But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
He who practices truth comes to the light instead of hiding from it, so that it becomes openly clear that his deeds are wrought in God. By contrast he who does evil hates the light and stays away from it lest his deeds be exposed and reproved, choosing darkness rather than light. Coming to the light in this way happens only through being born again, with the heart opened toward heaven so selfishness is driven out and the whole mind and character are purified and renewed. It means humble, thorough repentance and obedience, bringing the soul and its motives, words and conduct to God's Word to be examined, confessing and forsaking wrong and walking in the light received. Deeds thus wrought in God are not produced by unaided human effort but by God working in and through the one who wholly follows Him, and that work endures with power and permanency while work not wrought in Him comes to nothing.
Plain Sense of Verse
The one who practices truth comes to the light rather than hiding from it, so that it becomes openly clear that his deeds are wrought in God. Coming into the light without hiding actions lets the light make deeds visible and reveal that they have been done in God and through God. Receiving the gospel produces such good deeds of lasting worth.
It stands in direct contrast to doing evil, for the evildoer hates the light and avoids it lest his deeds be exposed and reproved, choosing darkness rather than light. Refusing the light because of fear of reproof shows a preference for darkness, while those who love the light come so their deeds can be exposed. Rejecting the light expresses a choice to follow one's own way instead of God's and to avoid reproval. God's warnings and admonitions give opportunity to respond to the light and show whether there is true desire to do His will. This marks the difference among professed believers joined together in church capacity, where not all have the truth and not all obey the commandments and many are backsliders, and coming to the light belongs to following on to know the Lord step by step, by which the intensity of God's love for every soul is discerned and increased light is given as He leads, while loving darkness rather than light remains condemnation.
Deeds wrought in God can bear the test of exposure and be made plain by the light, while works that will not bear that test are avoided being brought to it so they will not be shown as not wrought in God. Light exposes evil concealed in darkness, and works examined by the light God has given meet the high standard of the Bible and meet the claims of God, with the Lord a present help in every time of need. They require thorough transformation in character and works and true inward heart-work, putting sin away instead of indulging it and smoothing over wrongs, and coming to the knowledge of the truth. Those with defective character who keep sin, refuse that inward change, and will not bear the test and exposure of the light drift into the deceptions of Satan, hold back God's blessing, and their works are not wrought in God, with hope only in confessing and forsaking sins and with full purpose of heart turning to God. People who look alike outwardly may in fact serve opposing masters, though the difference between them is vast.
Deeds shown to be done in God accompany faith rather than sinlessness as the basis of salvation. What is true must come fully into the light, with nothing kept secret. Christ is the world's central light: those who do what is right come to Him and welcome the light, while those who do evil prefer darkness for fear their deeds will be exposed and reproved.
Interview With Nicodemus
The verse belongs to Christ's secret night conference with Nicodemus, the honored rabbi to whom He gave personal instruction and opened His richest teaching because He discerned in him an open, receptive heart. Christ brought Nicodemus into contact with all light and called him, though awakened and convicted yet held by influences, to do truth and come to the light so that his deeds might be shown to be wrought in God. He was to carry away practical points showing that he needed truth and a new heart rather than learning or controversy. Until the heart is changed, reasoning about points of difference brings no saving results but strengthens resistance, and therefore Christ did not enter into controversy but kept to the affirmative of the great questions.
John the Baptist's testimony that Christ comes from above is almost the counterpart to this interview, with John's defense of Jesus corresponding to what Jesus gave to Nicodemus. The lesson to Nicodemus sets out the terms of salvation so clearly and belongs so vitally to the way of life that it can guide a soul even if it were the only Bible text available. Nicodemus illustrates movement toward the light, for he became a believer and later spoke in the Sanhedrin against condemning Jesus without hearing Him. He later showed his faith openly by supporting Christ's followers in their time of danger, though this cost him wealth and standing.
His example shows that moral respectability and even a correct moral character do not remove the need to humble oneself before God. A person must give up reliance on personal righteousness, renounce his own righteousness, seek Christ's righteousness, and depend wholly on Him. That righteousness is counted to the believer, and all strength and goodness come from divine grace. God's workers today are to follow this same method, not being led away by opponents into controversy on false theories, in Los Angeles and in other places.
