He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
Parallel Translations
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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
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He was in the worlde and the worlde was made by him: and yet the worlde knewe him not.
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He was in the world, and the worlde was made by him: and the worlde knewe him not.
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Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to John 1:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 17:25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.
- 1 John 3:1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
- 1 Corinthians 2:8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.
- 1 Corinthians 1:21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
- Matthew 11:27 All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
- Acts 17:24-27 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
- Hebrews 11:3 By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.
- John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.
- Hebrews 1:2-3 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,
- John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
- Genesis 11:6-9 Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.
- Genesis 16:13 She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”
- Jeremiah 10:11-12 “You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’ ” God has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.
- John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
- Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.
- Genesis 18:33 Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
- Exodus 3:4-6 When Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
- Acts 14:17 Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 10. He was in the world. He accuses men…
10. He was in the world. He accuses men of ingratitude, because of their own accord, as it were, they were so blinded, that the cause of the light which they enjoyed was unknown to them. This extends to every age of the world; for before Christ was manifested in the flesh, his power was everywhere displayed; and therefore those daily effects ought to correct the stupidity of men. What can be more unreasonable than to draw water from a running stream, and never to think of the fountain from which that stream flows? It follows that no proper excuse can be found for the ignorance of the world in not knowing Christ, before he was manifested in the flesh; for it arose from the indolence and wicked stupidity of those who had opportunities of seeing Him always present by his power. The whole may be summed up by saying, that never was Christ in such a manner absent from the world, but that men, aroused by his rays, ought to have raised their eyes towards him. Hence it follows, that the blame must be imputed to themselves.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That person of the Word, was made manifest even…
That person of the Word, was made manifest even at that time when the world was made.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 10 He was in the world, and the world…
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Ver. 10. He was in the world] Here the evangelist goes on where he left: resumes, and proceeds in his former argument, Joh 1:5.
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And the world was made by him] This is the second time here set forth, and reinforced, that we may the better observe and improve it. See the like, Rev 4:11; "For thou hast created all things, and by thee they are and were created," without help, tool, or tiresomeness, Isa 60:18. That one word of his, fiat, made all: shall we not admire his architecture?
And the world knew him not] Man is here called "the world," and Mar 16:15, he is called "every creature." This little world knew not Christ, for God had hid him under the carpenter’s son; his glory was inward, his kingdom came not by observation. And because the world knew not him, therefore it knoweth not us, 1Jn 3:1. Princes the saints are in all lands, Psa 45:16, but they he obscured, as did Melchizedek. The moon (say astronomers) hath at all times as much light as in the full; but often a great part of the bright side is turned to heaven, and a lesser part to the earth. So it is with the Church.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He was in the world; he was in the…
He was in the world; he was in the place called the world, and amongst the men of the world; for so the term world is often taken, Joh 16:28; 2Pe 3:6. Christ, before he came in the flesh, was in it; filling both the heavens and the earth, and sustaining it by the word of his power, and manifesting his will to it, more immediately to Moses and to the prophets, and more mediately by Moses and by the prophets.
And the world was made by him; and the heavens and the earth, all things visible and invisible, (as was said before), were made by him.
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And the world knew him not; and the men of the world took no notice of him, did not acknowledge him, believe in him, nor were subject to him; so the word knew often signifies, (according to the Hebrew idiom), Joh 10:14,15,27; not a bare comprehension of an object in the understanding, but suitable affections: so Mat 7:23; 1Jo 3:1. This is not to be understood of all individual persons in the world; for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and many particular persons, did in this sense know him; but the generality of the world did not. The heathens did not, (who are sometimes called the world, distinctively from the Jews, 1Jo 2:2; 1Co 1:21), and most of the Jews did not, though some did.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain He was in the world, that is, he that…
He was in the world, that is, he that was God from eternity, made himself visible to the world in the fulness of time. The evangelist repeats it again, that the world was made by him, to show his omnipotency and divinity; and then adds, that the world knew him not, as an evidence of the world’s blindness and ingratitude.
Learn hence, That notwithstanding the eternal Son of God appeared in the world, and the world was made and created by him, yet the generality of the world did not know him;. that is, did not own and acknowledge him, did not receive and obey him. They neither knew him as creator, nor accepted of him as mediator. Yea, he came to his own; that is, his own kindred and country, the church and people of the Jews; but the generality of them gave him cold entertainment. It was the sin of the Jewish nation, that though they were Christ’s own peculiar people, his own by choice, his own by purchase, his own by covenant, by kindred, yet the generality of them did reject him, and would not own him for the true and promised Messias.
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Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ met with manifest and shameful rejection even at the hands of those that were nearest to him by flesh and nature, Neither did his brethren believe on him. Joh 11:1-45.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He was in the world,.... This is to be…
He was in the world,.... This is to be understood, not of his incarnation; for the word was denotes past existence in the world, even all the time past from the creation of the world; and the world intends the world in general, as opposed to Judea, and the people of the Jews in the next verse; besides, the incarnation of the word is spoken of in Joh 1:14 as a new and distinct thing from this: but of his being in the world, when first made, and since, by his essence, by which he fills the whole world; and by his power, upholding and preserving it; and by his providence, ordering and managing all the affairs of it, and influencing and governing all things in it: he was in it as the light and life of it, giving natural life and light to creatures in it, and filling it, and them, with various blessings of goodness; and he was in the promise and type before, as well as after the Jews were distinguished from other nations, as his peculiar people; and he was frequently visible in the world, in an human form, before his incarnation, as in Eden's garden to our first parents, to Abraham, Jacob, Manoah, and his wife, and others,
And the world was made by him: so Philo the Jew often ascribes the making of the world to the Logos, or word, as before observed on Joh 1:3 and this regards the whole universe, and all created beings in it, and therefore cannot design the new creation: besides, if all men in the world were anew created by Christ, they would know him; for a considerable branch of the new creation lies in knowledge; whereas, in the very next clause, it is asserted, that the world knew him not; and they would also love him, and obey him, which the generality of the world do not; they would appear to be in him, and so not be condemned by him, as multitudes will. To understand this of the old creation, best suits the context, and proves the deity of Christ, and his pre-existence, as the word, and Son of God, to his incarnation,
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And the world knew him not; that is, the inhabitants of the world knew him not as their Creator: nor did they acknowledge the mercies they received from him; nor did they worship, serve, and obey him, or love and fear him; nor did they, the greater part of them, know him as the Messiah, Mediator, Saviour, and Redeemer. There was, at first, a general knowledge of Christ throughout the world among all the sons of Adam, after the first promise of him, and which, for a while, continued; but this, in process of time, being neglected and slighted, it was forgot, and utterly lost, as to the greater part of mankind; for the Gentiles, for many hundreds of years, as they knew not the true God, so they were without Christ, without any notion of the Messiah; and this their ignorance, as it was first their sin, became their punishment.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain He was in the world - Even from the…
He was in the world - Even from the creation.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. He was in the world] From its…
Verse 10. He was in the world] From its very commencement-he governed the universe-regulated his Church-spake by his prophets-and often, as the angel or messenger of Jehovah, appeared to them, and to the patriarchs.
