This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
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John 3:19-21 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
Parallel Translations
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This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
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And this is the condempnacion: that light is come into the worlde and the me loved darcknes more then light because their dedes were evill.
For every man that evyll doeth hateth the light: nether commeth to light lest his dedes shuld be reproved.
But he that doth truth commeth to the light that his dedes might be knowen how that they are wrought in God.
Show all 3 translations
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And this is the condemnation, that that light came into the worlde, and men loued darknesse rather then that light, because their deedes were euill.
For euery man that euill doeth, hateth the light, neither commeth to light, least his deedes should be reprooued.
But he that doeth trueth, commeth to the light, that his deedes might bee made manifest, that they are wrought according to God.
Cross-references (61)
- 1 John 1:6 (v21) If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.
- Psalms 139:23-24 (v21) Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
- John 8:12 (v19) Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have…
- Ephesians 5:11-13 (v20) Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things which…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:12 (v19) that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Show all 60 cross-references
- John 7:7 (vv19–20) The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
- 3 John 1:11 (v21) Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.
- John 9:39-41 (v19) Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who don’t see may see; and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the…
- Ephesians 5:9 (v21) for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
- Philippians 2:13 (v21) For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
- Psalms 119:105 (v21) Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
- John 12:43 (v19) for they loved men’s praise more than God’s praise.
- Romans 2:8 (v19) but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation,
- 1 John 4:15-16 (v21) Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us.…
- Job 24:13-17 (v20) “These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths. The murderer rises with the light. He…
- John 5:44 (v19) How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
- Romans 1:32 (v19) who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those…
- 1 John 2:27-29 (v21) As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing…
- Proverbs 1:29 (v20) because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.
- Proverbs 4:18 (v20) But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day.
- Galatians 6:8 (v21) For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
- Psalms 119:80 (v21) Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be disappointed.
- John 1:47 (v21) Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
- Philippians 1:11 (v21) being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- 1 Peter 1:22 (v21) Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from…
- John 5:39 (v21) “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
- John 15:22-25 (v19) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my…
- Galatians 5:22-23 (v21) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things…
- Colossians 1:29 (v21) for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
- Hebrews 13:21 (v21) make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom…
- James 1:23-25 (v20) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and…
- 2 Peter 3:3 (v19) knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts
- 1 John 4:12-13 (v21) No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we…
- Isaiah 26:12 (v21) Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us.
- Luke 12:47 (v19) That servant, who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes,
- John 15:4-5 (v21) Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain…
- Acts 17:11-12 (v21) Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures…
- 2 Corinthians 1:12 (v21) For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of…
- 1 Kings 22:8 (v20) The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him,…
- Psalms 1:1-3 (v21) Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; but…
- Psalms 50:17 (v20) since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
- Hosea 14:8 (v21) Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is…
- John 1:4 (v19) In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
- 1 Corinthians 15:10 (v21) But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but…
- Hebrews 3:12-13 (v19) Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; but exhort…
- Proverbs 5:12 (v20) and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
- Proverbs 15:12 (v20) A scoffer doesn’t love to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.
- Isaiah 8:20 (v21) Turn to the law and to the covenant! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
- Amos 5:10-11 (v20) They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take…
- 2 Peter 1:5-10 (v21) Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;…
- Revelation 3:1-2 (v21) “And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: “He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says these things: “I know…
- Revelation 3:15 (v21) “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
- Luke 10:11-16 (v19) ‘Even the dust from your city that clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that God’s Kingdom has come near to you.’…
- Luke 11:45 (v20) One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”
- John 1:9-11 (v19) The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world…
- John 8:44-45 (v19) You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand…
- John 10:26-27 (v19) But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
- Acts 24:21-26 (v19) unless it is for this one thing that I cried standing among them, ‘Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged before you…
- 1 Peter 2:8 (v19) and, “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.
- Isaiah 30:9-12 (v19) For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law; who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and the prophets,…
60 distinct cross-references across this passage (61 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv19–21 19. And this is the condemnation He meets the…
19. And this is the condemnation He meets the murmurs and complaints, by which wicked men are wont to censure — what they imagine to be the excessive rigour of God, when he acts towards them with greater severity than they expected. All think it harsh that they who do not believe in Christ should be devoted to destruction. That no man may ascribe his condemnation to Christ, he shows that every man ought to impute the blame to himself. The reason is, that unbelief is a testimony of a bad conscience; and hence it is evident that it is their own wickedness which hinders unbelievers from approaching to Christ. Some think that he points out here nothing more than the mark of condemnation; but, the design of Christ is, to restrain the wickedness of men, that they may not, according to their custom, dispute or argue with God, as if he treated them unjustly, when he punishes unbelief with eternal death. He shows that such a condemnation is just, and is not liable to any reproaches, not only because those men act wickedly, who prefer darkness to light, and refuse the light which is freely offered to them, but because that hatred of the light arises only from a mind that is wicked and conscious of its guilt. A beautiful appearance and lustre of holiness may indeed be found in many, who, after all, oppose the Gospel; but, though they appear to be holier than the angels, there is no room to doubt that they are hypocrites, who reject the doctrine of Christ for no other reason than because they love their lurking-places by which their baseness may be concealed. Since, therefore, hypocrisy alone renders men hateful to God, all are held convicted, because were it not that, blinded by pride, they delight in their crimes, they would readily and willingly receive the doctrine of the Gospel.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv19, 21 Only wickedness is the cause, why men refuse the…
Only wickedness is the cause, why men refuse the light that is offered them.
That is, the cause of condemnation, which sticketh fast in men, unless through God’s great benefit they be delivered from it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19–21 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is…
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Ver. 19. This is the condemnation] This is hell above ground and aforehand. Affected ignorance is the leprosy in the head, which makes a man undoubtedly unclean and utterly to be excluded, Lev 13:44.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv19–21 This is the reason, the evidence and great cause…
This is the reason, the evidence and great cause of condemnation,
that light is come into the world. Christ is the Light, foretold by the prophet, Isa 9:2; 42:6; 49:6. He is styled, in the beginning of this Gospel the true Light, Joh 1:4; that is, he hath in perfection all the excellent qualities of light; the power to enlighten the minds of men in the knowledge of saving truth, to warm the affections with the love of it, to revive the disconsolate, and to make the heavenly seed of the word to flourish and fructify in their lives. This Light is come into the world; that signifies not only his incarnation, but his revealing the merciful counsel of God for our salvation, which the clearest spirits could never have discovered; he has opened the way that leads to eternal life.
