<p>1:12- see on Jn. 3:3; 3:13.</p><p><em>But whoever accepts him, those who believe in his name, to them he gave the right to become children of God</em>- &quot;Accepts&quot; or &quot;receives&quot; is the term used of receiving the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38; Rom. 5:17; 1 Pet. 4:10). The idea is not of our intellectually accepting truths, but of receiving what we are given. And we are given Him, His life, His Spirit; or as it is here expressed, the power or force to become God's children. This power is clearly that of the Spirit, given to those who show their belief in His Name by baptism into it. This gift of the Spirit is alluded to in the next verse, and the ideas here are developed further in 3:3-5 in talking of the birth of the Spirit rather than that of the flesh. Rom. 8:16 is clear that we become &quot;the children of God&quot; (same Greek words as here) through the work of the Spirit. John four times uses the term &quot;children of God&quot; when writing to his converts, those who had heard the gospel of John and been baptized (1 Jn. 3:1,2,10; 5:2). He saw them as God's children because the Spirit had worked in them to make them His.</p>