Followers of God. — The phrase is unique and very striking; literally, imitators of God: and the word “therefore” implies that this imitation of God must be chiefly in His essential attribute of love. It is instructive to observe that our Lord’s startling command, “Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), is explained both by the context and the parallel passage in St. Luke (Luke 6:36) to mean, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.” See in Hooker’s Ecc. Pol., i. 5, a striking passage on the imitation of God as the law of all moral progress in man. In this idea, indeed, lies the essential and distinctive principle of a religious morality as such.
As dear children. — Literally, as children beloved of Him. The knowledge of the love of God to us is the first source, as of our love to Him (1 John 4:19), so also of our love to men as brethren under His fatherhood (1 John 4:11). As being His “children,” and therefore partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), we can imitate Him; as His “beloved children” we imitate Him most naturally in love, and especially in that form of love which we call “mercy,” and which, as being ourselves sinners, we especially crave and receive from Him.