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But
men loved darkness rather than light; they preferred, chose, and adhered to their ignorance and errors, before the light of life, the saving knowledge of the gospel. Their ignorance is affected and voluntary, and no colour of excuse can be alleged for it; nay, it is very culpable and guilty, by neglecting to receive instruction from the Son of God.
Because their deeds were evil; the vices and lusts of men are the works of darkness, the fruits of their ignorance and errors; and they are so pleasant to the carnal corrupt nature, that to enjoy them securely, they obstinately reject the light of the gospel; this aggravates their sin and sentence.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv19–20 Observe here, 1. The worth and dignity of a…
Observe here, 1. The worth and dignity of a choice and invaluable privilege declared, Light is come into the world. A personal light, CHRIST; a doctrinal light, the Gospel.
Observe, 2. The unworthiness, abuse, and great indignity which the world, through infidelity, offers to this benefit: they reject it, and love darkness rather than light.
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Observe, 3. The dreadful sentence of wrath which the rejection of this benefit, and the abuse of Christ, brings upon the impenitent and unbelieving world. It terminates in their full and final condemnation: This is the condemnation; that is, ’tis a just and righteous condemnation, ’tis an inevitable and unavoidable condemnation: ’tis an heightened and aggravated, ’tis an accelerated and hastened, an irrecoverable and eternal condemnation.
Learn hence, That the greater and clearer the light is, under which the unregenrated and impentient do live in this world, so much the heavier will their condemnation and misery be in the world to come, if they wilfully and finally reject it.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–21 For every one that doth evil, hateth the light,....…
For every one that doth evil, hateth the light,.... Every man, the series of whose life and conversation is evil, hates Christ and his Gospel, cause they make manifest his evil deeds, convict him of them, and rebuke him for them:
neither cometh to the light; to hear Christ preach, or preached; to attend on the Gospel ministration and means of grace:
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lest his deeds should be reproved; or discovered, and made manifest, and he be brought to shame, and laid under blame, and advised to part with them, which he cares not to do; see Eph 5:11.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv19, 21 This is the condemnation - That is, the cause…
This is the condemnation - That is, the cause of it. So God is clear.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv19–21 Verse 19. This is the condemnation] That is, this…
Verse 19. This is the condemnation] That is, this is the reason why any shall be found finally to perish, not that they came into the world with a perverted and corrupt nature, which is true; nor that they lived many years in the practice of sin, which is also true; but because they refused to receive the salvation which God sent to them.
Light is come] That is, Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, the fountain of light and life; diffusing his benign influences every where, and favouring men with a clear and full revelation of the Divine will.
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Men loved darkness] Have preferred sin to holiness, Belial to Christ, and hell to heaven. חשך chashac, darkness, is frequently used by the Jewish writers for the angel of death, and for the devil. See many examples in Schoettgen.
Because their deeds were evil.] An allusion to robbers and cut-throats, who practise their abominations in the night season, for fear of being detected. The sun is a common blessing to the human race-it shines to all, envies none, and calls all to necessary labour. If any one choose rather to sleep by day, that he may rob and murder in the night season, he does this to his own peril, and has no excuse:-his punishment is the necessary consequence of his own unconstrained actions. So will the punishment of ungodly men be. There was light - they refused to walk in it. They chose to walk in the darkness, that they might do the works of darkness-they broke the Divine law, refused the mercy offered to them, are arrested by Divine justice, convicted, condemned, and punished. Whence, then, does their damnation proceed? From THEMSELVES.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v20 Joh 3:20-21. For every one that doeth evil —…
Joh 3:20-21. For every one that doeth evil — That is conscious to himself that he lives in known sin, and is inclined to continue to do so; hateth the light — Which would detect and expose his evil practices, and thereby cause anguish and shame to his guilty mind; neither cometh to the light — But keeps aloof from it, being unwilling, not desirous, to know his true character, and the dangerous and miserable condition which he is in. Thus Christ, and his genuine gospel, is hated, because sin is loved. And sinners hate the light, because it discovers the evil and sinfulness of their ways unto them, and condemns them for them. But he that doeth the truth — That complies with the will of God, as far as he knows it; that sincerely and conscientiously endeavours to conform his conduct to the eternal law of righteousness; cometh to the light — With confidence and joy, brings his opinions and practices, his desires and designs, his affections, intentions, and resolutions, his tempers, words, and actions, to the test of God’s word; that his deeds may be made manifest — As in open day; that they are wrought in God — Are performed as in his sight, according to the direction of his word, with a single eye to his glory, and in consequence of that union of soul with him, which is the highest dignity and happiness of a rational creature. “Be it therefore known to you all,” as if our Lord had said, “that this gospel which I preach is the great touchstone of men’s true characters; and as nothing but a corruption of the heart can oppose it, so I faithfully warn you, that if you reject it, it is at the peril of your souls.” Observe, reader, we have in this passage the character of a good man: 1st, He is one that doeth την αληθειαν, not truth merely, but the truth, namely, that walks according to the truth, as it is in Jesus, and that uprightly and conscientiously. 2d, He is one that cometh to the light, that is ready and desirous to receive the truth, as far as it appears to him to be so, and discoveries of God’s mind concerning him, whatever uneasiness may be created to him thereby. He frequently tries himself, and desires that God would try him; being solicitous to know his will, and resolving to comply with it, however contrary to his own will and apparent interests. We have here, also, the character of a good work: it is wrought in God, in union with him by living faith, through the aid of his grace. Our works are then good, and will bear the test of God’s word, when the will of God is the rule of them, and the glory of God the end of them; when they are done in his strength and for his sake, to him and not to men: and if by the light of the gospel it be manifested to us that our works are thus wrought, then we have cause of rejoicing, Gal 6:4; 2Co 1:12. Such was the purport of our Lord’s discourse with Nicodemus; and it appears by some following circumstances of the story, that it made a deep and lasting impression on his mind; and that he afterward became a true disciple of Christ. See Joh 7:50; Joh 19:39.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv19–21 This is the condemnation - This is the cause…
This is the condemnation - This is the cause of condemnation; or this is the reason why men are punished.
That light is come - Light often denotes instruction, teaching, doctrine, as that by which we see clearly the path of duty. all the instruction that God gives us by conscience, reason, or revelation may thus be called light; but this word is used especially to denote the Messiah or the Christ, who is often spoken of as “the light.” See Isa 60:1; Isa 9:2. Compare Mat 4:16; also the notes at Joh 1:4. It was doubtless this light to which Jesus had particular reference here.
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Men loved darkness - Darkness is the emblem of ignorance, iniquity, error, superstition - whatever is opposite to truth and piety. Men are said to love darkness more than they do light when they are better pleased with error than truth, with sin than holiness, with Belial than Christ.
