John 1:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For this reason the Evangelist reminds us of the very manner of spiritual birth. By comparing it with fleshly birth, he shows its superiority, saying: "who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

He said this so that, knowing the lowliness and humiliation of our first birth from blood and fleshly desire, we might understand, by contrast, the greatness and dignity of the second birth by grace.

Then we may have an exalted understanding of it, an understanding worthy of this gift from the One Who begets us in this way. From our side, we may also show great care for it.

We must fear greatly lest, by later negligence and vices, we defile this beautiful garment and be cast out of the bridal chamber, like the five foolish virgins, or like the man who did not have a wedding garment.

That man too was among the guests and had been invited. But even after the invitation and such honor, he showed disrespect toward the one who invited him. Listen to the fate he suffers, a wretched fate worthy of many tears.

He came to take part in the radiant feast. Yet he is not only driven from the feast. Bound hand and foot, he is led into the outer darkness, where he is given over to eternal and unceasing weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Therefore, beloved, let us not consider faith alone sufficient for salvation. If we do not present a pure life, but appear in garments unfitting for our blessed calling, nothing will save us from the same sufferings that befell that miserable man.

Indeed, is it not strange that God and King Himself does not disdain simple, obscure, and worthless people, but brings them from the crossroads to His table, while we show such insensibility?

Even in such honor we do not become better. After being called, we remain in the same evil and thus trample upon the ineffable love for mankind of Him Who called us.

He did not call us to this spiritual and dread communion of the mysteries so that we might approach them with our former wickedness. He called us so that, having put off shameful garments, we might put on those fitting for guests in the royal chambers.

If we do not wish to act worthily of such a calling, this depends on us, not on the One Who so honored us. He does not cast us out of the wondrous assembly of the called. We cast ourselves out.

He did everything from His side. He arranged the wedding feast, prepared the table, sent those who invited, received those who came, and showed every other honor.

But by our unclean garments, that is, by sinful deeds, we insulted Him, those present at the wedding feast, and the whole wedding. Therefore we are justly cast out.

Thus, out of respect for the wedding feast and those invited, the King drives away the audacious and shameless from there. If He had left those clothed in such garments, He Himself would thereby have shown disrespect for the other guests.

But may God grant that no one, neither we nor anyone else, experience such wrath from the One Who called us. This was written before it happens so that, instructed by the threats of Scripture, we may not actually bring ourselves to such dishonor and punishment.

Let us instead be satisfied with these words of Scripture alone, and let us all appear at that call in a radiant garment. May we all obtain it by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With Him, to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

"nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." Isaac's birth, though not of blood, was still of the will of man, since the man certainly desired that a child be born to him from Sarah (Gen 21:8). "Of the will of the flesh" would be, for example, Samuel from Hannah. Thus you may say that Isaac was of the will of man, and Samuel of the will of the flesh, that is, of Hannah. For this barren woman greatly desired to receive a son (1 Kingdoms 1:6). Perhaps both expressions apply to each of them. If you wish to learn something further, listen. Fleshly union arises either from a natural inflammation, for often someone has a very heated constitution and is thereby strongly inclined to intercourse. This the Evangelist called the will of the flesh. Or an unrestrained impulse toward intercourse comes from bad habit and an immoderate manner of life. This impulse he called "the will of man," since it is not the work of natural constitution but of a man's lack of moderation. Since a strong inclination to intercourse sometimes appears in the woman and sometimes in the man, perhaps by "the will of man" the Evangelist indicated the man's sensuality, and by "the will of the flesh" the woman's sensuality. You may also rightly understand by "the will of the flesh" the desire that inflames the flesh to union. By "the will of man" understand the consent of the desiring person to copulation, which consent is the beginning of the act. The Evangelist set down both because many desire, yet are not immediately carried away by the flesh. They overcome it and do not fall into the act itself. But those whom it overcomes come to the desire for union, because at first the flesh and the desire smoldering in it had inflamed them. Thus the Evangelist fittingly placed the will of the flesh before the will of man, because desire naturally precedes union. Both wills necessarily come together in copulation. All this has been said for those who often ask unreasonable questions. Strictly speaking, all these expressions convey one thought: they set forth the lowliness of fleshly birth. What, then, do we who believe in Christ possess more than the Israelites under the Law? It is true that they too were called sons of God, but there is a great difference between us and them. In everything the Law had a shadow of the things to come (Heb 10:1). It did not communicate sonship to the Israelites fully, but only as in an image and mental representation. But through Baptism we have received the Spirit of God in very deed and cry, "Abba, Father" (Gal 4:6). Just as their baptism was an image and shadow, so their sonship prefigured our adoption. Although they too were called sons, they were sons in shadow and did not have the very truth of sonship, as we now have it through Baptism.