The world knew him not.] αυτον ουκ εγνω - Did not acknowledge him; for the Jewish rulers knew well enough that he was a teacher come from God; but they did not choose to acknowledge him as such. Men love the world, and this love hinders them from knowing him who made it, though he made it only to make himself known. Christ, by whom all things were made, Joh 1:3, and by whom all things are continually supported, Col 1:16, Col 1:17; Heb 1:3, has way every where, is continually manifesting himself by his providence and by his grace, and yet the foolish heart of man regardeth it not! See the reason, Joh 3:19.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Joh 1:10-11. He was in the world — From…
Joh 1:10-11. He was in the world — From the beginning, frequently appearing, and making known to his servants, the patriarchs and prophets, the divine will, in dreams and visions, and various other ways: and the world was made by him — As has just been shown; and the world, nevertheless, knew him not — Knew not its Maker and Preserver. He came — As the true, the often-predicted, and long-expected Messiah; unto his own — Εις τα ιδια, to his own things, namely, his own land; termed, Immanuel’s land; his own city, called the holy city; his own temple, mentioned as such by Mal 3:1 : The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly, or unexpectedly, come to his temple: but, although he answered all the characters given of the Messiah in the Old Testament, οι ιδιοι, his own people, whom he had separated from all the people upon earth, watched over, protected, delivered, and singularly favoured, in a variety of most extraordinary ways, for many ages; received him not — Because he did not countenance and gratify their carnal spirit and worldly views, by coming in that state of wealth, power, and grandeur in which they expected him to come. He came as the prophet like unto Moses, as Moses foretold he should come, (Deu 18:18, &c.,) and by his holy life, his mighty miracles, extreme sufferings, and glorious resurrection from the dead, proved to a demonstration his divine mission; yet they received him not, because his doctrine contradicted their prejudices, censured their vices, and laid a restraint upon their lusts. He came as the High-priest of their profession, and a Mediator between God and man; but, depending on their being Abraham’s seed, on the ceremony of circumcision, on the Aaronical priesthood and the expiations of their law, and, in general, on their own righteousness, they received him not in these characters. He came as a Redeemer and Saviour; but not feeling, nor even seeing, their want of the redemption and salvation which are through him, and having no desire of any such spiritual blessings, they received him not, in any such relations. He came as the King set upon God’s holy hill of Zion, Psa 2:6; the righteous branch raised unto David, the king that was to reign and prosper, and to execute justice and judgment in the earth, Jer 23:5-6; Zion’s king, that was to come to her, just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, Zec 9:9 : but, as his kingdom was not of this world, not earthly, but heavenly, not carnal, but spiritual, and they did not desire one of another world, they would not receive him; declaring openly, We will not have this man to reign over us.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain He was in the world - This refers, probably,…
He was in the world - This refers, probably, not to his pre-existence, but to the fact that he became incarnate; that he dwelt among human beings.
And the world was made by him - This is a repetition of what is said in Joh 1:3. Not only “men,” but all material things, were made by him. These facts are mentioned here to make what is said immediately after more striking, to wit, that men did not receive him. The proofs which he furnished that they ought to receive him were:
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Those given while he was “in the world” - the miracles that he performed and his instructions; and, The fact that the “world was made by him.” It was remarkable that the world did not know or approve its own Maker.
The world knew him not - The word “knew” is sometimes used in the sense of “approving” or “loving,” Psa 1:6; Mat 7:23. In this sense it may be used here. The world did not love or approve him, but rejected him and put him to death. Or it may mean that they did not understand or know that he was the Messiah; for had the Jews known and believed that he was the Messiah, they would not have put him to death, 1Co 2:8; “Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Yet they might have known it, and therefore they were not the less to blame.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain He was in the world, &c. Many of the…
He was in the world, &c. Many of the ancient interpreters understand this verse of Christ as God, who was in the world from its first creation, producing and governing all things: but the blind sinful world did not know and worship him. Others apply these words to the Son of God made man; whom even God’s own chosen people, the Jews, at his coming, refused to receive and believe in him. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain He was in the world, &c.--The language here is…
He was in the world, &c.--The language here is nearly as wonderful as the thought. Observe its compact simplicity, its sonorousness--"the world" resounding in each of its three members--and the enigmatic form in which it is couched, startling the reader and setting his ingenuity a-working to solve the stupendous enigma of Christ ignored in His own world. "The world," in the first two clauses, plainly means the created world, into which He came, says Joh 1:9; "in it He was," says this verse. By His Incarnation, He became an inhabitant of it, and bound up with it. Yet it "was made by Him" (Joh 1:3-5). Here, then, it is merely alluded to, in contrast partly with His being in it, but still more with the reception He met with from it. "The world that knew Him not" (Jo1 3:1) is of course the intelligent world of mankind. (See on Joh 1:11-12). Taking the first two clauses as one statement, we try to apprehend it by thinking of the infant Christ conceived in the womb and born in the arms of His own creature, and of the Man Christ Jesus breathing His own air, treading His own ground, supported by substances to which He Himself gave being, and the Creator of the very men whom He came to save. But the most vivid commentary on this entire verse will be got by tracing (in His matchless history) Him of whom it speaks walking amidst all the elements of nature, the diseases of men and death itself, the secrets of the human heart, and "the rulers of the darkness of this world" in all their number, subtlety, and malignity, not only with absolute ease, as their conscious Lord, but, as we might say, with full consciousness on their part of the presence of their Maker, whose will to one and all of them was law. And this is He of whom it is added, "the world knew Him not!"
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 10. He was in the world—This clause confirms the…
10. He was in the world—This clause confirms the interpretation just given of the previous verse, which refers the coming into the world to the Logos.
Made by him—The Creator came into the world which he had created, but was unrecognized by the world; partly because he was disguised in the incarnation, and partly because the world, that is, the natural heart of man, refused to use the light mentioned in the ninth verse, and so became the darkness which comprehended not the light.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. and the world] Note three points; (1) the…
10. and the world] Note three points; (1) the close connexion obtained by repetition, as in Joh_1:4-5; (2) the tragic tone, as in Joh_1:5; (3) the climax. ‘He was in the world’ (therefore the world should have known Him); ‘and the world was His own creature’ (therefore still more it should have known Him); ‘and (yet) the world knew Him not.’ ‘And’ = ‘and yet’ is very frequent in S. John; but it is best not to put in the ‘yet;’ the simple ‘and’ is more forcible. Comp. Joh_1:5; Joh_1:11.
Note that ‘the world’ has not the same meaning in Joh_1:9-10. Throughout N.T. it is most important to distinguish the various meanings of ‘the world.’ It means (1) ‘the universe;’ Rom_1:20 : (2) ‘the earth;’ Joh_1:9; Mat_4:8 : (3) ‘the inhabitants of the earth;’ Joh_1:29, Joh_4:42 : (4) ‘those outside the Church,’ alienated from God; Joh_12:31, Joh_14:17, and frequently. In this verse the meaning slips from (2) to (4).
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knew him not] Did not acquire knowledge of its Creator; did not recognise and acknowledge Him. Comp. Act_19:15.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) In the world.—This manifestation in the flesh recalls…
(10) In the world.—This manifestation in the flesh recalls the pre-incarnate existence during the whole history of the world, and the creative act itself. (Comp. Joh_1:2-3, Note). The two facts are the constant presence of the true Light, and the creation of the world by Him. The world, then, in its highest creature man, with spiritual power for seeing the true Light, ought to have recognised Him. Spirit ought to have felt and known His presence. In this would have been the exercise of its true power and its highest good. But the world was sense-bound, and lost its spiritual perception, and “knew Him not.” This verse brings back again the thought of Joh_1:3-5, to prepare for the deeper gloom which follows.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 10, 11. (c) The twofold effect of the…
Vers. 10, 11. (c) The twofold effect of the pre-Incarnation activity in the elected nation and individuals. The highest expression of this truth was seen in the unique "coming" of which the evangelist had been the spectator and witness; but the words cannot be limited to it they stretch back to the beginning of the creation of the world and on to the final consummation. They explain or divide the solemn theme of the previous announcement into two related proofs of the fact that the Light which illumines every man shineth in darkness, and that the darkness apprehendeth it not.
