John 3:19

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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 (John 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 John 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 (John 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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-8 Nicodemus was afraid, or ashamed to be seen with Christ, therefore came in the night. When religion is out of fashion, there are many Nicodemites. But though he came by night, Jesus bid him welcome, and hereby taught us to encourage good beginnings, although weak. And though now he came by night, yet afterward he owned Christ publicly. He did not talk with Christ about state affairs, though he was a ruler, but about the concerns of his own soul and its salvation, and went at once to them. Our Saviour spoke of the necessity and nature of regeneration or the new birth, and at once directed Nicodemus to the source of holiness of the heart. Birth is the beginning of life; to be born again, is to begin to live anew, as those who have lived much amiss, or to little purpose. We must have a new nature, new principles, new affections, new aims. By our first birth we were corrupt, shapen in sin; therefore we must be made new creatures. No stronger expression could have been chosen to signify a great and most remarkable change of state and character. We must be entirely different from what we were before, as that which begins to be at any time, is not, and cannot be the same with that which was before. This new birth is from heaven, ch. 1:13, and its tendency is to heaven. It is a great change made in the heart of a sinner, by the power of the Holy Spirit. It means that something is done in us, and for us, which we cannot do for ourselves. Something is wrong, whereby such a life begins as shall last for ever. We cannot otherwise expect any benefit by Christ; it is necessary to our happiness here and hereafter. What Christ speak, Nicodemus misunderstood, as if there had been no other way of regenerating and new-moulding an immortal soul, than by new-framing the body. But he acknowledged his ignorance, which shows a desire to be better informed. It is then further explained by the Lord Jesus. He shows the Author of this blessed change. It is not wrought by any wisdom or power of our own, but by the power of the blessed Spirit. We are shapen in iniquity, which makes it necessary that our nature be changed. We are not to marvel at this; for, when we consider the holiness of God, the depravity of our nature, and the happiness set before us, we shall not think it strange that so much stress is laid upon this. The regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is compared to water. It is also probable that Christ had reference to the ordinance of baptism. Not that all those, and those only, that are baptized, are saved; but without that new birth which is wrought by the Spirit, and signified by baptism, none shall be subjects of the kingdom of heaven. The same word signifies both the wind and the Spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth for us; God directs it. The Spirit sends his influences where, and when, on whom, and in what measure and degree, he pleases. Though the causes are hidden, the effects are plain, when the soul is brought to mourn for sin, and to breathe after Christ. Christ's stating of the doctrine and the necessity of regeneration, it should seem, made it not clearer to Nicodemus. Thus the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man. Many think that cannot be proved, which they cannot believe. Christ's discourse of gospel truths, ver. 11-13, shows the folly of those who make these things strange unto them; and it recommends us to search them out. Jesus Christ is every way able to reveal the will of God to us; for he came down from heaven, and yet is in heaven. We have here a notice of Christ's two distinct natures in one person, so that while he is the Son of man, yet he is in heaven. God is the HE THAT IS, and heaven is the dwelling-place of his holiness. The knowledge of this must be from above, and can be received by faith alone. Jesus Christ came to save us by healing us, as the children of Israel, stung with fiery serpents, were cured and lived by looking up to the brazen serpent, Nu 21:6-9. In this observe the deadly and destructive nature of sin. Ask awakened consciences, ask damned sinners, they will tell you, that how charming soever the allurements of sin may be, at the last it bites like a serpent. See the powerful remedy against this fatal malady. Christ is plainly set forth to us in the gospel. He whom we offended is our Peace, and the way of applying for a cure is by believing. If any so far slight either their disease by sin, or the method of cure by Christ, as not to receive Christ upon his own terms, their ruin is upon their own heads. He has said, Look and be saved, look and live; lift up the eyes of your faith to Christ crucified. And until we have grace to do this, we shall not be cured, but still are wounded with the stings of Satan, and in a dying state. Jesus Christ came to save us by pardoning us, that we might not die by the sentence of the law. Here is gospel, good news indeed. Here is God's love in giving his Son for the world. God so loved the world; so really, so richly. Behold and wonder, that the great God should love such a worthless world! Here, also, is the great gospel duty, to believe in Jesus Christ. God having given him to be our Prophet, Priest, and King, we must give up ourselves to be ruled, and taught, and saved by him. And here is the great gospel benefit, that whoever believes in Christ, shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and so saving it. It could not be saved, but through him; there is no salvation in any other. From all this is shown the happiness of true believers; he that believeth in Christ is not condemned. Though he has been a great sinner, yet he is not dealt with according to what his sins deserve. How great is the sin of unbelievers! God sent One to save us, that was dearest to himself; and shall he not be dearest to us? How great is the misery of unbelievers! they are condemned already; which speaks a certain condemnation; a present condemnation. The wrath of God now fastens upon them; and their own hearts condemn them. There is also a condemnation grounded on their former guilt; they are open to the law for all their sins; because they are not by faith interested in the gospel pardon. Unbelief is a sin against the remedy. It springs from the enmity of the heart of man to God, from love of sin in some form. Read also the doom of those that would not know Christ. Sinful works are works of darkness. The wicked world keep as far from this light as they can, lest their deeds should be reproved. Christ is hated, because sin is loved. If they had not hated saving knowledge, they would not sit down contentedly in condemning ignorance. On the other hand, renewed hearts bid this light welcome. A good man acts truly and sincerely in all he does. He desires to know what the will of God is, and to do it, though against his own worldly interest. A change in his whole character and conduct has taken place. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, and is become the commanding principle of his actions. So long as he continues under a load of unforgiven guilt, there can be little else than slavish fear of God; but when his doubts are done away, when he sees the righteous ground whereon this forgiveness is built, he rests on it as his own, and is united to God by unfeigned love. Our works are good 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. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a subject to which the world is very averse; it is, however, the grand concern, in comparison with which every thing else is but trifling. What does it signify though we have food to eat in plenty, and variety of raiment to put on, if we are not born again? if after a few mornings and evenings spent in unthinking mirth, carnal pleasure, and riot, we die in our sins, and lie down in sorrow? What does it signify though we are well able to act our parts in life, in every other respect, if at last we hear from the Supreme Judge, Depart from me, I know you not, ye workers of iniquity?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 9:2. Compare Matthew 4:16; also the notes at John 1:4. It was doubtless this light to which Jesus had particular reference here.