New Birth and Transformation
Coming to the light so that deeds are shown to be wrought in God happens only through being born again, with natural traits, temperament, and disposition transformed into Christ's likeness as the unchanging condition for entering the kingdom of heaven. It is Christ's own testimony concerning righteousness and truth and gives a wonderful lesson. Together with the first chapter of John and the rest of the third chapter it defines true higher education, the only education of saving value. Its instruction must be read verse by verse thoughtfully and prayerfully. It is only feebly comprehended, cannot be understood in its full import until a man is born again, and can only be received through sanctification of the Spirit of God.
Coming to the light means opening the heart, mind, impulses, and feelings toward heaven, so that selfishness and earthliness are driven out and God's grace and Spirit purify and renew the whole person, mind, and character. Deeds are wrought in God when thoughts and feelings are sanctified and powers are devoted to serving the Redeemer. Work is wrought in God when self is hidden in Christ rather than carried out according to human plans, which means less of self and a great deal more of Jesus. Such a life requires drinking in of the Spirit of God in new conversion and planting the feet on the solid Rock. It requires purity of heart, much of the love of God in the heart, the graces of the Spirit of Christ, the special working of the Spirit upon the heart, Christ abiding within, and faith and firm reliance upon God, with the witness of the Spirit that one's ways please God sought and not satisfied without. Without this all profession of truth is of no avail and one is a channel of darkness.
When Christ's character thus appears in words, spirit, and actions, it shows that God sent His Son and that no other power could produce such a change. When Christ is working in a person, fruits of righteousness appear. But when the Spirit does not control, subdue, and sanctify and shape the character after Christ, deeds are not wrought in God, and where selfishness prevails even God's blessings are turned to selfish purposes. Receiving and walking in the light of God's Word exposes imperfections and dispels moral darkness, and through the Holy Spirit's influence and sanctification through truth people grow in grace and become more like Christ. Daily surrender allows Him to guide plans and work and shape life more and more after Him.
Work truly shaped by truth and grace is learned in humility and meekness from Christ, is wholesome, pure, and ennobling, with truth and grace purifying motives and guiding outward actions so that conduct at home and among others reflects the mind of Christ. Through Christ's grace people consecrate their whole being to God so that words and works reflect His character and can influence others to come to Christ. This means denying self, seeking God earnestly each day, giving themselves unselfishly to the work, depending on God's wisdom rather than their own, and heeding His reproofs and counsels to keep from sin. A life lived on God's side in this way bears works wrought in God: when a person talks faith and relies on the Lord for what cannot be done alone, the result is a noble life and work shaped by God, making that person a useful instrument in His hands. All deeds pleasing to God are done through His power and not through self, needing divine grace, faith, and the righteousness of Christ. Truth must be received inwardly and become part of a person, shaping all that person does; merely preaching it without being transformed by it is not living the truth. Harshness and reliance on self show works not wrought in God and need for transformation, reliance on grace, and bringing powers under God's will.
Light Tests and Judges
The light given to people brings judgment, and those who neglect it or turn away from it are judged and condemned by it. Rejecting the light and refusing to obey it brings condemnation. Condemnation is that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. He that believes is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already for not believing in the name of the only begotten Son of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, sending Him not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.
This giving of God's sinless only Son to bear the punishment of the guilty for the redemption of the fallen race is what God seeks in bringing people to the light. It gives unmistakable expression of His love and His desire to lead men to obey His precepts and bring them back to allegiance to Him. It displays the great interest of the Father and the Son in saving a fallen world. Response to Christ's truth brings people into the light where purposes and deeds are revealed. Christ's life and death expose what is in hearts, attitude toward Him shows whether they belong to His side or Satan's, and in choosing their response they pass judgment on themselves.
At the final judgment people are judged according to their deeds, and those who refused God's gift have no excuse. The gospel when accepted produces good deeds of lasting worth and brings comfort in this life and eternal life to the believer. The light exposes what is hidden and tests works, and many avoid it because they do not want their works shown to be ungodly. God's people are to live as examples of holiness so the light they receive can enlighten or convict others, while neglected or rejected light becomes a witness against them.