Of him who was evermore coming into the world, it is said, In the world he was, and the world was made (came into being) through him, and the world recognized him not. The kosmov is a term specially used by St. John to denote the ordered whole of the universe, viewed apart from God (see Introduction). Sometimes this is emphasized by the pronoun, This world," when it is contrasted with the higher and heavenly "order" to which the Lord"s personality belonged, both before and after this manifestation in the flesh. From being thus the scene of ordered existence apart from God, it rapidly moves into the organized resistance to the will of God, and therefore it often denotes humanity taken as a whole apart from God and grace. It may be the object of the Divine love and compassion, (Joh_3:16) while the redemption and deliverance of the world from sin is the great end of the ministry and work of Jesus (ver. 29); but throughout this gospel "the world" is the synonym of the adverse power and order of humanity, until it is illumined, regenerated, by the Spirit of God. The world here signifies humanity and its dwelling place, considered apart from the changes wrought in any part of it by grace. The three assertions concerning the world drop the imagery of light and life, and by their emphatic concatenation, without the assistance of a Greek particle, tell the tragic story of human departure from God. Thus only can the mystery of the previous verses be explained. At the very forefront of the argument of the Gospel is put a statement which concedes the strange perplexity of the rejection of the incarnate Logos. Not only does the entire narrative illustrate the awful fact, strange and inconceivable as such an idea appears when baldly stated, but the author generalizes the antipathy between the Logos and the world into a more comprehensive, damning, and yet undeniable, proposition. From the beginning, though the world came into being through the Logos, though he was in the world, in every atom of matter, in every vibration of force, in every energy of life, yet the world, notwithstanding all its power of recognizing the fact, yet the world, as concentrated in an antagonistic humanity, did not come to know him fully (egnw). This is the lesson we learn from all the melancholy and tragic perversions of his glorious perfections which every heathenism and every cultus, and even every philosophy, has perpetrated. St. Paul says precisely the same thing: "The world by wisdom knew not God" (see also Rom_1:19-22, which might be taken as an inspired commentary on the whole passage). And the awful statement is still, with reference to the majority of men, true, that "the world knoweth not God, neither the Father, nor the Word, nor the Holy Ghost.
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Vers. 10, 11. The double rejection of the Light.
I THE FIRST REJECTION. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." These words describe the world"s unbelief before his incarnation.
1. He was here invisibly, though the world had no eyes to see him. In him "all things live, and move, and have their being." The revelation of himself has been continuous since man was made. The Life has always been the Light of men. He was and has ever been in the world.
2. The world"s ignorance is all the more remarkable because "the world was made by him. " The world did not see the evidences of boundless skill and beauty all around. It is a precious thought to the believer that the Creator of the world is his Friend. "It is my Father"s house. It is my Brother"s handiwork.
3. The mystery of the world"s ignorance. "The world knew him not." "The world by wisdom knew not God." The Apostle Paul found an altar to the "Unknown God" at Athens. What a satire on man"s privileges! This darkest page in the world"s history may well sadden us every time we read it.
II THE SECOND REJECTION. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
1. Israel was the home of our Lord. Its land, its cities, its temple, were all his own property, and were originally granted by himself, Israel was "his inheritance.
2. His people, the Jews, were not left to interpret the light of nature, conscience, and history as they could. Light first broke upon them when it broke upon Abraham, but it was only a preparation for the Incarnation, which is the central fact in the world"s history the pivot on which its history turns.
3. His own people rejected him. They "received him not." This is stronger than the statement that the world did not know him. The Jews were more guilty than the Gentiles in their rejection of the Redeemer, because they were of those "who see, and therefore their sin remaineth". (Joh_9:41) "The God invoked by the nation appears in his temple, and is Crucified by his own worshippers.
Vers. 10-13. Christ rejected and accepted.
It is related by an ancient historian that an Eastern tribe were so afflicted by the blazing and intolerable heat of the sun, that they were accustomed, when the great luminary arose in the morning, to assail him with their united and vehement curses. It is hard to believe that, the benefits of sunlight being so obvious as they are, any should be found other than glad and grateful for the shining of the orb of day. "The light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." The rising of the Sun of Righteousness, however, was, we know, hailed in very different manners by different classes of men; as in these verses is very strikingly pointed out by the inspired evangelist. The same diversity obtains to this day among the hearers of the gospel of Christ. There are still those who reject and those who receive the Saviour.
I CHRIST REJECTED.
1. By whom? The evangelist speaks, first generally, and then specially, upon this point.
(1) The world at large is said to have refused the offered blessing to have been insensible to the character, and incredulous as to the claims, of Immanuel. This is the more surprising because the world is full of witnesses to the Divine Word; because it was actually made by him; because his natural attributes are displayed in the physical universe, his moral purposes in providence, his righteous law in conscience.
(2) More particularly it is said that his own people, i.e. the Jewish nation, disclaimed their Messiah. This is the more surprising because the Hebrew race was, as it were, a Church, based upon the expectation of his coming; because they possessed prophecies regarding him; because they were familiar with sacrifices, types, and institutions, all of which in some way witnessed to him. Especially it is surprising when we remember that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, which might have prepared them to receive the perfect Divine revelation.
2. In what way?
(1) They "knew him not." Some both Jews and Gentiles never paid any attention to Jesus, to his discourses, his mighty works, his holy and benevolent character. Some simply indulged an idle curiosity, in gazing upon his works or listening to his discourses. And others, less inattentive, yet never really comprehended the spiritual purpose of his mission, the spiritual significance of his teaching.
(2) They "received him not;" e.g. the inhabitants of Nazareth thrust him out of their city! The Gergasenes besought him to depart from their borders! A certain village in Samaria refused to receive him! Chorazin and Bethsaida were upbraided by him because of their unbelief and their rejection of his claims! Over Jerusalem Jesus wept, on account of the inattention of the people of the metropolis to his solemn warnings and gracious entreaties!
1. For what reasons?
a. His humility was an offence to their worldliness and pride.
b. His holy character was a rebuke to their sin.
c. His spiritual teaching was a rebuke to their formality.
d. His life of benevolence was a rebuke to their selfishness and haughtiness.
2. With what results?
a. Their guilt was aggravated by their rejection of his mission.
b. They were speedily deprived of the privileges they despised and abused.
c. The impenitent incurred spiritual disaster and ruin.
II CHRIST ACCEPTED. John states first, what must have been the general impression during our Lord"s ministry, that Jews and Gentiles alike rejected him. Indeed, his unjust, cruel, and violent death was sufficient proof of this. But there was another side to this picture.
1. Observe by whom the Son of God was gratefully and cordially received. This very chapter witnesses to the power of the Lord Jesus over individual souls; for it tells of the adhesion of Andrew and Simon, of Philip and Nathanael. The Gospels relate the call of the twelve and of the seventy. They afford us a passing glimpse into the soul history of such men as Nicodemus and Joseph, of such families as that of Lazarus at Bethany. And they exhibit Christ"s attractive power over very different characters, such as Zacchaeus and the penitent thief upon the cross. After the Ascension, Christ"s converts were reckoned, not by individuals, but by thousands. And throughout the Christian centuries, men from every clime and of every race have been led by the Spirit to receive Jesus as the Son of God.
2. Observe the description given of their reception of Christ. They "believed on his Name." The "Name" is full of significance. Whether we examine the name "Jesus," or "Christ," or "Immanuel," the Name sets before us the object of our faith. Those who receive the Saviour who is thus designated, believe what prophecy foretold of him and what he declared concerning his own person, character, and work. They trust in him as in an all-sufficient Mediator, and obey him as their Lord.
3. Observe the privilege accruing to those who receive Christ
(1) They partake a spiritual and Divine birth. The new relation begins a new spiritual life. This is further explained in our Lord"s conversation with Nicodemus, where Jesus refers this spiritual birth to the Holy Spirit himself.
(2) They become children of God, taking by "right" a place in the Divine family. This exalted and happy position involves participation in Divine favour and love, in the moral image of the heavenly Father, in all the society and the immunities of this glorious kindred, in the eternal inheritance and home.
APPLICATION. Our treatment of the Lord Christ makes the decisive turning point in our spiritual history. Those who are once brought into contact with him, by hearing his gospel, are by that fact placed in a new and solemn position of responsibility. To reject him is to reject pardon, righteousness, and life. To accept him is to enter the Divine family, to enjoy the Divine favour, to live the Divine, the spiritual, the immortal life. T.