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. 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.

loved darkness, &c.—This can only be known by the deliberate rejection of Christ, but that does fearfully reveal it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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, Isaiah 9:2 42:6 49:6. He is styled, in the beginning of this Gospel the true Light, John 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.

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And this is the condemnation,.... Of him that believes not in Christ; that is, this is the matter and cause of his condemnation, and by which it is aggravated, and appears to be just:

that light is come into the world: by which is meant, not natural or corporeal light; though natural darkness is, by some, preferred to this, being more convenient for their evil works; as by thieves, murderers, and adulterers: nor is the light of nature designed, with which every man is enlightened that comes into the world; which, though but a dim light, might be of more use, and service, than it is; and is often rejected, and rebelled against, by wicked men, and which will be the condemnation of the Heathen world: but rather the light of divine revelation, both in the law of God, and Gospel of Christ; especially the latter is here intended; and which, though so great a favour to fallen men, is despised, and denied by the sons of darkness: though it may be best of all to understand it of Christ himself, the light of the world, and who is come a light into it; see John 8:12, who may be called "light", because he has set revelation in its clearest and fullest light; he has declared the whole mind, and will of God concerning the affair of divine worship, and the business of salvation: grace, and truth, are come by him; the doctrines of grace, and the truths of the Gospel, are most clearly brought to light by him; the types, and shadows of the law are removed; and the promises, and the prophecies of the Old Testament, are most largely expounded by him, and most perfectly fulfilled in him: and besides; he is the author and giver of the light of grace, by which men see themselves to be what they are, lost and undone sinners; and see him to be the only able, willing, suitable, sufficient, and complete Saviour: and he it is that now gives the saints the glimpse of glory they have, and will be the light of the new Jerusalem, and the everlasting light of his people hereafter. He, by his incarnation, may be said to "come into the world" in general, which was made by him, as God; and as he was in it, as man; though he was not known by it as the God-man, Mediator, and Messiah: and particularly he came into the Jewish world, where he was born, brought up, conversed, lived, and died; and into the Gentile world, by the ministry of his apostles, whom he; sent into all the world, to preach the Gospel to every creature, and spread the glorious light of it in every place:

