=41, 42. Ye do the deeds of your father.= A generic truth; the spiritual paternity of any soul may be known by its deeds; the source of its life is witnessed by the life itself.--=We be not born of fornication.= It is a Jewish legend to this day that Jesus was born of adultery. This is the Jewish explanation of his premarital birth. I believe that this legend had been invented in Christ’s own time to account for his supernatural birth, and that the expression here is a scornful allusion to this dishonoring report. This, at least, though I do not find it suggested by any of the commentaries, seems to me the most natural explanation of the language of the Pharisees, which has given the scholars no little difficulty. Other explanations suggested--_e. g._, that Sarah was not an adulteress, and therefore the Jews were certainly children of Abraham (_Meyer_), or that, unlike the Samaritans, there was no taint of heathen blood in their veins (_Alford_, _Godet_)--seem to me unnatural and far-fetched, and are apparently not very satisfactory even to those who suggest them.--=We have one Father, even God.= They abandon their claim to have derived their life from Abraham, and substitute a claim to derive it from the God of Abraham. Or we may suppose that, the first interlocutors being silenced, others make this assertion.--=If God were your Father ye would love me.= The practical and present application is that every soul whose life is truly rooted in God will be drawn toward Christ by spiritual sympathy.--=For I came forth and am here from God.= The first verb (ἐξῆλθον) indicates Christ’s _coming forth_ from the glory which Christ had with the Father from the beginning of the world (John 17:5); the second verb (ἥκω, present formed from a perfect) indicates the _perpetual presence_ of the Father with Christ, and Christ’s continuous manifestation of the Father to the world.--=Neither came I of myself.= Therefore that phase of theology which represents the Son as interceding to make a just God merciful, and thus induce him to forgive the sinful, is thoroughly false. The mercy of Christ originated with the Father; the mission of Christ was wrought out by the Father. Christ came not of his own will, but of the Father’s. See chaps. 3:16, note; 6:38, note. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? _even_ because ye cannot hear my[345] word. [345] Isa. 6:9. 44 Ye[346] are of _your_ father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode[347] not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. [346] Matt. 13:38; 1 John 3:8. [347] Jude 6.