Mark 9:23 (ASV)

Passage

And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.

Nearby Context

Mark 9:21 And he asked his father, How long time is it since this hath come unto him? And he said, From a child.

Mark 9:22 And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.

Mark 9:23 And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.

Mark 9:24 Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Mark 9:25 And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "all things", "believeth", "jesus", "said", "thou", "canst", and "possible". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "all things" and "believeth", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "And oft-times it hath cast him both..." into verse 24's "Straightway the father of the child cried...", so "all things" and "believeth" belong inside that flow. In Mark context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "all things" and "believeth" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.