John 8:42
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
This saying belongs to the words spoken to the people in the temple at the Feast of Tabernacles, beginning with the declaration of being the light of the world. In that setting He presents Himself as the source of spiritual light, giving the light of life to those who follow Him, and His mission is connected with the Messiah's coming.
He proceeded forth and came from God, sent by the Father, and He did not come of Himself or on His own authority. Therefore love for Him is the sign and proof of truly having God as Father. Those who are open to God's love recognize and love the Saviour He sent, and to love God is to love Jesus.
Claiming God as Father while rejecting Jesus proves the claim false. Refusing to recognize Him and to believe Him, showing hostility toward Him, and hating the word of truth show a turning from God and lack of connection with Him. Such people cannot understand His speech because they cannot hear His word. Their deeds expose the claim to be children of Abraham and of God as false and reveal a different father. They are among the children of darkness who reject the truth rather than the children of light who obey it, being of their father the devil who did not abide in the truth and following the enemy of God.
The darkness of such rejecters does not come from God, for God is light with no darkness at all, but comes as a shadow cast by an intruding obstruction between the soul and God. The same test applies today to all who call God their Father yet hate the message of truth with intense hatred. Followers of Christ will meet in life just such misunderstanding and rejection as He met.