Because their deeds are evil - Men who commit crime commonly choose to do it in the night, so as to escape detection. So men who are wicked prefer false doctrine and error to the truth. Thus the Pharisees cloaked their crimes under the errors of their system; and, amid their false doctrines and superstitions, they attempted to convince others that they had great zeal for God.
Deeds - Works; actions.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v19 The judgment. That is, the cause of his condemnation.…
The judgment. That is, the cause of his condemnation. (Challoner)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv19–21 this is the condemnation, &c.--emphatically so, revealing the condemnation…
this is the condemnation, &c.--emphatically so, revealing the condemnation already existing, and sealing up under it those who will not be delivered from it.
light is come into the world--in the Person of Him to whom Nicodemus was listening.
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loved darkness, &c.--This can only be known by the deliberate rejection of Christ, but that does fearfully reveal it.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv19–21 19. The condemnation—Men would not be condemned had not…
19. The condemnation—Men would not be condemned had not Christ come. But for the provision of a Saviour for the race, the race would have died in Adam. But for the promise of the holy seed, given in Eden, the seed of Adam would never have been propagated. All condemnation, therefore, is summed up in the fact that the means of salvation, sanctification, glorification, are rejected. But though but for the light there would be no condemnation, the light is not, therefore, to blame for that condemnation; but the entire blame rests upon men for their rejection of the light. Men are most truly and justly “damned by grace” when they reject grace.
Light is come into the world—Christ and his religion are what the sun is to the world. It is its own evidence, and sheds evidence that none have a right to reject. Yet the evidences of Christ and his religion do not compel conviction, permanent and undeniable; for as belief of the truth is one of the tests of our probation, so disbelief must be allowed to be possible. That degree of evidence is afforded which convinces the honest mind, and leaves rejection under condemnation. And this rejection is a rejection of that salvation, and of pardon for all other sins as well as for the sin of unbelief. The man’s entire amount of sin remains unpardoned to condemn him.
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Because their deeds were evil—Wicked deeds, and the love of sin, are the great cause of men’s hatred of religious truth. An evil life loves the darkness and error by which it can excuse itself. A wicked heart spontaneously and obstinately hates Christ and truth. Sometimes that wickedness of heart is of an animal and fleshly character, arising from a low brutishness in man. Sometimes it is of a higher nature; from intellectual pride; the sin not of the flesh but of the spirit. This is not from the brute, but from the devil in man; for the devil is the very model of unsanctified, proud, cold-hearted intellect.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19–21 19. And this is the condemnation] Rather, But the…
19. And this is the condemnation] Rather, But the judgment is this; this is what it consists in: comp. Joh_15:12, Joh_17:3.
and men loved darkness, &c.] The tragic tone again (see on Joh_1:5). Both words should have the article, loved the darkness rather than the light. An understatement; they hated the Light. There is probably no allusion to Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night. He chose the darkness, not because his deeds were evil, but because they were good. He wished to conceal, not an evil deed from good men, but a good deed from evil men.
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deeds] Better, works here and Joh_3:20-21.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv19–21 (19) And this is the condemnation.—For “condemnation” read judgment;…
(19) And this is the condemnation.—For “condemnation” read judgment; for “light” and “darkness,” the light and the darkness. The object is salvation, not judgment (Joh_3:17); but the separation of the good involves the judgment of the evil. The light makes the darkness visible. Both were before men. That they chose darkness was the act of their own will, and this act of the will was determined by the evil of their deeds. “The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” (Comp. Note on Joh_1:5.)
The words are general, but they must have had, for him who then heard them, a special force. It was night. He had avoided the light of day, and like men who go forth to deeds of darkness under cover of darkness, he had come in secrecy to Jesus. His own conscience told him that he was in the presence of a Teacher sent from God (Joh_3:2); but he has checked the voice of conscience. He has shrunk from coming to this Teacher in the light of day, and has loved the darkness of the night.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv19–21 The above interpretation is confirmed by the explanatory sentence…
The above interpretation is confirmed by the explanatory sentence which follows, and which is obviously meant to explain the nature of the krisiv , the process of the judgment of which he had spoken. This crisis, in the case of the believer, furnishes a clear and illustrious proof that the Son of God had primarily come to save, not to judge; while in the case of the unbeliever it was sufficiently manifested by the absence of faith in that which was so sublimely adapted to induce affectionate reverence and adoring trust. Now this is the judgment. The peculiar form of the sentence, auth de estin h krisiv oti , is found elsewhere in John. (1Jn_1:5 1Jn_5:11, 1Jn_5:14) We are here reminded of the words of the prologue, (Joh_1:5, Joh_1:9, see notes) where the original shining of the Light in the skotia (the abiding state of darkness) ended in non-reception, non-perception of the Light. Subsequently it is said that the light the archetypal light which illumines, shines upon, every man who comes into the world came, i.e. in a new and more impressive manner, and by its coming, originated a process of judgment and discrimination among men. This utterance of the prologue is here shown to depend upon the words of the only begotten Son of God made flesh. The critical school make this correspondence with the prologue and with Johannine thought incontestable evidence that we have here John"s meditation rather than the word of Jesus. There is, of course, an alternative interpretation. But it appears to us that it is equally rational and critical to see in the words of Jesus thus reported, the origin of the prologue. Light has come into the world, and made evident and established the awful fact that men loved, (aorist, denoting a defined characteristic) the darkness (skotov , used here 1Jn_1:6 for absolute darkness, the complete contradictory of the light) rather than the light. Lucke has urged that mallon here might mean magis, not potius, and that the Lord admits a certain amount of love for the light, though less than that for the darkness; but numerous passages of similar construction make it certain that potius, not magis, is the meaning. (cf. Joh_12:43 Mat_10:6 Mar_15:11 2Ti_3:4) "The light," though so needed, and so lovely in itself, was not loved by men. It brought consequences from which "men" recoiled and revolted. They loved their own ignorance and peril. They shrank from the demands from the repentance, the transformation of habit and character, the utter moral revolution that must be consequent upon the reception of the light. Darkness was loved, hailed, accepted, rested in. The process of the judgment was conspicuous in demonstrating this unholy love. If a man love the deformed, the misshapen, the defiled, and the corrupt thing, rather than the truly beautiful, this is a judgment passed upon his entire previous life and on his present character, which is the outcome and upshot of the life. If a man love sensual gratification, its objects and its means, rather than virtue and chastity and serene and sacred purity, this is in itself a terrific krisiv the announcement of his previous career of dissipation and folly. If a man love the darkness of unrenewed humanity rather than the uncreated light embodied, this is his krima , and the process by which it is made evident is the krisiv passing over him. The explanatory clause that follows gives great force to the previous assertion: For their works were evil. Their habitual conduct supplies permanence and energy to their perverse "love," and reveals its historical antecedent their works (erga) were "evil" (ponhra). The love of darkness was the consequence of their wicked ways. The judgment of eternal law has fallen upon their violation of it. The great penalty of sin is sinful desire. A bias towards evil is originated and confirms by sinful compliance. The blinding of the eye, deafening of the ear, (cf. Mat_13:10, and parallels) is the judicial result of their unwillingness to see or walk in the light of the Lord.
