS. and Cod. Cyprius, six others, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Arabic, Origen, and Chrysostom, read ολιγοπιϚιαν, littleness of faith. The disciples had some faith, but not enough - they believed, but not fully.

As a grain of mustard seed - Some eminent critics think this a proverbial expression, intimating a Great Degree of faith, because removing mountains, which St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:2, attributes to All Faith; i.e. the greatest possible degree of faith, is attributed here, by our Lord, to that faith which is as a grain of mustard seed. However this may be, there can be no doubt that our Lord means, as Bishop Pearce well remarks, a thriving and increasing faith; which like the grain of mustard seed, from being the least of seeds, becomes the greatest of all herbs; even a tree in whose branches the fowls of the air take shelter. See Wakefield's Comment, and the note on Matthew 13:32 (note).

Because.

Matthew 17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?...

Matthew 14:30,31 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me...

Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

If.

Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, and doubt not...

Mark 11:23 For truly I say to you, That whoever shall say to this mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea...

Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, Be you plucked up by the root...

1 Corinthians 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

1 Corinthians 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith...

faith. That is, as Bp. Pearce well remarks, a thriving and increasing faith, like a grain of mustard seed, which, from being the least of seeds, becomes the greatest of all herbs.

a grain.

Matthew 13:31 Another parable put he forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took...

Mark 4:31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:

nothing.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Luke 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

The Coin in the Fish's Mouth
'And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest them, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? 26. Peter saith unto Him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.'--MATT. xvii. 25, 26. All our Lord's miracles are 'signs' as well as 'wonders.' They have a meaning. They not only authenticate His teaching, but they are themselves no inconsiderable portion of the teaching. They are not …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

1 to Pray is as it were to be on Speaking Terms with Me...
1. To pray is as it were to be on speaking terms with Me, and so by being in communion with and abiding in Me to become like Me. There is a kind of insect which feeds upon and lives among grass and green leaves and becomes like them in colour. Also the polar bear dwelling among the white snows has the same snowy whiteness, and the tiger of Bengal bears upon its skin the marks of the reeds among which it lives. So those, who by means of prayer abide in communion with Me partake, with the saints and …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

Return to Galilee. The Passion Foretold.
^A Matt. XVII. 22, 23; ^B Mark IX. 30-32; ^C Luke IX. 43-45. ^b 30 And they went forth from thence [from the region of Cæsarea Philippi], and passed through Galilee [on his way to Capernaum]; and he would not that any man should know it. [He was still seeking that retirement which began on the journey to Tyre. See page 399. This is the last definite mention of that retirement, but we find it referred to again at John vii. 3, 4. See page 439.] 31 For he taught his disciples [the reason for his …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel