8:14 {3} And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.
(3) Christ, in healing many diseases, shows that he was sent by his Father, that in him only we should seek remedy in all our miseries.
8:14 Peter's... wife's mother. Compare Mr 1:29-34 Lu 4:38-41. Peter, whom the Catholics make the first of the popes, was, therefore, a married man. See also 1Co 9:5. Malarious fevers are still common in the vicinity of Capernaum, due probably to the adjacent marshes.
8:14 Peter's wife's mother - St. Peter was then a young man, as were all the apostles. Mark 1:29; Luke 4:38.
8:14-17 Peter had a wife, yet was an apostle of Christ, who showed that he approved of the married state, by being thus kind to Peter's wife's relations. The church of Rome, which forbids ministers to marry, goes contrary to that apostle upon whom they rest so much. He had his wife's mother with him in his family, which is an example to be kind to our relations. In spiritual healing, the Scripture speaks the word, the Spirit gives the touch, touches the heart, touches the hand. Those who recover from fevers, commonly are weak and feeble some time after; but to show that this cure was above the power of nature, the woman was at once so well as to go about the business of the house. The miracles which Jesus did being noised abroad, many thronged to him. He healed all that were sick, though the patient was ever so mean, and the case ever so bad. Many are the diseases and calamities to which we are liable in the body; and there is more, in those words of the gospel, that Jesus Christ bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows, to support and comfort us under them, than in all the writings of the philosophers. Let us not grudge labour, trouble, or expense in doing good to others.