In that way He too would finally be brought down into the nature of creatures, even though He is called begotten of the Father.

Therefore, after saying that the authority to become children of God was given to them by Him who is Son by nature, the Evangelist indicated that this sonship to God is received by adoption and grace.

Only then does he safely use the expression, "they were born of God."

He does this to show the greatness of the grace given them by God the Father. In His fervent love for mankind, He receives what is alien to Him as if it were His own natural property.

He raises what is servile to lordly nobility.

But perhaps someone will say: What advantage or special distinction belongs to believers in Christ compared with Israel, when Israel too is called born of God, according to the saying, "I begot sons and exalted them, but they rejected Me" (Isa 1:2)?

To this, I think, we must first say that "the law has a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the realities" (Heb 10:1).

It gave this sonship to God to the Israelites not in truth, but as something traced among them in figure and outward sign "until the time of correction" (Heb 9:10), as it is written.

Then at last those were to appear who call God Father in the truest and wholly fitting way, because the Spirit of the Only-begotten Son of God dwells in them.

The former had "the spirit of bondage unto fear," but the latter have "the Spirit of adoption" unto freedom, "in whom we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom 8:15).

Therefore the people who were to be raised through faith in Christ to adoption by God were prefigured in Israel as in shadows.

Likewise, we think that circumcision in the Spirit was prefigured in their ancient circumcision of the flesh.

In general, all that is ours existed among them in type.

To what has been said we shall add this. Israel was called to adoption in type through the mediator Moses.

For this reason they were baptized into him, as Paul says, "in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor 10:2).

They were transferred from idol worship to the law of bondage by the commandment given in letters through Angels (Gal 3:19; Acts 7:53).

But those who ascend through faith in Christ to adoption by God are baptized not into anything created, but into the Holy Trinity itself.

This takes place through the Mediator, the Word, who unites the human to Himself through His union with flesh, and is united by nature to the Begetter, since He is God by nature.

Thus, through participation in the true Son, what is servile attains sonship. It is called and, as it were, raised to the dignity that belongs to Him by nature.

Therefore we both are called and are those born of God, having received regeneration through the Spirit by means of faith.

But since some, to their own danger, dare to lie against both the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit, saying that He is a creature and made, and wholly depriving Him of consubstantiality with God the Father, we shall set forth reflections useful for ourselves and for readers.

We set the teaching of the right faith against the unbridledness of their tongue.

Beloved, if the Spirit proper to God is not God by nature and not from God, and therefore does not belong essentially to Him, but is something other than Him and not foreign to the same nature as creatures, then how is it said of us, who are born through Him, that we "were born of God"?

We would have to assert either that the Evangelist speaks falsely, or, if he is true, as indeed he is and cannot be otherwise, that the Spirit is God and from God by nature.

Being deemed worthy of participation in Him through faith in Christ, we become partakers of the divine nature and are called born of God.

Therefore we are called gods, not only soaring by grace to a glory beyond us, but as already having God dwelling and living within ourselves.

This accords with what is read in the prophet: "I will dwell in them and walk among them" (2 Cor 6:16; Lev 26:12).

