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1. We have here one of the many instances in which the apostle quotes from the O.T. and applies it to Gentile Christians. "Now having these promises" — we, you, "having" them! The apostle identified the Jewish and Christian churches, and considered the Scriptures of the first, the inheritance of the second, and that promises addressed to the Jews, and having relation to local and temporary circumstances, have yet an eternal principle in them which makes them applicable to the church in all time.

2. Every thoughtful person is conscious, immediately the idea is suggested of men being the children of God, of the feeling that this relationship is common to all men. Paul himself adopts the saying of the Greek poet, "And we His offspring are." Simply considered in their human character men are the children of God, but some men are the sons of God in a sense different from others.

I. THE ORIGIN AND SOURCE OF THIS PECULIAR RELATIONSHIP, Christianity is a supernatural intervention of God, and it teaches that men become the sons of God in a sense which cannot be predicated of them in their previous natural condition (John 1:12, 13). They are not born "of blood," of one particular race; it is not because of being either Jew or Gentile, of the family of Seth or of Shem, which makes men sons of God. "Nor of the will of the flesh." This privilege is not an inherent element in humanity which only requires development. "Nor by the will of man" — i.e., in respect to external acts, rites, or sacraments, which a man has power to dispense or to keep back; neither of caste, induction, or ritualism, but of God — you are born of Him. There is through Christ, and in connection with the truth of Christ, a direct influence and operation of the Spirit of God upon the soul of a believing man, infusing a new spiritual life into the conscience, and that spiritual living man is a son of God, and shelters himself under the Divine Fatherhood in a sense altogether unique.

II. ITS PRIVILEGES.

1. Honour, nobility. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!"

2. The conscious utterance of sentiments and feelings appropriate to this relationship. "Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

3. The indwelling of the Spirit — the Spirit which regenerates and sanctifies, not only enters, but makes the heart His home, filling it with light and peace.

4. A life of filial confidence; the belief that they shall have from their Father what is necessary, both for temporal and spiritual life. Why take you thought for raiment, etc.?

5. Heirship. "If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ."

III. ITS DUTIES.

1. A perpetual, calm, grateful joy. I think it a great thing to be born into this world — to be a man. To be possessed of these senses and faculties, to have God's universe spread before us with all the intellectual and moral force that we have within us, even life, with its warfare, its work, and its vicissitudes — about all these things there is joy. Aye, but to be born again, to have the spiritual eye opened to those things which are only realised by faith, to be born into this new and spiritual world, to awake up to a consciousness that through Christ we are the sons and daughters of God — how we ought to rejoice in that!

2. A ready acknowledgment of the relationship. Men are not ashamed to own a relationship with illustrious ancestors. And there is something wrong when Christians are ashamed of their relationship to God, of that highest nobility that God can confer.

3. Obedience.

(1) The obedience of children. A little child does not ask reasons, or if it does it is told to wait. Christians should apply this to themselves, and remember that part of the duty of sons to their Divine and loving Father is prompt obedience.

(2) But added to that there must be the obedience of men — I mean that with enlightened reason, and with high and glowing purpose, you shall determine that, God helping you, you will live and act worthy of your parentage.

4. Contentedness with our lot, and a using of our spiritual privileges — delight in the intercourse with our Father, acquiescence in chastisement, and an exercise of filial faith in what is to be the end proposed by Him.

5. A gradual preparation for that great day when the Son shall appear in the presence of the Father, and when there shall be a blessed realisation of the hope which has sustained the child from the beginning.

IV. ITS ULTIMATE CONSUMMATION.

1. The glorification of your entire nature. You look for your Saviour to sanctify your souls, and you took for Him to change your body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. This is to be the beginning of the consummation, and will lead to the period when there will be the whole family in heaven.

2. Positive and conscious association with the elder sons of creation, who "kept their first estate," and who "rejoice over one sinner that repenteth." Their joy will be full when the two races — the fallen and the unfallen... shall be brought together in visible companionship before the throne of God.

(T. Binney.).

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KJV: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

WEB: Therefore, "'Come out from among them, and be separate,' says the Lord. 'Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.