Lovers of darkness.
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Our Lord"s discourse to Nicodemus was mainly of redemption and regeneration, and was therefore bright and hopeful. Yet he was constrained, in faithfulness and candour, to speak also of condemnation. The prospect before mankind was not one of unclouded glory. The prevalence of sin and the alienation of man from God were a cloud upon the horizon which obscured the brightness even of the gospel day.
I THE ADVENT OF LIGHT. In the spiritual world light is the emblem of knowledge. Christ is designated by the evangelist "the true Light;" he calls himself "the Light of the world." He brings the knowledge of God, and consequently of salvation and of eternal life. This spiritual sunrise involves the diffusion of purity, peace, and joy.
II THE PREFERENCE OF SOME MEN FOR DARKNESS OVER LIGHT. In itself light is best. "Light is good, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." Those who live and walk in the light of God are spiritually blessed. If any person rejects and loathes the light, the fault is in the eye of the soul, which is manifestly diseased. The captive may prefer the dungeon to liberty. Of many of the Jews Christ"s own countrymen it was justly said, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." And even now, when the gospel is preached, and men are invited to come into the sunshine of God"s favour, there are found those who prefer to lurk in the dark caves of ignorance, superstition, and sin.
III THEIR REASON OR MOTIVE FOR THIS PREFERENCE. Our Lord speaks explicitly and powerfully upon this. His doctrine, his religion, condemns sin; his gospel is good tidings of deliverance from sin. His own hatred to sin was such that he was crucified by sinners who could not endure his purity, whilst he endured crucifixion that he might redeem men from the power and love of sin. Hence Christ"s society was distasteful to impenitent sinners when he was upon earth, and his gospel is distasteful, is repugnant, to the same class today. Those whose works are evil will not come to the light, for thus their evil works would be exhibited in their monstrous heinousness, and they themselves would be reproved.
IV THE JUDGMENT THUS INCURRED.
1. The ground of judgment is here plainly stated; it is not so much for sin, as for that content and delight in sin, which leads to the rejection of the gospel, to the refusal of deliverance from sin, to the hatred of that Saviour who came to vanquish sin.
2. The court of judgment is implied. The lovers of darkness are condemned by their own conscience, whose dictates they disregard in order to follow the impulses of passion. Yet it is Christ himself, the Word of God, who speaks in human nature, and utters the sentence of disapproval and of condemnation. Thus it is that Christ is to all men either their Saviour or their Judge. His coming to this earth was the cause only of salvation, but to many it was the occasion of judgment and of confusion. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light…
Joh_3:20-21
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light … but he that doeth truth cometh to the light
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The repelling and attractive influence of light
These words may have taken their form from the fact that Nicodemus came by night, and may have been a gentle rebuke, and a test for self examination.
One of the saddest things in a spiritual sense is that man shrinks from the light. With a nature and position before God such as his this ought not to be. One of the most blessed things is when men welcome the light, and have nothing about them that they wish to hide (Psa_139:23).
I. DOING EVIL AND THE HATRED OF LIGHT CONSEQUENT.
1. The word doeth, in relation to evil, πρασσώ, indicates
(1) The easy and natural way in which a thing is done. So we need no self-constraint or unusual exertion to do evil. We are too readily inclined to it. It required not much temptation to lead our first parents astray; and their children have followed them with easy steps.
(2) Habit. There is a tendency in what is easy and natural to become habitual. A thing once done is not difficult to repeat, and each repeated action makes us more accustomed to it. From the little men go on to the great, and so silence the inward monitor. Evil is fine as a gossamer web at first, but at last a man is bound with the cords of his sin.
(3) The transient and worthless result is in the word. So sins gratifications leave a sting behind, and are only for a season. How little satisfaction had Samson or Achan in their sin.
2. The evildoer hates the light. And no wonder if that which reveals his guilt and folly humiliates and disgraces him, and threatens punishment, is feared and hated. No wonder that Ahab hated Elijah and Michaiah, that Jehoiachin destroyed the prophets roll, that Herodias hated John, and the Pharisees Christ. Here is the explanation of every unhumbled mans distaste for the truth. The carnal mind is enmity against God. This shows the need and blessedness of the Gospel.
II. DOING THE TRUTH AND THE BLESSED RESULT.
1. The word doeth, here, ποιεω suggests.
(1) The exercise of resistance. The man who will do truth opposes the evil impulses of his nature. He will fight against wrong feelings. With noble superiority he contends against subtlety and deceit. See instances in Joseph, Daniel, the Three Children, and Cornelius.
(2) Decision of character. The man who does the truth has no vacillation or hesitation. He is steady, unmoved by caprice. He applies himself steadily to the course he adopts, like Moses, Samuel, Nehemiah, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea.
(3) The permanent and satisfactory result. Good is not temporary or unstable in its results. What peace and joy it imparts!
2. Doers of truth love the light. They are neither ashamed nor fearful. Let the light shine, and it will justify them, and reveal the glory of God in their truth doing. Conclusion:
1. The sentiment of a man towards the truth is an index to his character.
2. The doing of truth in every man is of God. (G. McMichael, B. A.)
The ground of infidelity
Many men seem to proceed on the supposition that, though placed under the Gospel, they may accept or reject it, just as their inclinations dictate. But it is not left to every mans choice in a Christian land whether or not he will be subject to the Gospel. It is not a matter of option with a man who resides in a kingdom, whether he will be governed by the laws of the land. If he violate them it will avail him nothing to plead that he never intended to take them as his guide. No doubt a man may make something else than the Gospel the rule of his life: but the solemn fact remains that the Gospel, after all, continues to be the rule by which he will be tried. When he appears before the Judgment Seat the processes will have reference to the dispensation beneath which it pleased God to place him, and not that under which he has chosen to place himself. It will avail him as little to say, I acted up to the light of nature; I never professed to be led by any other light, as it would for an Englishman to plead in the courts, I acted up to the laws of Japan, which I professed to follow. The Gospel, then, will be the system by which we shall be judged, though it may not have been that under which we have lived. Here comes the question, Why is the Gospel rejected? If men are to be condemned for its rejection, it must follow that the rejection cannot be pleaded as unavoidable. Is there a man necessarily blameworthy for being an infidel? May he not have sat down with a calm and decided wish to investigate truth and to believe Christianity, and yet arise confirmed in his scepticism? The answer is this: that we dare not take the blame off men and throw it upon God. This may sound illiberal and uncharitable, but we cannot admit that God is the author of sin through placing any of His creatures under the invincible necessity of continuing in sin. In the text Christ charges mens unbelief in their immorality. The Scriptures conclude that where actions are evil faith cannot be genuine. The text states the converse of this, that practice influences faith. Men prefer darkness; therefore they hate light.
