Origen remarks : " It was not one man only that the devil killed, but the whole human race, inasmuch as in Adam all die. So that he is truly called a murderer."
When our Lord says that the " devil abode not in the truth," I think He teaches that the devil is a fallen spirit, and that he was originally made very good and " perfect," like all other works of God's hands. But he did not continue in that state of truth and righteousness in which he was originally created. He kept not his first estate, but fell away. " Truth " seems to stand for all righteousness, and holiness, and conformity to the miud of God, who is "Truth itself." This verse, and Jude 6, are the two clearest proofs in the Bible that the devil fell, and was not created evil at the beginning.
The word "abode" would be more literally rendered, "stood."
When our Lord says, " Because there is no truth in him," Pie does not mean that this was the reason why the devil " abode not in the truth." If this had been His meaning, He would have said, " Truth was not in him." But He says, "is." — His words are meant to describe the present nature of the devil. "He is now a being in whom truth is not." — It seems to me a somewhat similar expression to that of St. Paul, when he says, " I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly ; " where " because " does not mean the reason why he obtained mercy. (1 Tim. i. 12.) The Greek word for " because " in both cases is the same.
Calvin remarks : " As we are called the children of God, not only because we resemble Him, but because He governs us by His Spirit, — because Christ lives and is vigorous in us, so as to conform us to His Father's image ; so, on the other hand, the devil is said to be the father of those whose understandings he blinds, whose hearts he moves to commit all unrighteousness, and on whom, in short, he acts powerfully, and exercises his tyranny."
When our Lord says that " the devil speaketh of his own," He does not mean that he " speaks about his own," but that he speaks "out of his own things." It is like, " Out of the abun- dance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt. xii. 34.) He speaks out of those things of which he is full.
When our Lord says that the devil " is a liar," I think He refers to the great original lie by which he deceived Eve at the beginning, "Ye shall not surely die." (Gen. iii. 4.)
When our Lord says here of the devil, that "he is a liar and the father of it," I think the most likely and natural meaning is, that " he is the father of every lie." A lie is specially the result and work of the devil. The expression " of it " is undeniably difficult, and is variously interpreted.
(a) Some think that it means " he is the father of him,"—