HOMILIES BY B. THOMAS Ver. 10. The unrecognized Creator.
We have here three facts briefly stated in the history of our Lord, which are full of interest and significance.
I HIS APPEARANCE IN THIS WORLD. This involves:
1. The greatest wonder. "He was in the world." But was he not ever in the world since its creation? Yes; in its laws, order, and beauty; in its conscience, reason, and religion; by his Word, Spirit, and revelations. But these words announce his special presence. He was in the world as one of its inhabitants, under its laws and necessities, in human nature, as "the Word made flesh." This is most wonderful. Think, who was he? More than human, else his having been in the world would not be a matter of surprise. He was the Son of God the Word, which was in the beginning with God, and was God; therefore God was in the world in human form. This is the most wonderful fact in the history of this world, and, perhaps, in that of any other. So wonderful that it has engaged the interest and attention of good men of all ages, and even of angels. One element of its wonder is its mysteriousness and apparent impossibility. We are ready to ask with Nicodemus, "How can these things be?" But, although wonderful and mysterious, "he was in the world.
2. The greatest condescension. We see this when we consider who he was, and what is the world in which he was. Compared with his mansion, it is but a poor cot. In size it is but a particle of dust; in glory, but a flitting ray of the creative sun. And when we look at it from a moral point of view, as fallen, our estimate is much lower still a territory in rebellion, a valley of dry bones, full of desolation, disease, and death. It would be a great condescension in an angel to come and live in such a world, but how much greater in him who is the Lord of angels! It would be great condescension on his part to look even with any delight on such a world as ours, but infinitely more to live in it, and live under the poorest and most harassing conditions: not in a palace, rolling in wealth and luxury, but born in a stable; wandering from place to place, weary and homeless; poorer than the foxes of the field. What a condescension!
3. The greatest love. No other principle will account for the wonderful fact but love. For in the world there were no attractions for him. In a moral sense its sceneries were frightful, its air pestilential, and its inhabitants not merely unfriendly but hostile hostile to each other, and bitterly hostile to him their Saviour. In this sense the world was to him repelling. But that which was repelling to his holiness, simply considered, was attractive to his love and mercy. Sin is repelling to holiness; but the distress and danger of sinners in consequence are mighty attractions to Divine pity. Such is the wrecked ship to the lifeboat crew; such are the wounded soldiers on the battlefield to the philanthropic heart, and such was this ruined world to infinite love. So that he was in it.
4. The greatest importance. That he was in the world. So important, that it was foretold by prophets, foreshadowed by priests, kept before the world by Divine ritualism, expected by the world from time to time; and nothing would satisfy the wants and cravings of human nature but the appearance of God among men. So that the fact of his having been in the world is most important to truth to the Divine fidelity as well as to human want and happiness. The absence of all besides would be of infinitely less consequence than his. If he had not been in the world, the foundation stone of the Divine temple would be wanting. The central fact of the kingdom of God on earth would be absent, and the world itself could not stand.
5. The greatest benefit and honour to the world.
(1) The greatest benefit. The benefit which the world has derived is salvation. This could not be effected without his incarnate life: nothing else would answer the purpose. Hence, what a benefit to the world that he was in it!
(2) The greatest honour. This was the greatest honour ever conferred on the world. And is there any other world which has been so honoured? What is ours compared with many of God"s worlds? It is but as Bethlehem-Ephrata least among the thousands of Judah." And does the least attract him? Does he specially help the most helpless, the weakest, the most miserable, and leave the strong to some extent to themselves? Many a spot is sacred as the birthplace or residence of a great man of great poet or statesman; his presence has honoured the place and made it sacred. If so, is not this world holy and sacred to us; for he was in it? This world will ever be remembered and distinguished as the world in which God was in human flesh. In the great conflagration, will it be burnt? or will it be the last? Or, if some of it shall perish, shall not Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary be preserved, as parts of the new earth, in commemoration of the great fact that he was in the world?
6. This fact is well attested. Was he really in the world? In answer to this question there is a most emphatic "Yes" coming from heaven and earth. The life of Christ on earth is an incontrovertible fact, and nothing can explain it but that he really was what he himself claimed to be, and what his friends and even his foes represented him to be: the Son of God God manifested in the flesh. "He was in the world." For proof of this we are not entirely dependent on the distant past, for on "the sands of time" we find footprints which no one but an incarnate God could make. He has left behind him glorious and undeniable proofs of his having been here, in the gracious system of redemption and its ever-growing and mighty effects in the moral restoration of the world.
II THE CREATION OF THE WORLD BY HIM. "And the world was made by him." This implies:
1. His Divinity. If he made the world, he was God, for creative power is the sole prerogative of Divinity. "The world was made," etc. This is saying much; but, after all, it is saying but little of him of whom it was previously said that "all things were created by him," etc. It is not much to say that he created a drop after saying that he had created the ocean. Here is a descent from the whole to a very small part. But still, in connection with the previous fact that he was in the world, it is quite natural to be reminded that the world was made by him.
2. That he had a perfect piglet to come as he did into the world. For "the world was made by him." Thus he was in his own world absolutely. Although he had let it to the children of men as his tenants, yet he reserved the right to visit when and how he pleased. And when he came he was not an intruder, not an infringer of any right, nor a transgressor of any law; for "the world was made," etc.
3. This fact accounts to some extent for his visit. In every world, as the production of his creative power and wisdom, he takes the deepest interest, and he is responsible for all the possible results of its existence, and all its possible requirements were taken into account when made, and doubtless his incarnate life in this world was involved in its creation. We find that he felt a deep interest in this world, and took an early delight in the visit, being in the original plan. Not every world is made on this plan; but such was the plan of our world, that it was necessary, in "the fulness of time," for God to be manifested in the flesh, and live for a short time on earth as one of its tenants. God will carry out the original plan of every world he made at any cost, though it may involve the greatest condescension and. sacrifice.
III HIS UNRECOGNITION BY THE WORLD. "And the world knew him not." This is not asserted of the material world, for this knew him; all its laws, elements, and forces knew him at once, and signified their recognition. But it is sadly true of the world"s inhabitants. "They knew him not." This indicates:
1. Great guilt. They ought to know him; for "he was in the world in their nature and in their midst. They could not plead distance and disadvantages of recognition. They ought to know him; "the world was made by him;" and before their very eyes he proved the authorship beyond any doubt, by touching its laws and forces, and they were pliant to his touch, his word, and even to his will. The world of matter knew him, but that of intelligence, etc., which ought to know him, knew him not. He came to be known gave every opportunity to this world to know him; but in spite of all, "the world knew him not.
2. Great moral perversion. There is great neglect, great inattention, terrible blindness, and wilful resistance. It was not that they could not, but they would not.
3. A great loss. For he was their Creator and Friend, their Messiah and Redeemer. He was in the world to save and bless it. The condition on which his blessings could be imparted and appropriated was to know and accept him. The condition was disregarded and the blessings lost. This is the greatest loss ever sustained by the world, the greatest blunder the world ever committed, the greatest oversight, to let its incarnate Creator and Redeemer be in it unknown and unrecognized.
4. This is not exceptional in the history of the world. How many of the world"s greatest benefactors have been unrecognized by the age in which they lived, and which they benefited! But this is not to be wondered at the world began badly with its best and greatest Friend. This was the fate of the Son of God. If he had a tombstone, it could be appropriately written on it, "He was in the world," etc. This is true of all who live before, above, and for their age. It takes ages in such a world as this to know them fully.
LESSONS.
1. That the brightest fact in the history of this world is that God was in it in the flesh. Let it be well published and believed; it is full of significance, comfort, and hope.
