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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - 1 John 3:9 - 3:9
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To be born of God, is, (in the words of a very learned annotator, Dr. Hammond), "to have received some special influence from God, and by the help and power of that, to be raised to a pious life. Agreeably, gegennhmenov ek tou yeou, he that hath been born of God, is literally, he that hath had such a blessed change wrought in him, by the operation of God’s Spirit in his heart, as to be translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his own dear Son; transformed in the spirit of his mind, i.e. sincerely changed from all evil to all good; from an obedience to the flesh, &c., to an obedience to God. Only it is here to be noted, that the phrase is not so to be taken, as to denote only the act of this change; the first impression of this virtue on the patient, the single transient act of regeneration; or reformation; and that, as in the preter tense, now past, but rather a continued course, a permanent state: so as a regenerate man and a child of God are all one, and signify him that lives a pious and godly life, and continues to do so," &c. To the same purpose this author also speaks, note on Joh_1:13, and in his paraphrase on that verse: "Those which live according to the will of God, and neither the natural, nor carnal, nor bare moral principle." This change, introducing the consequent course, divers texts of Scripture explain, Joh_3:3,5,6 2Co_5:17 Eph_2:10 4:24 Jam_1:18, &c. Now of one thus born of God, it is said, he
doth not commit sin, as 1Jo_3:8, and for the reason here alleged.
His seed; the principles of enlivened holy truth, as 1Pe_1:23 Jam_1:8.
And he cannot sin: which is not to be understood simply, as if he could not sin at all, which were to contradict what he had said before, 1Jo_1:8, and supposed, 1Jo_2:1; but he cannot commit sin, as 1Jo_3:8. And it is plain the apostle intends by these two expressions the same thing. He cannot sin, i.e. do an act of known, gross sin, deliberately, easily, remorselessly, maliciously, as Cain, 1Jo_3:12, out of a hatred of goodness: or, do not such acts customarily, or not so unto death, ,{ as 1Jo_5:16} but that through the advantage of inlaid principles, or the remaining seed, by dependence upon the grace, Spirit, and covenant of God in Christ, he may timously recover.
Because he is born of God; i.e. inasmuch as it belongs to his temper and inclination, in respect of the holy new nature received in regeneration, to abhor from the grosser acts, much more from a course of sin; see Gen_39:9 Act_4:20 2Co_13:8 Gal_5:17: and to his state, as he is a child of God, to have that interest in the grace of Christ, that he may implore, trust, obtain, and improve it, to his being kept from such destructive sinning. And it being evident, by his deep and thorough change, that he is born of God, and chosen to be an heir of eternal life, (as his children are heirs), he may and ought (not in a way of presumptuous negligence, but of vigilance and humble dependence) certainly to expect being so kept. Nor is it strange so much should be affirmed, upon so unspeakably better grounds, of the Christian state, when such boasts are to be read concerning some among the pagans, that one might as soon divert the sun from its course, as turn such a one from the course of righteousness. Though we may also suppose this form of speech might be intended by the apostle to be understood by the more superficial professors of Christianity, (who might be generally apt enough to look upon themselves as born of God, and his children), as parenetical, and more enforcingly hortatory, in pursuance of his former scope, to keep them off from the licentious courses of their seducers; q.d. It cannot be, that you, who avow yourselves born of God, should do like them. So we usually say, that cannot but be, or cannot be, which we apprehend more highly and clearly reasonable should be, or not be. Non potes avelli, & c. Such rhetoric the apostle uses with Agrippa, I know that thou believest, as if it were impossible he should not.