I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
37. I know that you are Abraham’s seed. I explain this as said by way of concession. Yet at the same time he ridicules their folly in glorying in so absurd a title, as if he had said: “Granting that on which you flatter yourselves so much, still what avails it that those men are called the children of Abraham, who are enraged against God...
Christ turns from the hardened Pharisees to address those few weak believers with comfort, because He gathers lambs in His arms and will not cast off faith in its infancy. The rule He sets down is settled: He owns none for His true disciples but those who continue in His Word, though many profess themselves His disciples only in show and name.
AI summary
Commenting on John 8:31-37
But now ye seek to kill me,.... A temper and disposition very foreign from that of Abraham's: a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God; to seek to kill a man is a very great crime, and punishable with death; to kill an innocent one, that had done no sin, who was pure, holy, harmless, and inoffensive to God...