I. THIS WAS SO WITH THE JEWS. When Christ came, Judaea was over-run with profligacy. Christ rebuked it, and was consequently hated and crucified. Wherever the religion of our Lord is promulgated, it allows no truce to sin, but Christ came to save men from sin. Had He come to condemn men His contemporaries would have shrunk from Him equally. Their sensuality and pride had led them to expect a triumphing Messiah, who would give full scope for their licentiousness and arrogance; and when He preached His pure and spiritual kingdom, their habits of evil rose up in protest against Him and it. It was not that He was not armed with credentials; the exhibition of His greatest credential, the resurrection of Lazarus, sealed His doom.
II. IT IS THE SAME NOW. What produces infidelity is not weakness of evidence; it is the wish to prove the Bible a fable, and this goes more than half-way towards the result. If the Bible be true, evil deeds must be reproved, and hence some men have an interest in disproving its pretentions. In this desire lies the secret of open, also of practical infidelity. Selfish, lustful men would view conversion as a positive calamity. They know that they cannot have religion without renouncing much that they loved, and doing what they dislike. In conclusion
1. God has erected no barrier against the salvation of a single soul.
2. If any man is finally condemned, it will be by his own choice. (H. Melvell, B. D.)
The truth
I. God is to be honoured by the truth.
II. Men are to be benifited by the truth.
III. Opposition must be expected on account of the truth.
IV. For the truth we should wish to five.
V. For the truth we should be willing to die. (Prof. J. H. Godwin.)
The hatred of the wicked to the light of the Gospel
I. IT IS AN ACTUAL HATRED (Pro_1:22).
II. IT IS A PASSION OF THE HEART.
III. IT IS A PASSION WHEREBY THE HEART RISETH UP AGAINST A UNION WITH THE WORD. A wicked man hates not the Word so long as it keeps within itself; but if it begin to pluck sin from him and his pleasures from him, then he hates it. I put this union of the Word in opposition to four things.
1. Against general preaching. A wicked man may hear a thousand sermons and like them all, but let one of them come in particular to him and tell him this is thy sin, and thou must go to hell for it if thou repentest not, then he hates it. John the Baptist was heard by Herod gladly so long as he kept off his personal sin.
2. Against merciful preaching, which can never stick a sermon on to a profane heart. Ahab loved his 400 prophets well enough, but when Micaiah came, Oh, I hate him, for he never prophesieth good unto me!
3. Against preaching when the minister is dead. A wicked man can endure that, because there is none to urge a union of the Word with his conscience. He can read St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, etc., and the books of dead ministers, but if they were alive to tell him if this be the Word of God then thou art a damned man, they would not be loved.
4. Against now and then preaching. The wicked can endure the word so long as it doth not stand digging in their conscience and galling their hearts day by day. Occasional rebukes they can stand, but to be convicted every Sunday for condemned men, this they hate.
IV. As it is an actual affection whereby the heart riseth up against a union, so IT IS AGAINST THAT WHICH IS DISSONANT AND REPUGNANT TO HIS LUST. Therefore wicked men may love three kinds of preaching.
1. Quaint preaching that savours more of humanity than of divinity. Dainty phrases, acute stories, eloquent allusions are heard well enough.
2. Impertinent preaching, when, though it be never so pertinent to some in the church, yet if it be not pertinent to him, he loves it. The drunkard does not cavil at a sermon against hypocrisy, nor the profligate at one against covetousness; but if the Word strikes his own particular corruption, he hates it.
3. So much preaching. A wicked mans conscience tells him that he must have some religion, and therefore so long as the minister calls only for some hearing, he responds. The vilest drunkard will be content to hear of calling on the Lord Jesus at his death; otherwise their consciences would not be quiet.
V. THUS YOU SEE THAT WICKED MEN HATE THE WORD OF GOD. They hate it because
1. They hate the truth, and being of the Word, a man hates the being of that which he hates, and he would destroy it. Now, though a wicked man cannot destroy the Bible from being in itself, yet he would destroy the Bible from being in his life.
2. They hate the nature of the Word (Rom_8:7).
3. This being the case, he hates the being of the Word in his understanding Job_21:14).
VI. USE IS TO REPROVE THE WICKED AND INVITE THEM TO REPENTANCE. (W. Fenner.)
The ground of bad mens enmity to the truth
I. THE ENMITY OF THE WICKED TO THE TRUTH. This enmity appears
1. In their opposition and resistance to it.
2. Their persecution of it (Joh_8:40).
II. THE CAUSES AND REASONS OF THIS ENMITY.
1. They are afraid the evil of their actions should be discovered to themselves, because that creates guilt and trouble.
(1) It robs them of that good opinion which they had of themselves before. Truth flatters no man; no wonder, therefore, that so many are offended at it.
(2) Truth carries great evidence along with it, and is very convincing, and gives a good deal of disturbance.
2. Bad men are enemies to the truth because it discovers the evil of their actions to others, which causeth shame.
III. INFERENCES.
1. We learn the true reason why men are so apt to reject the principles of natural and revealed religion; they are loath to be under the restraint of them.
2. This is a great vindication of our religion that it can bear the light, and is ready to submit to any impartial examination.
3. This is the reason why some are so careful to suppress the truth and to lock it up from the people in an unknown tongue, because their doctrines, dogmas, and deeds are evil. (Abp. Tillotson.)
Sinners hate the light
I. THE TRUTHS OF GOD WHICH RESPECT THE SINNER ARE, AS FAR AS THE NATURE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THEM ARE CONCERNED, AS EASILY FELT AND SEEN AS ANY OTHER.