2. It is one of the blackest spots in the character of the world, that it left him unrecognized when here. This led to terrible results the Crucifixion, etc.
3. The world should be sorry for not recognizing him should make an ample apology. The world has made an apology, but not to the extent it ought to yet. It is a source of great comfort that he did not leave in anger, but is willing and ready to receive our apology in repentance and sorrow.
4. While we blame the world for its unrecognition of the Son of God, let us beware lest we commit the same sin. He is in the world now. Do we really know him? and to what extent? B.T.
Vers. 10-12. Receiving Christ, and the result of it.
I CHRIST IGNORED. "The world knew him not." This statement is humiliating to the world, not to Christ. The world makes a great parade of its insight and its power to give deciding verdicts; but here is its very Maker in its midst, yet it knows him not. Here surely is the crowning sin of the world, that it knows not him who is the Fountain of all its boasted powers. Were the world what it ought to be, it would welcome its Maker, rejoicing in the presence of him who gave its intellect and all the material on which that intellect is so busy. In the face of this statement of John, it should not trouble us that so much of the world"s intellect and grandeur ignores Christ. A man with the worldly spirit strong in him is contented with his own infallibility and certainty. Rather let us, when we see the world"s complacent ignoring of Christ, contrast it with the Christian"s substantial knowledge of him. And seeing that the world, with all its knowledge, knows not Christ, let us bear in mind how many things the Christian himself does not yet know.
II CHRIST IGNORED WHERE MOST OF ALL HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN RECEIVED. The reference is doubtless to Christ"s coming into the land of Israel. He was not only the world"s Maker, but Israel"s Messiah, and Israel failed to recognize him in either capacity. They did not give him even a provisional reception till such time as his claim could be examined; for such seems the force of parelabon . They were prejudiced against him from the very first. Every word and act were twisted against trim. What candour there is in these admissions of John! Christianity fears no statement of facts. The more emphatic and bitter human rejections became the more clearly the necessity of a Christ was proved.
III RECEIVING CHRIST, AND ITS RESULT. Here is the whole truth. The world cannot receive Christ, but always there are some who go out from the world because they are not of the world. Among the children of men there is a rejecting spirit and a receiving spirit. He who receives Christ must be all the more determined and cordial in his reception, because he sees so many rejecting; and he who is at all inclined to consider the claims of Christ must be careful not to be turned aside because so many are indifferent. See with your own eyes. All true things have met with scorn and persecution at first. But what is it to receive Christ? Evidently to deliver ourselves over to his rule and authority. If a man should receive a traveller into his house, and give trim henceforth the disposition of everything there, that would give the analogy as to how we should receive Christ; and so receiving Christ, we gain the right to become sons of God. We have our part in the natural world"s existence through Christ, and that comes without our willing; but a part in the highest attainment belonging to human life, even sonship towards God, can only come through our voluntary submission to Christ. Jesus gives true and humble disciples the right to become sons of God; and teaching them to say, "Our Father, who art in heaven," he involves the constant remembrance of this right in every true prayer. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain He was in the world
Joh_1:10-11
He was in the world
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The treatment of Christ by men
I.
By the WORLD.
1. They were in a condition in which they might have known much of Him. He made the world and preserved it and was in it. Yet there was no proper recognition of Him.
2. This ignorance of Christ was the sin of the world, and it is its sin now, a sin for which there is no excuse. In addition to creation and providence we have revelation.
II. By His own.
1. Who are His own. In a sense
(1) All mankind by the right of creation;
(2) The converted by the right of redemption and adoption;
(3) As distinguished from both these, the Visible Church. That its members are His own arises from their possession of advantages peculiarly distinctive--the oracles of God--the ordinances of the kingdom. They are in covenant. Christ is under engagement to grant to them eternal life: they are under engagement to seek that gift and accept it.
(a) Virtually such was the covenant at Sinai. Christ engaged to bring His own to Canaan, through their obedience to the law by which they were to live. They engaged to go up and possess their inheritance in reliance on Him. The covenant was typical as well as temporal, and typified a spiritual salvation.
(b) Israel violated this covenant, by the rebellion in the wilderness, and by slowness of heart to understand its moral meanings.
(c) This covenant has passed away, the substance of its shadows having come, but thousands like Israel are false and perfidious to the new and better covenant: they have the profession without the power of godliness.
2. He came to His own.
(1) This was unsolicited by them, the kindness and consideration were all His.
(2) He came to them in the wilderness and at various periods of their history, but they rejected Him.
3. He came as the Incarnate Word, and they received Him not. Is this also true of the Visible Church to-day? The unconverted hearers of the gospel are more guilty than the Jews, and will therefore he visited with a heavier condemnation. (A. Beith, D. D.)
The rejection of the Light
I. GENERALLY AND PRIOR TO THE INCARNATION BY THE WORLD. The world knew Him not, which was
1. Inexcusable (Rom_1:20).
2. Unnatural, since those who lived and moved and had their being in Him should have known Him who made them (Psa_103:22).
3. Heinous. The non-recognition less intellectual than moral, arising not from failure to discern, but from want of inward affinity to the light Joh_3:19; Eph_4:18; Job_24:13).
4. Prophetic, since it foreshadowed Christs reception by Israel with the outlook towards which it is here introduced.
II. PARTICULARLY AND DURING THE PERIOD OF HIS INCARNATION BY HIS OWN, i.e, by the Jews, whose rejection of Him, besides sharing the criminality incurred by the world, displayed
1. Monstrous ingratitude. He selected them for no peculiar excellence on their part, and vouchsafed centuries of gracious teaching and discipline to prepare them to recognize and embrace Him.
2. Shamefaced robbery. Christ presented Himself as the Heir claiming His inheritance (Mat_21:38); as a Master (Mat_25:14) only to find His possessions forcibly withheld from Him, and Himself cast forth and killed.
3. Incorrigible wickedness. They could not discern the signs of Messiahship in Him.
4. Dire infatuation, for in rejecting Him they thrust from themselves the kingdom of God, and missed the true vocation of their race. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Christ rejected by the world
His own world rejected Him, as a rebel country might reject a lawful and beneficent king. The very work of His hands, that which was indebted to Him for its very being, refused to recognize Him. (G. J. Brown, M. A.)
The world
Corrupted mankind are called the world, because they love the world more than their Creator. Through love, we make something our dwelling-place; and therefore what we have made by our love to be our dwelling-place, from that we have deserved to be called. (Augustine.)
The world knew Him not.
Let us give the largest scope to these words. If you apply them to the world of matter, I need not say that matter can never interpret spirit. God cannot be known in the charity and richness of His inward nature by anything that matter represents. Nor can men whose whole intercourse with matter either disprove or affirm the invisible and inward truth of Christ. Neither does the race know Him: for they are seeking to live by bread alone. Three-fifths of the world live as the sheep, the ox, and the swine do. The heavens to them contain little unless it be some terror that superstition interprets. They cross the plain of life, with heads down, as herds of cattle cross the prairie browsing as they go. They live for and by the senses. They know not the God who created them, and sustains and blesses them. (H. W. Beecher.)
The non-recognition of Christ
When Ulysses returned with fond anticipations to his home at Ithaca, his family did not recognize him. Even the wife of his bosom denied her husband--so changed was he by an absence of twenty years, and the hardships of a protracted war. In this painful condition of affairs he called for a bow which he had left at home. With characteristic sagacity he saw how a bow so stout and tough that none but himself could draw it, might be made to bear witness on his behalf. He seized it. To their surprise and joy, like a green wand lopped from a willow tree, it yields to his arms, it bends till the string touches his ear. His wife, now sure that he is her long lost and lamented husband, throws herself into his fond embraces, and his household confess him to be the true Ulysses. If I may compare small things with great, our Lord gave such proof of His Divinity when He, too, stood a stranger in His own house, despised and rejected of men. He bent the stubborn laws of nature to His will. He proved Himself Creator by His mastery over creation. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Genius unrecognized
When Verdi the celebrated musician first made application for admission as a student at the Conservatoire Musicale at Milan, he was rejected by the director, Francesco Basily, on the ground that he could make nothing of the new comer, who showed no disposition for music! How this early verdict was reversed is a matter of notorious history. (H. O. Mackey.)