Otherwise, let those filled with such ignorance tell us how, according to Paul, we prove to be temples of God, having the Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor 3:16), if He is not God by nature.

If He is a creature and made, for what fault does God "destroy" us as those who "destroy the temple of God" (1 Cor 3:17), when we defile our body in which the Spirit lives?

For the Spirit has all the natural properties of God the Father, and likewise of the Only-begotten.

Otherwise, how will the Savior be true when He says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23), and remain in him?

For it is precisely the Spirit who lives in us. Through Him we believe that we have both the Father and the Son within us.

John himself again said in his Epistles: "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit" (1 Jn 4:13).

How at all can He be called the Spirit of God, if He is not from God and not in Him by nature, and therefore God?

If, being created, as they say, He is nevertheless the Spirit of God, then nothing prevents other creatures also from being called spirits of God.

This possibility too would have to extend to them, once it is admitted that a created essence is the Spirit of God.

It would, of course, be necessary to develop a long discourse on this and to refute the folly of the impious heretics by many proofs.

But since we have already given a sufficient account of the Holy Spirit in the book On the Holy Trinity, we shall not now speak much about this.

The Father, true God, begot the Son, like Himself, true God. He did not beget as teachers beget disciples, nor as Paul says to certain people, "I begot you in Christ Jesus through the Gospel" (1 Cor 4:15).

There, one who was not Paul’s son by nature became his son through being taught by him. But here the Son is natural, the true Son.

Nor is it as you who are preparing for illumination now become sons of God. You also become sons of God, but by adoption through grace.

If the Spirit, through faith in Christ, regenerates us unto salvation, so that for His sake we are called born of God, how can the Spirit not be God?

That we believers are born of the Spirit is witnessed by the Savior, who says to Nicodemus: "The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes or where He goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (Jn 3:8).

Then you might say to yourself: Not without reason did God will to be born of man. Was it not because He judged me worthy of some help, to make me immortal and, for my sake, to be born in mortal nature?

Therefore, after saying that they were "born of God," he speaks as though to keep us from being amazed and frightened at such grace. It should not seem incredible to us that men are born of God.

As if calming you, he says: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). Do you wonder that men are born of God? Look: God Himself was born of men.

How, then, are they born? Since they become children of God and brothers of Christ, they are certainly born. For if they are not born, how can they be sons?

The children of men are born of flesh and blood, of the will of man, and of conjugal union. How, then, are those born to Him? "They are not of bloods," sanguinibus, (cf. Jn 1:13), as from the blood of man and woman.

Sanguina, "bloods," is not a Latin word. But since in Greek the word stands in the plural, the translator preferred to use it so, though grammarians do not customarily speak this way in Latin.

He did this so that it might still disclose the truth to the hearing of the weak. If he had used "blood," sanguinem, in the singular, he would not have disclosed what he wished.

For men are born from the blood of man and the blood of woman. Therefore let us speak this way without fear of the rods of grammarians, until we arrive at firm and undoubted truth.

Whoever understands this and still condemns it treats with contempt what he has understood.

"Not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man" (Jn 1:13). John used "flesh" with reference to woman because, when she was made from the rib, Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23).

The Apostle also says: "He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh" (Eph 5:27-28). Therefore "flesh" is used with reference to the wife, just as sometimes "spirit" is used with reference to the husband.

Why? Because he guides, and she is guided. He rules, and she serves. For a house where the flesh rules and the spirit is subject is unstable.

What is worse than a house where the wife has authority over the husband? The rightly ordered house is the one where the husband rules and the wife obeys. Thus the rightly ordered man is the one in whom the spirit rules and the flesh obeys.

Therefore they were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Jn 1:13). In order that men might be born of God, God first was born of them.

For Christ is God, and Christ was born of men. Indeed, He sought a mother on earth because He already had a Father in heaven. He was born by God so that we might be created through Him, and born of a woman so that we might be reborn through Him.

Therefore do not be amazed, O man, that you become a child of God through grace, and that you are born of God according to His Word.

