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For we are also his offspring. The source whence St. Patti derived this quotation is given in the Exegetical portion of this Commentary. It may be well to point out how such a classical quotation would secure the sustained attention of his audience. Dean Plumptre suggestively remarks, "The method of St. Paul's teaching is one from which modern preachers might well learn a lesson. He does not begin by telling men that they have thought too highly of themselves, that they are vile worms, creatures of the dust, children of the devil. The fault which he finds in them is that they have taken too low an estimate of their position. They too had forgotten that they were God's offspring, and had counted themselves, even as the unbelieving Jews had done (Acts 13:46), ' unworthy of eternal life.'" The truth set before us in the text is that of the fatherly relation of God to all men, and the answering child-relation of all men to God.

I. THE FACT SEES IS ITS UNIVERSALITY. It is commonly assumed that St. Paul meant no more than to remind his audience that there was only one Creator, and that all men were made in his image. But he must have further designed

(1) to reveal God to them;

(2) to give them the best of names for him;

(3) and to awaken in them the sense of his universal claims to love and trust.

III. THE RELATIONS OF SON AND FATHER THUS INVOLVED. These cannot be made by Christ; they belong to us, and are the very conditions of our being.

1. Christ does enable us to recognize the relation.

2. He does restore it as a broken relation.

3. He does show the glory of the relation in his own human life.

4. He does help us, by his grace and Spirit, to meet and fulfill the claims of the relation. "Because we are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts."

III. THE ARGUMENT FOR THE SPIRITUALITY OF GOD THUS INDICATED. Work out and illustrate:

1. That a thing can never be superior to its maker. If God made us, he must be better than we are, and we are manifestly better than speechless statues.

2. Man, the son, is a spiritual being; then God, the Father, must be spiritual too.

IV. THE CLAIMS OF GOD ON MEN THUS ENFORCED. Fatherhood means authority. What God commands we must heed. He commands two things.

1. That we should repent.

2. That we should receive his gift of eternal life in Christ. "God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." - R.T.

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KJV: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

WEB: 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'