Recognition
Some literary reputations are like fairies, in that they cannot cross running water. Others, again, are like the mystic genii of the Arabian Nights which loom highest when seen afar. Poe, e.g., is more appreciated in England than at home; and Cooper is given a higher rank by French than by American critics. (Matthews.)
Judgment by contemporaries
Contemporary judgment is least of all judicial. The young forestall novelty itself. The old mistrust or look backward with a sense of loss. It is hard for either to apply tests that are above fashion; we adopt, as lightly as formerly we contemned, a fashion that at last we avow we rightly interpret. (E. C. Stedman.)
God present but unknown
I have swept the heavens with my telescope and have found no God. (E. C. Stedman.)
God unrecognized in His own world
Sir Isaac Newton had among his acquaintances a philosopher who was an atheist. It is well known that the illustrious man, who takes the first rank as a mathematician, natural philosopher, and astronomer, was at the same time a Christian. He had in his study a celestial globe, on which was an excellent representation of the constellations and the stars which compose them. His atheist friend, having come to visit him one day, was struck with the beauty of tiffs globe. He approached it, examined it, and, admiring the work, he turned to Newton and said to him, Who made it? No one! replied the celebrated philosopher. The atheist understood, and was silent. (Christian Age.)
Christ is often near but unknown
Every faculty of the soul, if it would but open its door, might see Christ standing over against it, and silently asking by His smile, Shall I come in unto thee? But men open the door and look down, not up, and thus see Him not. So it is that men sigh on, not knowing what the soul wants, but only that it needs something. Our yearnings are home-sicknesses for heaven; our sighings are for God, just as children that cry themselves asleep away from home, and sob in their slumber, know not that they sob for their parents. The souls inarticulate meanings are the affections yearning for the Infinite, and having no one to tell them what it is that ails them. (H. W. Beecher.)
He came to His own
Christs coming and rejection
I. IN WHAT SENSE HE CAME TO HIS OWN, AND HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT. He came as the long-expected Messiah (Hag_2:7; Joh_4:26), answering all the characters given Him as such in the Old Testament.
1. He came as Immanuel (Isa_7:14; Isa_9:6; Isa_35:4; Isa_40:9-10). His testimony to this effect was confirmed by exercising the authority of God
(1) by forgiving sins (Mat_9:2);
(2) by healing the sick (Mat_8:3);
(3) by raising the dead (Mar_5:41; Joh_11:43),
(4) by calming the storm (Mar_4:39).
But so far were His own from receiving Him that they accounted Him a sinner (Joh_9:24), a deceiver (Mat_27:63), mad and possessed of the devil (Joh_10:20).
2. He came as the Prophet like unto Moses (Deu_18:15), whom He resembled in many things. But they rejected Him because His doctrine contradicted their prejudices, censured their vices, and laid a restraint on their dominant lusts.
3. He came as High Priest and Mediator between God and man, typified by Aaron; but they, depending on being Abrahams seed, on circumcision, the priesthood, and expiations of their law, received Him not.
4. He came as Redeemer and Saviour (Isa_59:20; Isa_42:6; Isa_24:7), but not seeing their want of redemption (chap. 8:33), and having no desire for spiritual blessings, they received Him not.
5. He came as King (Psa_2:6; Jer_23:5-6; Zec_9:9), to rescue them from their enemies, and govern them with good laws. But as His kingdom was not of this world they rejected Him (Joh_19:13; Joh_19:15; Joh_18:40, Luk_19:14).
II. IN WHAT SENSE IT IS NECESSARY THAT WE SHOULD RECEIVE HIM We receive His name, and therefore receive Him by profession; the Scriptures, as declaring His will; His ordinances: but do we receive Him in all the offices and characters He sustains?
1. Acknowledging Him as a Divine Teacher, do we learn and practise His precepts?
2. Acknowledging that He is Mediator, do we rely on His atonement and intercession?
3. Confessing Him to be all-sufficient Redeemer, do we glorify Him in our body and spirit, which are His?
4. Do we in reality as well as in profession receive Him as our King? It is implied in these questions that we received
(1) His doctrine as the rule of our faith, experience, and practice;
(2) His merits as the ground of our confidence;
(3) His Spirit, without which we are none of His;
(4) His example as our pattern;
(5) His exaltation as the ultimate object of our desire.
III. THE GREAT PRIVILEGE THEY ATTAIN WHO RECEIVE HIM
1. They are unspeakably near to Him as made sons of God by regeneration Joh_5:1).
2. They are dear to Him above all others. They are favoured with access to Him, taken under His protection, and assured of a great reward. (J. Benson.)
Christs coming to His own
The Jewish nation was His own, by choice (Deu_7:6); by purchase (Exo_19:4-5); by covenant (Deu_26:18); and by kindred (Heb_2:16). (F. H.Dunwell, B. A.)
Christ rejected by His own people
He came unto His own things, and His own people received Him not. He was as a householder coming to his own house and being kept out by his own servants. What is the earth but one great apartment in the house of God! Its furniture (its hills and valleys, and rivers, fruits and flowers, and harvest fields) is Jesus Christs, for, apart from Him, was not anything made that was made: yet when He came to His own house His ownership was denied by the servants who had been put into temporary possession by His own power and grace. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Advent
The coming of Christ had
I. AN OBJECT.
1. Men had lost sight of God. Some had lost it. Others had never had it. All were destitute of it except a small class of Hebrew believers. Three kinds of sin had blinded, corrupted, usurped the human soul.
(1) Self-admiration,which makes a rebel of the intellect;
(2) Self-will of the conscience;
(3) Self-indulgence of the passions.
Curiosity was all that was left as the highest aim in science; war, in enterprise; and a sensuous enthusiasm for the beautiful in art. Alexandria, Rome, and Athens represented these three ambitions.
2. In losing God, man had lost himself. Faith in God and the dignity of man went down together. With Divine worship fell human rights and liberties. Seneca stood for the worlds idea of learning; Caesar, for its idea of politics; Corinth, for its idea of pleasure.
3. The object of the Advent, therefore, was to restore to man his God and Father, and himself.
II. A METHOD. Not by creating a religious capacity, but by quickening men with trust and love.
1. Not first by a book: that would have reached not one in ten thousand, nor him in his heart.
2. Not chiefly by oral instructions, which have to be certified to the understanding before they can inspire faith.
3. Not by a mere creature-image of Deity, for that would have been only adding another to the old Pantheon of idolatries.
4. This infinite goodness, this One Spirit of God, must come in a life. Christ must be the Son of the Father; must touch humanity and enter into it; must wear its flesh; must lift its load; must partake its experience; must be tempted with it; must be seen, nay, felt, suffering for it. This will complete the manifestation. This will be, not an education, not an inspiration, not a human self-elevation, which neither history nor logic hints at; but a coming of Heaven to earth; a theophany, or manifesting of God. This is perfect compassion, and effectual relief. This gets the sundered souls together. Even stolid and blinded eyes will behold their Lord. This will move, and melt, and convince of sin, and arouse to holiness.
III. A MOTIVE. There could be but one (Joh_3:16). (Bp. Huntington.)
The Advent of Christ.
I. THE GREAT ADVENT; OR, THE ARRIVAL OF THE HEIR.
1. The illustrious personage described.
(1) The Word of God; implying personality, intelligence, eternity, divinity.
(2) The Creator of the universe.
(3) The life and light of men; the source of whatever mental, moral, or spiritual truth ever entered into the soul of man.
(4) The heir of Israel and humanity. He came into His own possessions.
(a) Into the world which by reason of His creatorship was His.