II. THE MIND CANNOT TURN FROM DIVINE TRUTH WITHOUT CHOOSING TO DO IT.
III. MEN RESORT TO ARTIFICES TO HIDE THE TRUTH, TO TURN ITS FORCE AND RESIST ITS PRESSURE.
1. One is infidelity.
2. Another is found in the excuses offered for disobedience.
3. The indulgence of false hopes.
4. Reproaching religion and ministers.
IV. REMARKS;
1. The common complaint that sinners must wait for the Spirit of God before they can feel the importance of religion is unfounded and impious.
2. Ministers must not be afraid of alarming and distressing sinners. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Light welcomed
At the first Methodist Conference it was asked, Should they be afraid of thoroughly debating every question that might arise? What are we afraid of? Of overturning our first principles? If they axe false, the sooner they are overturned the better. If they are true, they will bear the strictest examination. Let us pray for a willingness to receive light, to know every doctrine whether it be of God. (R. Stevens.)
Light detested
A sluttish housemaid, when scolded for the untidiness of the chambers, exclaimed, Im sure the rooms would be clean enough if it were not for the nasty sun, which is always showing the dirty corners. Thus do men revile the gospel because it reveals their own sin. Thus all agitations for reforms in Church and State are opposed, and all manner of mischief attributed to them as if they created the evils which they bring to light. The lover of the right courts anything which may manifest the wrong, but those who love evil have never a good word for those disturbing beams of truth which show up the filthy corners of their hearts and lives. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Revelations of the light
What a difference it makes to have a street well lighted at night! The cheery beams of the street lamp and the dazzling brilliancy of the electric light are more of a protection to the traveller at night through city streets than the weapon of the policeman. The evil beings who haunt our streets at night shun the well-lighted thoroughfares, and skulk off into dark alleys and unlighted lanes, where their evil deeds are not likely to be discovered. And yet it is not the light alone that makes the difference. There are palaces of sin where riot and revelry go on unabashed beneath the glare of gilded lamps and crystal chandeliers; for the light of the physical lamp is of little moral avail unless it is made effective by that other light of which Christ spoke when he said, Ye are the light of the world. The powers of darkness fear the natural light only when it is accompanied by that better light; and the guilty creatures who showed their guilt, unashamed, in the brilliantly-lighted palaces of sin, would cower and shrink beneath the Christ-lighted eyes of true and pure men, if suddenly exposed to their searching gaze. There are anxious souls who seem to themselves never to have done anything for the Master, who might be comforted a little if they could only realize how important is this work of mere light-bearing. Many a neighbourhood, now forced to be outwardly respectable by the presence of a few God-fearing men and women in its midst, would break out into open and flagrant wickedness if that restraining and enlightening presence were to cease. But wherever Gods children are, the light shines, and the workers of iniquity are forced to hide their evil deeds. It is a deed worth doing to flood the streets at night with the electric light; but it is a deed far better worth doing to let ones Christian light so shine that evil men will fear to bring their evil deeds to the brightness of its shining; for the light of a little band of Christian men and women is worth more, to keep a community pure, than all the light of all the lamps ever invented (H. C. Trumbull.)
What the light reveals
Some time ago the use of the electric light in those theatres where it had been introduced was discontinued because its great brilliancy revealed the sham character of the furniture of the stage; it showed the paint on the faces of the actors, and the gewgaw and tinsel nature of their dresses and ornaments; so the dimmer light of the gas was substituted. Thus it is morally with men; they refuse to come into the bright light of the gospel lest it make manifest the shams of their lives. We have instances of this in those persons who frankly tell us that they cannot become religious because of the dishonest ways and methods of business to which, they plead, they are compelled to conform. (A. J. Parry.)
The different effect of the light on the good and the bad
That which scares the wicked from, draws the godly unto the Word. The owl flies from the morning light, which other birds welcome. (J. Dyke.)
Blindness
I. There is the blindness which is the result of passion, covering us, whilst we are under the dominion of passion, with the darkness of sin, and hiding from us the light of truth.
II. There is the deeper blindness which is caused by sinful habits, and by indulgence in continuous sin, until truth becomes odious to us.
III. There is the still blacker form of sin, which not only drives us away from the light, but which hurries us on until we trample upon and persecute the doers of righteousness. (Quesnel.)
Mans proper attitude towards the truth
There is all the difference in the world between battling for the truth because of ones love for the truth, and battling on the side of truth because of hostility to the opponents of truth. A man may be as intense and as violent in the one case as in the other; but if a man lacks a profound conviction of truth, and a devoted love for truth, he can never be inspired to a high courage, and held to an unwavering endurance, by any hatred of those who are over against him in his struggles. All real progress in any line of reform is made through the dead earnestness of men who love the right; not through the impulsive violence of men who are aroused, for a time, against the upholders of evil. He who loves his fellow-man, and therefore strives for his disenthralling, is worth more as a friend of liberty than he who hates oppressors, and therefore seeks their overthrow. So it is in every sphere of well-doing; love for the good is a more potent factor than hatred of evil--more potent even in the battle with evil. (H. C. Trumbull.)
Why men hate the truth
A gentleman once visiting an acquaintance of his, whose conduct was as irregular as his principles were erroneous, was astonished to see a large Bible in the hall chained fast to the floor. He ventured to inquire the reason. Sir, replied his infidel friend, I am obliged to chain down that book to prevent its flying in my face. Such persons hate the Bible, as Ahab did Micaiah, because it never speaks good concerning them, but evil. (Biblical Museum.)
Light reproves sin
The margin will show that our translators felt a difficulty about this word reproved. See Mat_18:15, where it is rendered tell him his fault, idea is exactly illustrated by the action of light, which makes manifest the wrong, and leads the conscience to see it and repent of it. It is through this chastening that the man passes from darkness to light. It is because men shrink from this chastening that they hate the light (comp. the remarkable parallel in Eph_5:11 et seq.). (H. W.Watkins, D. D.)
Light reveals sin and alarms sinners
Some persons accuse us poor preachers of disturbing the minds of our hearers, when persons are alarmed under the ministry of the gospel. The very purpose for which it was sent was to alarm mens minds; and it fails altogether when it does not alarm. When the ministry of the gospel alarms the sinner, he sees its workings going on in his bosom; it comes out before his friends and companions; they ask him why he should sacrifice himself to that sort of teaching which disturbs and agitates him? Why, my friends, we do not bring the things there that are discovered--it is the light that reveals them; they were all there before--it is the light that falls upon things--and then they appear in a very different manner; and the ministry of the gospel is designed and constituted to make the darkness light, to convince the sinner and to awaken the impenitent.
