John 8:41-43 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ye do the deeds of your father By your deeds ye show whose children ye are. They said, We be not born of fornication We are not bastard Jews, a mixed, spurious blood, descended from Gentile idolaters or apostate Israelites; nor are we ourselves worshippers of idols: but have one Father, even God Whose true children we are, by virtue of our descent from his people, and our profession of his religion. It seems that they perceived, at length, that Jesus spake not so much of natural as of spiritual lineage; and that they alluded to the marriage-covenant, which, in Scripture, is said to have subsisted between God and the Jewish nation, and by which their obligation to reverence, love, and obey him, was represented as fidelity to their heavenly husband, and their violation of that obligation, as spiritual whoredom. Jesus said, If God were your Father And you were his genuine children, as you profess to be; you would love me And therefore would be far from forming designs to take away my life; for I proceeded forth and came from God Greek, εξηλθον και ηκω, I proceeded, namely, originally, and do come from God, and appear among you as his messenger. Neither came I of myself As the false prophets did, who had neither their mission nor message from God; but he sent me As is evident from the many proofs of my mission, which I am daily giving you. Observe, reader, all that really have God for their Father, have a true love to the Lord Jesus, an esteem for his person, a grateful sense of his love, a sincere regard for his cause and interest, a complacency in the salvation effected by him, and in the method and terms of it, and a care to keep his commandments, which is the surest evidence of our love to him. We are here in a state of probation: and God is trying, so to speak, how we will conduct ourselves toward him; and we shall be treated accordingly in a state of retribution. God has taken various methods to prove mankind, and this was one: he sent his Son into the world with sufficient proofs both of his Sonship and mission, concluding that all, who called him Father, would kiss his Son, and bid him welcome, who was firstborn among many brethren. By this our adoption will be proved or disproved, namely, by our loving, or not loving Christ. Why do ye not understand my speech What is the reason that you do not comprehend the true meaning of the things which I have spoken to you? Even because Or, interrogatively, Is it not because ye cannot hear my word Cannot give obedience thereto, it being contrary to your lusts? Not being desirous to do my will, you cannot understand my doctrine, chap. John 7:17. Or, as Dr. Campbell renders the clause, Ye cannot bear my doctrine. For, “the verb, ακουειν, denotes frequently in Scripture, and even in profane authors, not barely to hear, but to hear patiently; consequently, not to hear, often means not to bear. The English verb, to hear, has also sometimes the same meaning.”