First the Word Himself chose to be born of man, so that you might calmly be born of God and say to yourself: "Not without reason did God choose to be born of man.

"He saw something important in me, in order to make me immortal and to be born for my sake in the form of a mortal man."

And how do they become sons of God? Those who were born not of bloods, not of the desire of man, not of the desire of the flesh, but of God? So look: they were born of God.

Having received authority to become sons of God, they were born of God, not of bloods. What was the first birth, that wretched birth which comes from the wretched?

And those who are born of God, how did this happen? How were they first born? Of bloods. The bloods of man and woman mingled in the union of the flesh of man and woman. Thus they were born.

But how are they born of God? The first birth is from man and woman. The second birth is from God and the Church.

To them He gave power through Baptism to become children of God, freeing them from the tyranny of the devil. Thus they are not only faithful. If they wish to live according to His commandments, they may add holiness to faith through the keeping of His commandments. As the Lord says elsewhere, "Be holy, for I am holy" (Lev 19:2). And again, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36). Then the Evangelist shows the manner in which such people become children of God, saying, "who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:13). Here he calls birth the spiritual change that is accomplished and beheld through Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The truthful Lord Himself says, "John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). Therefore those baptized with the Holy Spirit become like light in light, and they know Him Who begot them, because they see Him. Hear what the Evangelist says, that those born by the grace of the Holy Spirit need to be nourished by holy communion of the most pure Body and precious Blood of our Lord: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." And hear the Lord. That these words speak of the most pure Mysteries: "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him" (Jn 6:56). When we are born spiritually by the grace of the Holy Spirit and become children of God, Christ dwells in us through communion of the most pure Body and precious Blood of the Lord. He then abides in us as Light, Christ, the incarnate Son and Word of God. Then this follows: "we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father." For when we are born spiritually from Him, and He dwells in us through the Mysteries, we consciously abide in Him. At that very hour, when this takes place in us, we suddenly behold the glory of His Godhead. It is "glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father," such as no other possesses, neither angel nor man. Since the Father and His Only-begotten Son are one, it is clear that the glory of Both is one. This glory is revealed and made known, through the Holy Spirit Who proceeds from the Father, to all to whom the Son wills to reveal it.

But we hear the Apostle writing to those whom he called children of God, that "we conducted ourselves in the world not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God" (2 Cor 1:12). What he says means this: people become children of God neither through blood sacrifice, nor through fleshly circumcision, nor through worldly philosophy, but solely through faith in Christ. That is, neither the sacrifices of those before the Law, nor the circumcision of those under the Law, nor worldly wisdom, which discoursed at various times, makes a man a child of God. Only faith in Christ the Lord does this. The Evangelist gives the reason for such adoption in what follows: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14).

The expression "nor of the will of the flesh" indicates the will of the wife, as distinct from the will of the husband. The latter is presented here as higher than the wife's will, as a fuller and more rational realization of the creative command: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen 1:28). The general expression means this: fleshly birth does not adopt us to God, but faith in the name of the Lord. Those who have this faith are born of God and are children of God in the sense indicated above. Does this not strike down the usual Jewish prejudice concerning their rights to the Kingdom of the Messiah on the basis of their fleshly descent from Abraham? Fleshly birth means nothing in this regard. Only believers, and those born of God according to this faith, have power to be children of God, or participants in the Kingdom of Christ the Savior. He is not ashamed to call them His brethren (Heb 2:11). Therefore they are joint-heirs with Christ in His gracious Kingdom.

"Unless one is born from above," or again, "he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3-4). The Apostle Peter spoke of the same thing: "having been begotten, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of the living God" (1 Pet 1:23). Chrysostom says: "The Evangelist said this about the heavenly birth so that, recognizing the nothingness and lowliness of birth from flesh and blood, and the dignity of the second birth by grace. We might conceive a high understanding of it and then show great care for it." Thus in Jn 1:6-8 the Evangelist described John's relation to the Word, and in Jn 1:9-13 the relation of men to the Light, the Word.