Light and crime
In 1807 Pall Mall was lighted with gas. The original Gas Company was first derided and then treated in Parliament as rapacious monopolists, intent upon the ruin of established industry. The adventurers in gaslight did more for the prevention of crime than the government had done since the days of Alfred. (Knights England. )
Christians love light
Light breaks in! light breaks in! Hallelujah! exclaimed one when dying. Sargeant, the biographer of Martyn, spoke of glory, glory, and of that bright light; and when asked, What light? answered, his face kindling into a holy fervour, The light of the Sun of Righteousness. A blind Hindoo boy, when dying, said joyfully, I see! now I have light. I see Him in His beauty. Tell the missionary that the blind see. I glory in Christ. Thomas Jewett, referring to the dying expression of the English infidel, I am going to take a leap in the dark, said to those at his bedside, I am going to take a leap in the light. While still another dying saint said, I am not afraid to plunge into eternity. A wounded soldier, when asked if he were prepared to depart, said, Oh yes; my Saviour, in whom I have long trusted, is with me now, and His smile lights up the dark valley for me. A dying minister said, It is just as I said it would be, There is no valley, emphatically repeating, Oh, no valley. It is all clear and bright--a kings highway. The light of an everlasting life seemed to dawn upon his heart; and touched with its glory, he went, already crowned, into the New Jerusalem. A Christian woman lay dying. Visions of heaven came to her. She was asked if she really saw heaven. Her answer was, I know I saw heaven; but one thing I did not see, the valley of the shadow of death. I saw the suburbs. A young man who had but lately found Jesus was laid upon his dying bed. A friend who stood over him asked, Is it dark? I shall never, said he, forget his reply. No, no, he exclaimed, it is all light! light! light! and thus triumphantly passed away. (American Messenger.)
But he that doeth truth
He that doeth truth cometh to the light
What is it, then, to do the truth? For that would seem to be the condition which brings us within the rays of the light of Him Who is the Spirit of Truth, the right disposition in which to keep Whitsuntide.
I. He that doeth truth. This would seem to mean, first of all, HE THAT BELIEVETH THE TRUTH. We can no more shut up the Book of Revelation than we can shut up the book of experience, and say it does not matter. Can we say, for instance, to any young man entering on the study of medicine, It does not matter the least what system you follow--homoeopathy, allopathy, or even herbalism; all are equally true or equally false, as long as you mean well. Or shall we tell him, if he wishes to become a soldier, that drill and tactics and the modern science of warfare may be taken up or let alone, provided that he is brave? or that engineering depends on mechanical skill, or botany on his love for flowers, or chemistry on a taste for analysis, or mathematics on skill in computation? No; we know that all these things have their Bibles, compendiums of exact truth; so that he who enters on the study of them, enters on it enriched with a heritage of precise fact wrested by the patient interrogation of phenomena. And so it is with religion. The truth as set forth in the Creed is that which is exactly adapted to the needs of mankind. What we should do if we were constructing a new religion is one thing, and what we ought to do when God has told us what will make us truly religious is another. And to do the truth, is faithfully to believe what God has spoken, as a duty which we owe to Him and to our fellow-men also.
II. He that doeth truth. This, perhaps, means, secondly, HE THAT LIVES THE TRUTH. A true life is no butterfly existence wasted in so-called pleasure and idleness, never serious, never earnest; where all experience is but as pictures on the wall, all talents merely ornamental for self-display; where grace is received in vain, as the water in the fabled penance of the Danaides, which flows away as fast as it enters in; where sin and want of seriousness have riven the soul so that it cannot contain grace. But the true life will be one which is faithful to all Gods influences and modes of approach, which says in its joy, My soul truly waiteth still upon God; towards Whom there is the aspiration of prayer; from Whom comes the message to the soul; at Whose coming the door is opened in Holy Communion, and all the approaches cleared by which God may enter into the soul To live the truth is to trust more to prayer and sacraments and holy things than to mere human culture, self-reliance, strength, or cleverness. Think of that description in the Book of Revelation Rev_10:1) of the servant of God. And as the angel is mighty, so the servant of God will be strong in firmness and fidelity, and in the knowledge of the truth. He is clothed with a cloud; there will be a seriousness about him, as of one who is still under the influence of the luminous cloud of Sinai, where he has been communing with God, or the half-sadness of one who is compassed about with the earth-drawn sorrow with which sympathy has enveloped him. A rainbow is upon his head; he has a brightness within him which lights up the rain-cloud of life, because God is shining upon it. His face is as it were the sun, because at each prayer-time, and frequently throughout the day, he drinks in light from that Sun to which he turns. His feet are as pillars of fire, for he is not easily shaken in his steadfastness; he is active, vigorous--yes, graceful as the image Of God who created him.
III. And then, thirdly, He that doeth truth means, obviously, HE THAT SPEAKETH THE TRUTH. Is it absolutely unknown, for instance, for people to screen themselves when they have done wrong by the easy lie? Dishonour, ruin, disgrace, stare the man in the face. Say you have not done it, says Satan; and the evil is put off, only to return with a tenfold aggravation of malignity as the net of deceit winds itself tighter and tighter round its hopelessly implicated victim. The old German legend is full of instruction. A huntsman to forward his own purposes seeks the devil, and together they cast seven bullets. Six of these are to strike wherever the caster wills, but the seventh is to be the devils, and is to recoil and strike the caster, who is never certain which of all of them he is putting into his rifle, and at last is struck down by his own shot. The fraudulent lie succeeds for a time, but at last comes the fatal one, which recoils upon him who uses it with shame and disaster. Do we scrupulously adhere to the disagreeable appointment, or the unpleasant duty, or the invitation which we have pledged ourselves to accept? Or are we always careful to avoid that exaggeration which piles up rumours and reports, which mixes truth with fiction, Which stays not to inquire whether a thing is correct or not, which aims, rather, at saying a new thing that is nut true, rather than a true thing which is not new? (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.)
