is the true account of it." The following elliptical expresRiona are somewhat similar, and all found in St. John's 1st Epistle. " This is the promise," " this is the love of Grod," " this is the victory," " this is the confidence." (1 John ii. 25. — t. 4, 14.)
[That light is come into the world.] It is a question in this sentence whether " light " means Christ Himself, or the light of Christ's Gospel. I am inclined to think that our Lord meant to include both ideas. He has come as a light into the world, and the Gospel that He has brought with Him, is, like its Author, a strong contrast to the ignorance and wickedness of the earth.
[Men loved darkness rather than lightj] The darkness in this sentence means moral darkness and mental darkness, sin, igno- rance, superstition, and irreligion. Men cannot come to Christ and receive His Gospel without parting with all this, and they love it too well to part with it.
[Because their deeds were evil.] This sentence means that their habits of life were wicked, and any doctrine which necessitated a change of these habits they naturally hated.
Throughout this verse I am inclined to think that the past tense " loved," ought to be taken in a present sense, (prolepti- cally, to use a grammarian's phrase,) as is frequently the case in the New Testament. See John xv. 8, and Rom. viii. 30. The meaning will then be, " men have loved, do love, and always will love darkness, in consequence of the corruption of human nature, as long as the world stands." The sentence then becomes a solemn description of a state of things which was not only to be seen among the Jews, while our Lord was on eart!), but would be seen everywhere to the end of time.
The verse is one which deserves special notice, because of the deep mystery it unfolds. It tells us the true reason why men miss heaven and are lost in hell. The origin of evil we aie not told. The reason why evil men are lest, we are told plainly. There is not a word about any decree of God predestinating men to destruction. Tljere is not a syllable about anything deficient or wanting either in God's love, or in Christ's atonement. On ^he contrary our Lord tells us that "light has come into the world," that God has revealed enough of the wav of salvation to make men inexcusable if thi-y are not saved. But the real aecotmt of the matter is that men have naturally no wiU or inclination to use the light. Tiiey love their own dark and ci rrupt ways more than the ways which God proposes to them. They therefore reap the fruit of their own ways, and wiU have at last what they loved. They loved darkness and they will be cast nto outt-r darkness, they did not like the light and so they \^ill be shut out from light eternally. In short, lost souls will be what they willed to be, and will have what they loved.
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The words, ''because their deeds were evil," are very instruc- tive. They teach ns that where men have no love to Christ and His Gospel- and will not receive them, their lives and their works will prove at last to have been evil. Their habits of life may not be gross and immoral. They may be even compai-atively decent and pure. But the last day will prove them to have been in reality " evil." Pride of intellect, or selfishness, or love of man's applause, or dislike to submission of will, or self-righteoua- ness, or some other false principle will be found to have run through all their conduct. In one way or another, when men refuse to come to Christ, their deeds will always prove to be " evil." Rejection of the Gospel will alwa3^s be found to be con- nected with some moral obliquity. When Christ is refused we may be quite sure that there is something or other in life, or heart, which is not right. If a man does not love light his " deeds are evil." Human eyes may not detect the flaw ; but the eyes of an all-seeing God do.
The whole verse is a deeply humbling one. It shows the folly of all excuses for not receiving the Gospel, drawn from intel- lectual difficulties, from God's predestination, from our own in- ability to change ourselves, or to see things with the eyes of others. All such excuses are scattered to the winds by this feolemn verse. People do not come to Christ, and do continue unconverted, just because they do not wish and want to come to Christ, They love something else better than the light. The elect of God prove themselves to be elect by '' choosing" the things which are according to God's mind. The wicked prove themselves to be only fit for destruction, by " choosing, loving, and following " the things which must lead to destruction.
Quesnel says on this verse, " The greatest misfortune of men does not consist in their being subject to sin, corruption, and bhndness ; but in their rejecting the Deliverer, the Physician, and the Light itself."
20. — [Every one that doeth evil, &c., t&c] This verse and the following one form a practical application of all that our Lord has been saying to Nicodemus, and are also a logical consequence of the preceding verse. Like the preceding verse, these two verses apply primarily to the Jews in our Lord's day, and secondarily to every nation to which the light of the Gospel comes. They are a most remarkaljle appeal to an inquirer's conscience, and supply a most searching test of the sincerity of a man in Nicodemus' state of mind.
The words '•' eve;y one that doeth evil," mean every uncon- verted person, every one whose heart is not right and honest in God's sight, and whose actions are consequently evil and un- godly. Every such person " hateth the light, neither cometh to