You do the deeds of your father.
Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
All Commentaries on John 8:41 Go To John 8
Hilary of Poitiers
AD 368
It was not that the Son of God condemned the assumption of so religious a name; that is, condemned them for professing to be the sons of God, and calling God the Father; but that He blamed the rash presumption of the Jews in claiming God for their Father, when they did not love the Son. For I proceeded forth, and came from God. To proceed forth is not the same with to come. When our Lord says that those who called God their Father, ought to love Him, because He came forth from God, Hemeans that His being born of God was the reason why He should be loved: the proceeding forth, having reference to His incorporeal birth. Their claim to be the sons of God, was to bemade good by their loving Christ, Who was begotten from God. For a true worshiper of Godthe Father must love the Son, as being from God. And he only can love the Father, who believes that the Son is from Him.
In what follows, He teaches that His origin is not in Himself; Neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me.
