For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light that his works may not be shewn as they are;
These words close the Lord's night talk with Nicodemus. He was a religious leader who came to Jesus in the dark. They explain why people stay away from Christ: the problem is not a lack of evidence but a fear of exposure.
The verse itself gives the reason — the deeds. The light touches the conscience first, not the mind.
The evil deeds that men do lead them to hate the light. That light exposes their deeds and disturbs their conscience. An uneasy conscience makes the light unbearable. The one who puts the truth into practice will not fear the light.
People choose darkness for what it hides. It hides their deeds from others, and from themselves.
In the darkness they can do a great many things that they are ashamed to do in the light. People can even deceive themselves in the darkness. But in the light they see that what they were proud of as good and virtuous deserves nothing but God's condemnation.
A man who turns away from something must first have noticed it. The refusal described here is not ignorance; it is an informed decision.
By turning from the light, they show that they know where the light is. It bears witness to their conscience, even though they do not stand in it and so get its good.
The verse says "hates," and history proved that word true. Writers link it to what men did to Christ in the end.
Why was Christ rejected by man, except that man hated God? That was the only reason that Christ was slain in this world. They hated God, and therefore they hated Him. They hated the light... and this is their sin, that they have put the Light out of the world.
The word takes in more than the openly immoral. It also takes in the self-satisfied man, who keeps his good opinion of himself by picking a flattering comparison.
A man can compare himself with the worst of sinners and give himself credit for the difference, when God is not in his conscience. But he pushes away God's judgment about himself. He never compares himself with Christ, and "does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed."
Their own deeds have left them unable to bear the light. Does that excuse them? Commentators answer no.
Man is responsible to make use of the light. He has made himself unable to do so, but that does not change his responsibility... A drunkard may drink himself into a state where he is unconscious and unable to do his duties. He is still responsible. Inability does not free a person from responsibility.
The block, then, is in the person, not in God.
But where was the hindrance? It lay in men, in their will, which loved darkness and hated the light. It did not lie in God. There can be no unwillingness to save in Him, who gave His only begotten Son to die for sinners.
The timing of Nicodemus' visit gives the words their edge. The Lord aimed them at the man in front of Him.
Nicodemus had come to the Lord by night, as though his deeds could not bear the light. So the Lord, it seems, aimed to reach his conscience. Just as they parted, He says, "For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed."
Yet his story did not stop at that first cautious visit.
You tell me, with a hint of scorn, that he came by night. Well, never mind, he came to Jesus, and that is more than you have done yet. There are three stages in his history. I call John 3 midnight, John 7 twilight, and John 19 daylight.
The dread of exposure assumes that exposure is the end of the story. It is not.
Light will show you your lost condition, for it exposes you... The next thing that light will do is to reveal that "God is love," and that He has given His blessed Son for your salvation. Light will reveal your guilt, and love will blot it all out.
- Cause — the deeds come first. Evil practice creates the uneasy conscience that makes the light unbearable.
- Cover — people choose darkness for what it hides. It even hides them from themselves.
- Contempt — this is not indifference but hatred, and the same hatred put the Light out of the world at the cross.
- Charge — "everyone" reaches the respectable man too. He measures himself against worse sinners instead of Christ. Inability he brought on himself is no excuse.
- Cure — the hindrance lies in man's will, never in God. The light that exposes guilt also reveals the love that blots it out. Nicodemus came at midnight and ended in daylight.
but he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God.
Jesus has just said that people love darkness because their deeds are evil; verse 21 turns to the opposite person, the one who moves toward the light. It raises three questions: what is it to "do what is true," why welcome exposure, and what makes a work "carried out in God"?
The coming of Christ did not create good and evil people; it showed where each person already stood.
The presence of the true Light not only revealed God in all the great love of His heart, but also showed where every man stood in relation to God. Those who refused to believe in the Son stood condemned as evildoers. In rejecting Him, their opposition to God came to light... But the presence of Jesus also brought to light the children of God, those who practised the truth. When they came to Him, their deeds showed that they were divine in origin.
Even the person who runs away pays the light a backhanded compliment.
By turning from the light, they show that they know where the light is. They know it bears witness to the conscience, even though they stay out of it and get no good from it.
"Doing" the truth is a strange phrase. We speak of believing the truth or telling it, not doing it. Commentators tie it to being honest with God about your own sin.
He is not seeking to make the best of a bad life. He admits his sinful condition. Truth is found where God wants to see it, "in the inward being" (Ps. 51:6), and he fully confesses the sin he finds there. That is, truth is done (John 3:21), and the soul no longer needs to stay in the darkness.
It matters just as much where sin has led to serious discipline:
Some have lived by the desires of the flesh, so that they had to face the severe discipline of being "put away." They ought to feel deeply how dreadful sin and uncleanness are in God's sight. Taught by God, such people will find relief in confessing to Him.
Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at the start of this chapter, is the living example.
Here the felt need of Nicodemus, and divine light, make him risk being discovered and losing his standing among men. "Whoever does what is true comes to the light." He must come, whatever the result of his coming.
And that coming grew over time. One writer traces Nicodemus through three scenes in this Gospel:
I call John 3 midnight, John 7 twilight, and John 19 daylight. It was darkest midnight in that man's soul when he came creeping to Jesus, hoping nobody saw him... but the death of Christ produced in Nicodemus what His life had never achieved.
Coming to the light is not one brave moment. It becomes the air a person lives in, and that marks his works.
The one who practises the truth comes to the light. Walking there, he seeks to walk by that light. He tests his inward thoughts and feelings, his motives and aims, his words and ways by it. Knowing God is present gives its colour to his works. They were plainly carried out in God. They bear His image and inscription.
The verse does not call the deeds good. It says they were "carried out in God" — done in subjection to Him, with nothing to hide.
If one has nothing to hide, then he does not fear the light. No doubt Nathanael illustrates this in John 1:47-48. Having "no guile," no deceitful covering up of evil, he could come with confidence to the Lord Jesus. In coming to Him, a person finds himself shown as he truly is, and honesty does not object to this. His deeds are carried out in God, that is, as subject to God.
This is why real faith always produces something visible:
The faith that belongs to God's chosen is never powerless. It is living. It produces results that people can see, and those results carry the flavour of their divine source and sphere.
- Light — Christ's coming did more than inform the world. It sorted it. The same light that exposes one person draws another.
- Truth done — Doing the truth starts inside. You own your sin instead of making the best of a bad life.
- Coming — Whoever does the truth moves toward the light, not away from it. Like Nicodemus, he may pay for it in reputation.
- Walking — The one who comes stays. He tests his motives, words and ways by that light, until God's presence colours his work.
- Carried out in God — The result is not works we can boast in. It is works stamped with their divine source: living faith showing where it came from.