Natural birth, position in society, degree of education, and every other external influence mean nothing here. All is from God. Spiritual birth is awakened by grace through His word and is accomplished through the holy Mysteries. The word of God, whether received outwardly and heeded inwardly, or spoken directly within and received there, pours out light and power. It awakens, strengthens, and in the Mysteries creates anew. So it was in the beginning, when God spoke the word and all things appeared in being. Therefore all regenerate children of God "are begotten by the word of the living God, which abides forever" (1 Pet 1:23). How far from the truth, then, are those for whom Christianity is only a certain way of viewing all that exists and a certain system of rules for life. Seek the new birth from God, so that you may not only be called children of God, but become such. This is not only by His good pleasure, but by the power of the new life received from Him, maintained, increased, and perfected through living communion with Him.

When the Jewish people, with their chief priests and scribes, rejected the Messiah, the Lord and Savior, the covenant of the God of the Covenant with the people of Israel was torn apart. This happened amid the cry of the enraged crowd: "Crucify, crucify Him!" and "His blood be on us and on our children" (Mt 27:23, 25; Mk 15:13; Lk 23:21).

As a sign of this, when the God-man yielded up His spirit on the Cross, the veil that hid the holy of holies in the temple of the old covenant was torn in two (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:45). The ancient Old Testament Church collapsed forever.

Only her unshakable foundation remained, that cornerstone which "the builders rejected" (Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Ps 117:22).

The Christian Church is not a continuation of the Old Testament Church, nor her rebirth into a new form. The Church of Christ was built upon the ruins of the ancient Church, though upon the same foundation.

It is a new Church. It is not the development of the ancient Church, but a new temple of the Holy Spirit, raised by the Word of God in souls purified by the blood of the God-man.

The new Church first rejected the national character of the old Church and all her institutions. It was formed not from a nation or tribe, but from individual persons, from new material. People new in spirit became members of the New Testament Church, and new wine was poured into this new wineskin.

Before the rupture of the covenant between the Jewish people and God, only the Jews who belonged to the Old Testament Church were called children of God. From now on, the right is given to individual persons of every race and tribe, including Jews, "to those who received the Lord," to be called "children of God."

"He who believes in the Son of God," says our Lord, "is not condemned" (Jn 3:18).

The Gospel of the holy Theologian John everywhere shows that the right to be called a child of God is a right bestowed by God alone. No human considerations or human merits can make someone a child of God if he has not been called by the Lord and acknowledged by Him.

No descent, of which the Jews were so proud when they said, "We are children of Abraham" (Mt 3:9; Jn 8 and elsewhere), gives one the right to consider oneself a child of God. For it is not fleshly birth, but birth from God, the "birth from above," of which the teachers of Israel had no understanding (Jn 3:3, 10), that alone gave the right of entrance into the new Church of God, which is the forecourt of the Kingdom of God.

We must add that, when we examine the expressions of verse 13 in particular, we see that the realm of "becoming children of God" is granted to those who received the Lord, who believe in His name, "who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

In these expressions commentators distinguish: first, birth "of blood," seeing in this an indication of family and ancestral pride; second, birth "of the will of the flesh," by which they understand the whole Jewish people multiplying through the natural way of marital union; and third, in the expression "of the will of man," a special pride founded on descent from a famous ancestor.

Having mentioned this view, we do not defend it. The chief thought is simply that the Church of God, the Church of Christ, has nothing to do with fleshly birth. She knows only spiritual birth.

But this birth, or regeneration (cf. Jn 3:3-8), accomplished by the Spirit of God, could take place in mankind only when God Himself was pleased to descend to man and assume his flesh.

"The love of God could not appear to us in any other way than through the flesh, which would remind us that He descended for our sake," says Gregory the Theologian.

The following verse depicts this event, so great for mankind. The Evangelist was one of its witnesses, and he cries out: "We beheld His glory!"