He that doeth truth
It is observable, in the first place, that there are several places in the New Testament in which the truth is spoken of in ways not very much unlike to this; places, that is, in which it is spoken of, variously indeed, but in each of them as something real and solid,--not a mere object of apprehension by the intellectual powers of a man--not something external, merely viewed, seen, recognized, but something internal, something to be, and something to do--something full of blessing, a precious possession, a gift, an inward treasure (see Joh_8:31-36; Joh_14:5-6; Joh_17:17; Joh_18:37; 1Jn_3:19; 1Jn_5:6). Now it is plain that these statements of Holy Scripture--and there are a great many more like them, particularly in the inspired writings of St. John--make the truth (the Divine truth) to be something very sacred and very deep. Whatever it be in itself--and this is too hard and difficult a question for us to enter upon--it is plain that when possessed by a man, it is full of precious blessing to him. Possessed by a man, and possessing him, he is not what he was before. The truth has made him free who was a slave. The truth has made him who had no ears able to hear the words of Christ; the truth has sanctified him; the truth has made him Gods son. What relation then (it may be asked), does doctrine bear to the truth? for it is plain that it is not the same thing. If the truth be thus something mysterious and real, which, coming forth of God, and being Divine, taketh, possesseth, occupieth a man, what relation does it bear to doctrine, Divine doctrine, the true revealed declarations of God, His nature and His will, which He has been pleased to give us? for these are often called truths, or the truth, though plainly not in the high and mysterious sense of the truth which we have been considering. I suppose that it is quite beyond our power to answer exactly. It is only clear that they are very nearly and closely connected. It is certain that the truth cannot possess a man and bless him with all the great blessings which belong to it, unless doctrine be duly known, and received, and believed. Doctrine is, as it were, truth projected on some medium which the mind can see; a shadow of the invisible and blessed truth cast, as it were, upon a cloud; and this the mind must see, and know, and own, and believe, or else, such is the order of Gods will, a man cannot have the freedom indeed, the sonship, the sanctification, the open ears, the various great and precious blessings of the indwelling truth. Learn then from hence the sacred value of doctrine; its sacred, deep, unfathomable preciousness. If then we undervalue doctrine, who shall insure us against losing the truth? If we tamper with it, or lose our hold of it, who shall insure us of our freedom and sanctification, which we should derive from the indwelling truth? If we should allow others to seduce us from our simple, earnest, obedient subjection to it, who shall assure us that they have not robbed us of our precious estate of being in the truth? Thus far then we have regarded the truth as it is a real and precious thing, possessing which we are in an estate or condition of high blessing--the estate of being Christians; our text rather leads us to regard it in a further view, as being something practical, something to be done. Being in the truth (that is, our estate, or condition), we must do truth (that is, our duty). If we keep not His commandments, the truth is not in us. If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we do not the truth. The truth then, in which we are, is to be done; and keeping of the commandments of God, and walking in the light, and acknowledging our own sins, are doing the truth. Truth, then, means holiness. Being in the truth, we must do the truth; and we must do it, as the truth is in Jesus. And so our law of holiness is a law of holy truth. It is a straight and direct law: O that my ways were made so direct that I might keep Thy statutes. It admits not of deflection, or voluntary imperfection. As doctrine is the intellectual phase, if I may so speak, of essential Divine truth, so is obedience its practical one. To deviate into heresy, or to deviate into sin, are alike to depart from the influence of that sacred, central truth, in which we are sons, in which we are free, and in which we are holy. It is plain (as soon as we regard the law of God in this light, in which the Holy Scriptures so often present it to us) that the law of truth must needs be a very holy and righteous law. It is also plain that it is far higher, and holier, and more searching than it is often thought. How it cuts like a sword through all the easy living, the self-indulgence, and lazy half-service which characterize these later ages of the Church! If there be a truth of holy thoughts, surely there is much unlicensed and random thinking--much letting loose of the imagination on things trifling, and enervating, and unprofitable, which must partake in a great and serious degree of the nature of falsehood. If there be a sacred truth of holy words, there must be much idle and frivolous, and satirical, and bold talking, which must be very far below that high standard of truth, and so be really false. Above all, if there be a real sacred truth of duty and holy living, there must be a vast deal of practical and dangerous falsehood, in the waste of time, the imperfectness of service, the very easy and self-complacent way of life of very many baptized Christians. Indeed, we may readily see, that the ordinary rule of living, as we may judge of it from seeing how men live, is quite of another kind from the rule of truth. As long as they refrain from clear and notorious sins, and discharge certain clear and undoubted duties, men think themselves more or less at liberty to live in the rest of their behaviour as they like best. There are, as it were, certain buoys marking out particular shoals of sin, and these they must take care to steer clear of; but meanwhile, they have a free choice of navigating in a wide and easy channel, following their own fancy, and doing as much or as little therein as they please. And meanwhile, while practical truth is thus widely neglected among us, there is nothing which is more earnestly insisted upon as a virtue of the first necessity to the existence and well-being of society than veracity, or worded truth. Truth in words is held to be a virtue of such magnitude and necessity, that a clear breach of it ruins the character of a man amongst men more than almost any sin, however gross, which ordinary society knows. Worded truth, or veracity, precious as it is, is but as the outside, as the husk, of a more precious reality inside. Worded truth is the outside, and acted truth is the inner kernel. Oh, believe me, the essence of falsehood is deeper, deeper far than words! Believe me, it is a hollow philosophy which magnifies veracity, and lets the daily habits loose in self-indulgence and neglect: a miserable worldly code which exacts truth of words under the severest penalties, and makes it innocent and even honourable to depart, ever so far, from truth in deeds I No; the essence of truth is in duty, in heart-whole devotion of duty to the sacred law of Gods truth. (Bishop Moberly.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv19, 21 19, 20. This is the condemnation. That men refuse…
19, 20. This is the condemnation. That men refuse the light. Usually it is not evidence, but an honest heart and a sincere desire for truth, that are needed in order to faith. All kinds of evil doers hate the light.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v19 kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v19 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus finishes responding to Nicodemus.
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The light has come into the world
The word "light" is a metaphor for God's truth that is revealed in Jesus. Jesus speaks of himself in the third person. If your language does not allow people to speak of themselves in the third person, you may need to specify who the light is. The "world" is a metonym for all of the people who live in the world. AT: "The one who is like a light has revealed God's truth to all people" or "I, who am like a light, have come into the world" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy and First, Second, or Third Person)
men loved the darkness
Here "darkness" is a metaphor for evil. (See: Metaphor)
so that his deeds will not be exposed
This can be stated in an active form. AT: "so that the light will not show the things he does" or "so that the light does not make clear his deeds" (See: Active or Passive)
plainly seen that his deeds
This can be stated in an active form. AT: "people may clearly see his deeds" or "everyone may clearly see the things he does" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
judge
light
darkness
evil
obey
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v19 3:19-20 When people live in spiritual darkness, they do…
3:19-20 When people live in spiritual darkness, they do not desire to be enlightened by Jesus, “the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5). Evil and darkness do not ignore the light; they wage war against it, trying to bring it down. But the darkness cannot extinguish the light (1:5). Those who refuse to believe live in darkness (cp. 13:30) and stumble because they cannot see (11:10). In the end, however, their sins will be exposed (5:28-30; Rev 20:11-15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.