(b) Unto Israel, the special creation of His grace, and His peculiar treasure.
2. The manner of His coming pictured. He came
(1) Voluntarily. The Baptist was sent; Christ came.
(2) Opportunely. In the fulness of the times; the time pre-appointed by God; the time pre-eminently adapted for a new religion. The false faiths had been tried and found wanting. The Mosaic economy had served its purpose. The Roman power had provided a means of universal communication, and Greece a universal language.
(3) Graciously. To communicate the life and the light without which neither Israel nor humanity could be saved. It would not have been surprising had He come to condemn rather than to save.
(4) Unostentatiously. We might have anticipated an advent in great power and glory.: instead of that it was in the form of a servant.
II. THE MOURNFUL REJECTION; OR, THE REPUDIATION OF THE HEIR. Israels conduct representative of the worlds. This rejection was
1. Symbolized at His birth. No room for Him in the inn. Manger for His cradle.
2. Experienced throughout His life. Despised and rejected of men. Calumniated as a wine-bibber, a blasphemer, an impostor, a confederate of Beelzebub, and persecuted and scorned.
3. Confirmed by His death. Away with Him! Crucify Him! Learn
(1) The amazing condescencion of Christ.
(2) The supreme claim of Christ.
(3) The wickedness and danger of the unbelief which rejects Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Jesus of Nazareth the true promised Messiah
No Scripture has so directly and immoveably stood in the way of opposers of Christs divinity, from Socinius backwards, than this chapter. In the text we have
I. CHRISTS COMING INTO THE WORLD.
1. The person who came. The Second Person in the Trinity, whose infinity makes the act of His coming miraculous. But Christ, who delighted to mingle mercy with miracle, took a finite nature, so that what was impossible to a Divine nature was done by a Divine Person, and being made man could do all that a man could do except sin. The endeavour to account for this mystery has been the source of all heresy, both of hypothesis and denial.
2. The state and condition from which Christ came. From the bosom of the Father, a state of eternal glory, joy, and Divine communion. How great the humiliation from this to that of a crucified malefactor! And yet it was perfectly voluntary.
3. To whom He came. Everything was His own by creation, possession, and absolute dominion; but the Jews were His by
(1) The fraternal right of consanguinity; and
(2) Churchship, as selected by Him. That it was Palestine and not Rome He came to was of His sovereign mercy.
4. The time at which He came. When they were at their worst.
(1) Nationally. Only a remnant left, and that under a foreign yoke; when to be a Jew was a mark of infamy.
(2) Ecclesiastically. When most corrupt, hypocritical, sceptical. In this we may see
(a) the invariable strength of Christs love;
(b) the immoveable veracity of Gods promise.
II. CHRISTS ENTERTAINMENT BEING COME. May we not expect for Him a magnificent reception, a welcome as extraordinary as His kindness, especially when we consider His purpose? But His own received Him not. This is not strange. The Jews only followed the common practice of men, whose.emulation usually preys on those superior to them.
1. The grounds of His rejection.
(1) Christ came not as a temporal prince, which frustrated their carnal hopes. They therefore derided the carpenters son.
(2) They supposed that He set Himself against the law of Moses by His spiritual interpretations, human exceptions, and exposures of rabbinical glosses.
2. The unreasonableness of these grounds.
(1) He came to be not a temporal prince, but
(a) a blessing to all nations, which is inconsistent with the idea of a warrior Messiah. This is the burden of prophecy
(b) of a low, despised estate (Psa_22:1-31; Isa_53:1-12.)
(2) He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it. The ceremonial law was fulfilled and passed away, therefore, of itself.
3. The reasons which should have induced them to receive Him.
(1) All the marks of the Messiah appeared in Him.
(2) His whole behaviour was a continued act of mercy and charity. Conclusion: The Jews are not the only persons concerned in this guilt, but also all vicious Christians. (R. South, D. D.)
The ingratitude of man
I. THE PEOPLE AMONGST WHOM OUR LORD DWELT WERE GUILTY OF INGRATITUDE TOWARDS HIM.
1. It was an act of distinguished favour our that He should be born among them; yet they rejected Him, which was a high-handed act of national ingratitude.
2. Special cases occurred involving still greater ingratitude.
(1) Among them were many whom our Lord healed. Strange ingratitude that a man should owe his eyes to Him and yet refuse to see in Him the Saviour; should owe to Christ his tongue and be silent in the great Physicians praise.
(2) He fed thousands of hungry persons: yet they followed Him, not for Himself, but for what they could get out of Him.
(3) When He acted as a teacher they tried to murder Him.
3. The further our Lord went on in life the more ungratefully was He treated. He forgot Himself and gave Himself away that He might seek and save the lost; and yet men strove to take away His life which was more valuable to them than to Him.
4. At last that evil generation had its way with Him and crucified Him.
5. When He rose and tarried for forty days to minister blessing, they first doubted and then invented an idle tale to account for it.
6. In this ingratitude those who were nearest to Him had a share. One denied Him, and all forsook Him and fled.
II. WE ALSO HAVE BEEN UNGRATEFUL TO OUR LORD.
1. Those who are most indebted to Christs love and grace--believers.
(1) Every sin is ingratitude since Christ suffered for it and came to destroy it.
(2) The setting up of any rival on His throne in the heart, when Christ is dethroned in favour of wife, child, friend, ambition, pleasure, wealth, is base ingratitude.
(3) The same is true when we lose large measures of grace; when the Holy Spirit admits us into peculiar nearness to God and we act inconsistently.
(4) And so the little service we render and our lukewarm love. Christs love is like the ancient furnace which was heated seven times hotter; ours like the solitary spark which wonders within itself that it is yet alive.
(5) The rare consecration of our substance is another case in point. Our gifts to His poor, His Church, missions, are an insult to Him.
(6) How base is our ingratitude when we neglect His commands and have to be driven to obedience.
2. There are those whose ingratitude is even greater.
(1) Those who refuse to trust Him, in spite of gospel announcements, loving invitations, the evident manifestation of Christ.
(2) Those who oppose Him, jest at His gospel, and treat His people with indignity. What evil has He ever done you? When has He given you an ill word or look? It is to His silence that you owe your life. There is no chivalry in such conduct as this.
3. Those from whom, above all others, such conduct ought not to have proceeded.
(1) Children of pious and sainted parents.
(2) The restored from sickness.
III. WHAT THEN? What comes out of all this?
1. Let us appreciate our Saviours sufferings.
2. Admire our Saviours love.
3. Apply the cleansing blood which can take away the scarlet sin of ingratitude.
4. Learn how to forgive. Christ loved men none the less for their ingratitude.
5. Judge how we ought to live in the light of this subject: devote ourselves entirely to Him. In conclusion, what will become of the finally ungrateful? (C. H.Spurgeon.)
His own
There are two ways of belonging to another: unwilling and inevitable, or willing and hearty. You may belong to a nation by birth, and dislike it; to a family, from dependence or self-interest, and care for no welfare in it; to a university, and be out of harmony and out of temper with its administration. But so you cannot belong to the brotherhood that is of the body of Christ. You must be in sympathy both with the brotherhood and its head. The legal ownership you cannot help; it brings no animation and no comfort. By your creation you are the Lords; His to be disposed of, to live or die, to be judged. The business of your new heart, receiving Christ, is to change this reluctant belonging for the closer and grateful loyalty of affection; the legal bond for the gracious one of faith. (Bp. Huntington, D. D.)
