object of faith is 'His name,' which means, not this or that
collocation of letters by which He is designated, but His whole
self-revelation. The result of such faith is 'the right to become
children of God,' for through faith in the only-begotten Son we
receive the communication of a divine life which makes us, too, sons.
That new life, with its consequence of sonship, does not belong to
human nature as received from parents, but is a gift of God mediated
through faith in the Light who is the Word.

Verse 14 is not mere repetition of the preceding, but advances beyond
it in that it declares the wonder of the way by which that divine Word
did enter into the world. John here, as it were, draws back the
curtain, and shows us the transcendent miracle of divine love, for
which he has been preparing in all the preceding. Note that he has not
named 'the Word' since verse 1, but here he again uses the majestic
expression to bring out strongly the contrast between the
ante-temporal glory and the historical lowliness. These four words,
'The Word became flesh,' are the foundation of all our knowledge of
God, of man, of the relations between them, the foundation of all our
hopes, the guarantee of all our peace, the pledge of all blessedness.
'He tabernacled among us.' As the divine glory of old dwelt between
the cherubim, so Jesus is among men the true Temple, wherein we see a
truer glory than that radiant light which filled the closed chamber of
the holy of holies. Rapturous remembrances rose before the Apostle as
he wrote, 'We beheld His glory'; and he has told us what he has beheld
and seen with his eyes, that we also may have fellowship with him in
beholding. The glory that shone from the Incarnate Word was no
menacing or dazzling light. He and it were 'full of grace and truth,'
perfect Love bending to inferiors and sinners, with hands full of
gifts and a heart full of tenderness and the revelation of reality,