and men loved darkness rather than light: the Jews, the greater part of them, preferred the darkness of the ceremonial law, and the Mosaic dispensation, and even the traditions of their elders, before the clear Gospel revelation made by Christ Jesus; and the Gentiles also, for the most part, chose rather to continue in their Heathenish ignorance, and idolatry, and to walk in their own ways, and in the vanity of their minds, than to embrace Christ, and his Gospel, and submit to his ordinances, and appointments; and the generality of men, to this day, love their natural darkness, and choose to walk in it, and to have fellowship with the works of darkness, and delight in the company of the children of darkness, rather than follow Christ, the light of the world; receive his Gospel, and walk in his ways, in fellowship with his saints: the reason of all this is,

because their deeds were evil; which they chose not to relinquish; and Christ, his Gospel and ordinances are contrary to them; for the doctrine of the grace of God, which has appeared, and shone out in great lustre, and splendour, in the world, teaches men to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts; and therefore it is hated, and rejected, by men.

Geneva Study Bible

{7} And this is the {r} condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

(7) The only reason why men refuse the light that is offered to them is wickedness.

(r) That is, the cause of condemnation, which remains in men, unless through God's great benefit they are delivered from it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 3:19. The ἤδη κέκριται is now more minutely set forth, and this as to its moral character, as rejection of the light, i.e. of God’s saving truth,—the possessor and bringer in of which was Christ, who had come into the world,—and as love of darkness. “But herein consists the condemnation (as an inner moral fact which, according to John 3:18, had already occurred), that,” etc. ἡ κρίσις is the judgment in question, to be understood here also, agreeably to the whole connection, of condemnatory judgment. But in αὕτη … ὅτι (comp. 1 John 5:11) we have not the reason (Chrysostom and his followers), but the characteristic nature of the judgment stated.

ὅτι τὸ φῶς, etc., καὶ ἠγάπησαν] The first clause is not expressed in the dependent form (ὅτι ὅτε τὸ φῶς, etc., or with Gen. abs.), but as an independent statement, in order to give emphatic prominence to the contrast setting forth the guilt. See Kühner, II. 416; Winer, p. 585 [E. T. pp. 785–6].

ἠγάπησαν] after it had come. Jesus could now thus speak already from experience regarding His relations to mankind as a whole; the Aor. does not presuppose the consciousness of a later time. See John 2:23-24. For the rest, ἠγάπ. is put first with tragic emphasis, which object is also served by the simple καί (not and yet). The expression itself: they loved the darkness rather (potius, not magis, comp. John 12:43; 2 Timothy 3:4) than the light,

μᾶλλον belonging not to the verb, but to the noun, and ἤ comparing the two conceptions (Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 51; Bäuml. Partik. p. 136),—is a mournful meiosis; for they did not love the light at all, but hated it, John 3:20. The ground of this hatred, however, does not lie (comp. John 3:6; John 1:12) in a metaphysical opposition of principles (Baur, Hilgenfeld, Colani), but in the light-shunning demoralization into which men had sunk through their own free act (for they might also have done ἀλήθεια, John 3:21). The source of unbelief is immorality.

ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν, κ.τ.λ.] The reason why “they loved the darkness rather,” etc. (see on John 1:5), was their immoral manner of life, in consequence of which they must shun the light, nay, even hate it (John 3:20). We may observe the growing emphasis from αὐτῶν onwards to πονηρά, for the works which they (in opposition to the individual lovers of the light) did were evil; which πονηρά does not in popular usage denote a higher degree of evil than φαῦλα, John 3:20 (Bengel), but answers to this as evil does to bad (worthless); Fritzsche ad Rom. p. 297. Comp. John 5:29; Romans 9:11; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Jam 3:16; φαῦλα ἔργα in Plat. Crat. p. 429 A.; 3Ma 3:22.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 3:19. This is further explained in the following, αὕτη … τὸ φῶς. The ground of the condemnation lies precisely in this, that since the coming of Christ and His exhibition of human life in the light of the holiness and love of the Father, human sin is no longer the result of ignorance, but of deliberate choice and preference. Nothing can be done for a man who says, “Evil, be thou my good”. The reason of this preference of darkness and rejection of Christ is that the life is evil, ἦν γὰρ κ. τ. λ.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. And this is the condemnation] Rather, But the judgment is this; this is what it consists in: comp. John 15:12, John 17:3.

and men loved darkness, &c.] The tragic tone again (see on John 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.

deeds] Better, works here and John 3:20-21.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 3:19. Ἡ κρίσις, the judgment [condemnation]) i.e. the cause of judgment.—τὸ φῶς, the Light) After the mention of life, the mention of light follows, as in ch. 1. The Light, Christ. See what follows. In John 3:19, the hypostatical [personal] Light [Jesus Christ, its embodiment] is praised: afterwards, in the latter part of John 3:19, in antithesis to darkness, of which there is no hypostasis [personality], and in John 3:20-21, the discourse treats of Light indefinitely in the thesis, but so as that, in the hypothesis, it answers chiefly to the hypostatical [personal] Light.—ἠγάπησαν, loved) They did not pay back love for the love on God’s part, John 3:16.—μᾶλλον, rather than) The comparison is by no means inappropriate. The loveliness of the light struck them with admiration; but they were held fast in the love of darkness. Comp. John 5:35, “He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.” A similar comparison occurs, ch. John 12:43, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”—πονηρά, evil [maligna, evil-disposed]) This is indeed worse than φαῦλα, vile [worthless, wrong], John 3:20.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The above interpretation is confirmed by the explanatory sentence which follows, and which is obviously meant to explain the nature of the κρίσις, 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, αὕτη δέ ἑστιν ἡ κρίσις ὅτι, is found elsewhere in John (1 John 1:5; 1 John 5:11, 14). We are here reminded of the words of the prologue (John 1:5, 9, see notes), where the original shining of the Light in the σκοτία (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 (σκότος, used here and 1 John 1:6 for absolute darkness, the complete contradictory of the light), rather than the light. Lucke has urged that μᾶλλον 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. John 12:43; Matthew 10:6; Mark 15:11; 2 Timothy 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 κρίσις - 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 κρίμα, and the process by which it is made evident is the κρίσις 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 (ἔργα) were "evil" (πονηρά). 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 confirmes by sinful compliance. The blinding of the eye, deafening of the ear (cf. Matthew 13:10, and parallels), is the judicial result of their unwillingness to see or walk in the light of the Lord. John 3:19

Vincent's Word Studies

This

That is, herein consists the judgment. The prefacing a statement with this is, and then defining the statement by ὅτι or ἵνα, that, is characteristic of John. See John 15:12; John 17:3; 1 John 1:5; 1 John 5:11, 1 John 5:14; 3 John 1:6.

Light (τὸ φῶς)

Rev., correctly, the light. See John 1:4, John 1:9.

Men (οἱ ἄνθρωποι)

Literally, the men. Regarded as a class.

Darkness (τὸ σκότος)

See on John 1:5. Rev., correctly, the darkness. John employs this word only here and 1 John 1:6. His usual term is σκοτία (John 1:5; John 8:12; 1 John 1:5, etc.), more commonly describing a state of darkness, than darkness as opposed to light.

Were (ἦν)

Habitually. The imperfect tense marking continuation.

Evil (πονηρὰ)

Actively evil. See on Mark 7:22; see on Luke 3:19.