The coming and rejection of the light
The light came into mens hearts as into its proper native dwelling-place. The Word from whom that light issued asserted His right over all the feelings, instincts, impulses, and determinations of these hearts, as over His own rightful domestics and subjects. But the light was repelled; the rightful Ruler was treated as an intruder by these domestics and subjects. There was anarchy and rebellion where there should have been subordination and harmony. A usurper had reduced those into slavery who would not have the service which is freedom. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Christ rejected
His own were those who believed with Him in the Scriptures; the teachers of Israel, those who had been trained for His reception. The peasants of Galilee knew Him and received Him when He fed them; for the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters crib. He was rejected by those who were the most rigorously orthodox; by the men who believed that their whole life should expend itself in maintaining the temple and its worship. The last days of Christ, the illustrious days of His controversy, were spent with the best, the highest, the most moral of all the people then upon the globe; and they knew Him not. The poor knew Him, and followed Him; the blind know Him, and cried out to Him; the dead knew Him, and came to life; but the armour-bearers of the then regnant faith--the priests, the teachers--looked upon Him with blank faces, and treated Him as a pretender, a traitor, and slew Him. Is the Christian spirit any more acceptable to-day? Is the policy of Christian nations saturated with blood, and bearing every insignia of the cross imbued with that spirit? Are all pompous churches, with all forms of superstition connected with their worship, and full of symbols of Him who came not to destroy but to save--are they truly Christian? Listen to the Te Deum when men knee deep in blood come back with victory on their banners. See the government of most Christian nations; how degraded have been the empires over which they have ruled. See how the Christian nations of Europe lie over against each other, like hungry lions waiting only for an opportunity to spring! What Christian nation, looking at its past history and present policy, can be said to have received Christ? (H. W. Beecher.)
Christ still rejected
As John writes, there was an advent and a rejection: a bodily advent, a bodily crucifixion: the image and outer form of the Word that was from the beginning, the ever-living Emmanuel, the Christ that comes to-day. If He is rejected to-day, it is by the pride and fashion and self-indulgence of to-day. It is our compromising consciences, it is our well-dressed sensuality, it is our commercial cunning, it is more literary conceit, it is our making merchandise of men and of mens virtue, our covering up cruelty, and calling it patriotism; dishonesty, and calling it regular trade; hollowness and mutual flattery, and calling it good society; prayerless self-idolatry, and calling it a rational religion--it is these things that prepare and build His cross, and crucify Him afresh. (Bp. Huntington, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 10, 11. The tenth verse declares: (1) That he…
10, 11. The tenth verse declares: (1) That he was in the world, (2) the world was made by him, (3) it did not recognize him. The next verse states (1) that he came, personally, to his own. He took upon himself a fleshly form and came to the race to which he was united by fleshly ties; (2) his own received him not. The world is humanity in general, which knew him not; his own is the Jewish nation, who received him not.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8")
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The relation of Jesus to the world:
The relation of Jesus to the world:
v. 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
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v. 11. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
v. 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name;
v. 13. which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
v. 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
At the time when John was bearing witness of Jesus, He was already in the world, He had become a part of the physical world as true man, He was subject to the usual laws governing man and his relation to the universe. And all this was true, though He had been the Creator of the world; the whole world, without reservation, with everything it contains, is His work, He made it, Col 1:16; Eph 3:9; Heb 1:2. But in spite of the fact that He was in the world and had created the world, the people of the world did not know Him, did not acknowledge Him. The people did not recognize their own Creator, so thoroughly is the world estranged from God. The entire world consists of people in need of redemption, and yet the majority insists upon being counted with those that are lost. The representative part of the world will not acknowledge and accept Him. See 1Co 1:18-25. This is defined and explained more exactly in the next sentence. Into His own He came, to His own property, to the vineyard which His Father had planted, to the chosen people of the Old Testament. But those that belonged to Him, the men and women of His own race, that had received so many evidences of His grace and goodness, did not receive Him, were far from welcoming Him. The great mass of them rejected Him and His salvation. "The rulers in the children of Israel and the great multitude, since He did not come as they had imagined He should (for He came, simple and without ostentation, had no honor), would not acknowledge Him as the Messiah, much less accept Him, though St. John went before Him and testified of Him, and though He Himself very soon came forward, preached with power, and did miracles, that He truly should have been recognized by His miracles, Word, and preaching. But all that did not avail much... For the world nevertheless affixed Him to the cross; which would not have been done if they had held Him for what He was."
But some there were, some few true Israelites, that received Him as the promised Messiah, and that therefore believed on His name, put their full trust for their salvation in Him. To receive Christ, to believe on Him, and to trust in His name, are expressions covering the same process; they are synonymous. To such as accepted the Word of the Cross He gives the great privilege or right to become the sons of God by adoption, Gal 4:4-5. He works faith in their hearts. They enter into the right, the proper relation to Him, they accept Him as their Father. This process of becoming children of God is now contrasted with the corresponding process of physical birth; The children of God are produced in a wonderful way, unlike that of natural procreation and birth. In nature children are formed out of blood and body substances of human flesh and by an act of the will of man. But this birth does not make a person a child of God. The children of God are born out of God. He is their true Father; to Him alone and to no human, earthly agency, power, or will do they owe life and being, spiritual birth and existence. Regeneration is the work of God, and it is His work all alone. By their receiving this testimony concerning Christ, as it was proclaimed by John, into their heart, this marvelous change has been wrought in the Christians. God has thereby made them partakers of the divine nature. Faith, which receives the Word and Christ, is wrought by God through the Word. Thus the believers have the manner and nature of their heavenly Father: a new spiritual, divine life is found in them. And though they are not born out of the essence of the Father, like the only-begotten Son, yet by adoption they have all the rights of children. They are heirs, with Christ, of the bliss of eternal salvation, Rom 8:17.
Just how this was brought about, that God could gather children out of the midst of a world that did not accept His Son, is shown in that incomparably beautiful passage of the incarnation of the Word. The Word, the eternal Son of the eternal Father, became flesh, assumed the true human nature according to body and soul. And instead of appearing only at irregular intervals, He had His dwelling among us, He partook of all the joys and sorrows of a true human existence; there could be no doubt as to the reality of His humanity. While He is and remains the eternal Logos, He is yet true man, subject to time and space, in every way like unto us in all the natural needs of the flesh, only without sin. And while He did not make an open, triumphant show of the divine nature which was His even in the state of humiliation, yet, the evangelist writes, we viewed His glory. The disciples had a good and full opportunity to convince themselves by close and intimate scrutiny upon many occasions that He was truly the Son of God, the eternal Logos. He still possessed the glory, the supernatural glory, of the only-begotten Son of the Father, Psa 2:7. The Father had begotten Him from eternity; He became flesh in the fullness of time, retaining, however, the full control of His divinity, lower than the Father only according to His humanity. His glory and majesty, His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, which mark Him as true God, became evident time and again in His miracles; rays of His glory penetrated the veil of His humanity as easily as the rays of the sun penetrate glass. Christ is therefore not only almighty God, but also almighty man; not only omniscient God, but also omniscient man; not only omnipresent God, but also omnipresent man. And this only-begotten Son, in His work as Savior, is full of grace and truth; grace and truth are concentrated in Him, they are the sum of His essence. The free and unmerited love and mercy of God is found in the person of Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. The manifestations of His glory are supplemented by that of His grace. There is nothing of the insincere human quality in this grace with which the Son of God accepts sinners, but He is full of truth; He is the truly good, the personification of all goodness. True grace, true mercy, the fullness of unmerited divine compassion is found in Christ, true God and man, Psa 89:2; Psa 98:2.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 He was in the world, and the world was…
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him
"Even though he was in this world, and God created everything through him, people still did not recognize him"
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the world did not know him
The "world" is a metonym that stands for all the people who live in the world. AT: "the people did not know who he really was" (See: Metonymy)
He came to his own, and his own did not receive him
"He came to his own fellow countrymen, and his own fellow countrymen did not accept him either"
receive him
"accept him." To receive someone is to welcome him and treat him with honor in hopes of building a relationship with him.
translationWords
world
know
receive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:10 The world cannot recognize the true light even…
1:10 The world cannot recognize the true light even when it encounters its Creator. The world lives in rebellion, loving darkness more than light (3:19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.