Simon Peter’s Wife’s Mother? Mark 1:29-31

Text: “So God created man in His own image (tripartite beings, three-parts), in the image of God created He him: male and female created He them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Genesis 1:27-28.

 

Good morning, fruitful Christian!  By the grace of the Lord God, and according to His instruction in the first Book of the Bible, you and I have been blessed with an inherent physical desire for the opposite sex; a God-given libido that is, with due moderation, properly focused on continued pro-creation of God’s created species on the earth He has formed for His own Eternal pleasure and purpose.  Praise God it is so, dear friend.  All things should be done in the order that God has purposed in His inspired (God-breathed) Word.  Amen.

 

“In Whom (Christ Jesus) also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”  (Ephesians 1:11)

 

Even the great apostle Peter was faithful to the Genesis command of God to. “…be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth…” – thus, in the well-recorded Jewish traditions, Peter obediently took himself a wife.  He was never ordained to be a sexually celibate man!

 

J.C. Ryle Comments:

 

“These verses begin the long list of miracles which St. Mark’s Gospel contains. They tell us how our Lord cast out devils in Capernaum, and healed Peter’s wife’s mother of a fever.” (J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels 1816-1900)

 

“And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.”  (Mark 1:31)

 

As the Lord Jesus and his disciples travelled, “…throughout all the region of Galilee…” (V.28), we are taught a most important doctrine concerning prayer and supplication for those that are sick and diseased: pray to Jesus first, then use all other means later!

 

Ryle Comments: 

 

“We learn, in the second place, to what remedy a Chris­tian ought to resort first, in time of trouble. He ought to follow the example of the friends of Simon’s wife’s mother. We read that when she “lay sick of a fever,” they “told Jesus of her.”

 

“There is no remedy like this. Means are to be used diligently, without question, in any time of need. Doctors are to be sent for, in sickness. Lawyers are to be consulted, when property or character needs defence. The help of friends is to be sought. But still after all, the first thing to be done, is to cry to the Lord Jesus Christ for help. None can relieve us so effectually as He can. None is so com­passionate, and so willing to relieve.”  (J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels 1816-1900)

 

Peter’s Mother-in-law: – Ryle Further Comments:

 

“Let us not fail to observe here, that Peter, one of our Lord’s principal apostles had a wife. Yet he was called to be a disciple, and afterwards chosen to be an apostle. More than this, we find St. Paul speaking of him as a married man, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, many years after this. (1 Corinthians 9:5)”

 

“How this fact can be reconciled with the compulsory celibacy of the clergy, which the Church of Rome enforces and requires, it is for the friends and advocates of the Roman Catholic Church to explain. To a plain reader, it seems a plain proof that it is not wrong for ministers to be married men. And when we add to this striking fact, that St. Paul, when writing to Timothy, says, that “a bishop should be the husband of one wife,” (1 Timothy 3:2) it is clear that the whole Romish doctrine of clerical celibacy is utterly opposed to holy Scripture.”  (J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels 1816-1900)

 

Further Teaching: 

 

In verse thirty-one of our selected passage from Mark’s Gospel today, we find even further enlightenment teaching; teaching, of which, every sincere Christ-loving Christian should take good heed: we are not saved merely to escape from Hell’s torments, or to be freed from our vile sins.  We are saved to serve the risen Christ Jesus, with all our hearts, and all our souls, and all our strength.  As soon as Peter’s Mother-in-law was Divinely healed, “…the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.” (V.31)

 

The moment that 21^st Century sinners are Divinely healed from our vile sins – we too are called by God to get involved in serving Christ, and in reaching out with the Gospel message to other precious souls trapped and dying in sin! 

 

“So then faith cometh (continuous verb: comes, and continues to come) by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

 

“Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”  (2 Timothy 4:2)

 

“The great missionary statesman, D.T. Niles, coined a phrase that sums up what it means to witness for Christ. He said evangelism is “one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.” What an accurate definition of witnessing. First of all, it admits the fact that we are all beggars, at least in the Spiritual sense.” (Al Hughes Ministries, online)

 

Thought: Like Peter’s Mum-in-law, let us be fruitful and multiply in Christ’s service.