John 8:41

John 8:41. Ye do the works of your father. Yet the principle of John 8:39 cannot but be true: certainly they are doing the works of their father.

They said to him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. The words of Jesus have made two things clear: (1) He is not referring to national origin, but to spiritual descent; and (2) the father whose sons Jesus declares them to be is not good but evil. In answer to this they indignantly assert that they are sons of God. Their spiritual is as undoubted as their natural descent. ‘Whatever may be the case with others (the word “we” is strongly emphatic), there is no stain on our origin.' We cannot but think that some antithesis is distinctly present to the thought of the Jews as they use the words ‘we' and ‘one' And if we bear in mind the regular meaning which the word ‘fornication' bears in Old Testament prophecy, when used in such a connection as this, viz. the unholy alliance with idols instead of Jehovah (Jeremiah 3:1, etc.), it will appear very probable that John 8:48 gives the clue to the meaning here. Jesus was called a Samaritan. Samaritans were taunted with their descent from men who ‘feared Jehovah and served their own gods' (2 Kings 17:33). This thought, not yet plainly expressed, but existing in their minds, explains at once the emphatic ‘we,' the reference to ‘fornication,' and the stress laid on ‘ one Father.'