Coming to the light means yielding to the light and evidence God sends, submitting to God and repenting, and those who submit are pardoned. Wrath and being cut off from salvation come not merely because of sin already committed, even putting to death the Son of God, but because men choose continued resistance, persistently reject light, stifle convictions of the Holy Spirit, repeat past sins despite light and evidence, and determine continually to be opposed to God. They could yield but will not, and every day of refusal renews rebellion, makes obstinacy more determined, intensifies malignity with each successive act of resistance, arms the sinner with the attributes of Satan, ruins the soul, and at last places him where he knows nothing but resistance. Turning away from the light after conviction by the Spirit of truth leads into darkness and can degrade moral sense until even grave sins seem trivial. Herod had nearly become John's disciple but rejected the truth and ultimately killed a prophet he knew was true.
Error is more in accordance with the carnal heart than truth, so men at ease take error for granted as clear and love error and darkness and refuse to come lest deeds be reproved. In their darkened state they settle that error is truth because they cannot see where truth had the advantage. By contrast those who cherish iniquity turn away and their spiritual vision becomes dark and untrustworthy. Resisting light from God and treating it as darkness or fanaticism prevents discerning it. Receiving the message and the spirit of truth, marked by God's mercy, justice, and love, keeps from calling the Holy Spirit's work fanaticism and error.
Resisting or despising that light deepens darkness in proportion to unbelief. Refusing to heed the light leads away into darkness and deception. Those unwilling to come remain open to unbelief, while responding to the light God gives is evidence of being on His side. Those who love the light come so deeds can be exposed, while those who refuse avoid reproval and choose their own way instead of God's, and rejecting the light expresses that choice. Refusing light and knowledge is the opposite response in which people may reject blessings and truth they need even when eternal interests are at stake. Turning from truth and righteousness to falsehood is choosing darkness instead of that light.
Repentance and Obedience
Light is for the sinner if he will come, and coming means humble, thorough repentance, dying to self and being crucified to self, and letting the life show that truth has accomplished a good work by a consistent life and godly conversation that honors the cause of truth. Not coming is loving darkness rather than light, with sensibilities benumbed and blunted by sin and wrong, conscience seared, and sacred things dragged down to a level with common things, leaving character spotted over with imperfections, sin, and corruptions and found wanting in the day of God. Coming to Christ's light exposes the true character of deeds, revealing selfish and impure motives and showing the sinner the need for cleansing and a renewed heart from Christ. Receiving light brings wrongdoing to view and calls the sinner to repentance, while rejecting truth and preferring darkness leaves sin hidden.
Taking a firm stand for what is right and pressing earnestly toward the light expresses doing truth, and repentance begotten by the Holy Spirit enables this change and brings glory to God. Coming requires beginning repentance with making wrongs right, breaking the heart before God, confessing and forsaking what separates from God, being cleansed from defilement of sin, changing the whole disobedient course entirely, and leaving no work of restitution undone in the crisis, including making wrongs right with a mother. Coming thoroughly out of darkness means direct, complete confession of wrong feelings and wrong spirit when God moves on the heart and sets truth and light before a person, listening to the truth God gives and making clean work. Those who refuse to confess do not become free but will be brought over the same ground again when circumstances arise and will reveal the same spirit, and wrongs left unrepented may be repeated. Such refusal exposes a proud spirit rather than work wrought in God.
Doing truth when the Spirit convicts means acknowledging wrong when false statements are exposed, opening the door of the heart to Christ, and yielding instead of bracing against the truth. Refusing is fighting the Spirit inch by inch, holding secret self-deception, and trying more vehemently to make self and others believe a wrong course is justified, yet deeds done against the light are still made manifest, for words spoken in public are written in God's book. Coming includes acknowledging error and correcting mistakes, showing willingness to stand on the side of truth and righteousness. Coming includes accepting reproof and allowing life to be seen as God sees it. The light of God's Word, including its reproofs and warnings, exposes wrong and is meant to bring the whole person to sanctification, while those who refuse make excuses and criticize message or messenger to conceal faults and avoid repentance.
Coming to the light means facing reproof, setting wrongs right, and bearing fruit in a life made righteous by Christ, welcoming exposure and reproof rather than choosing darkness. Doing truth means bringing the soul up to the light, which is the standard of God's Word, to be tried at last by what God does say and not by what is imagined He ought to say, listening to His words through His delegated servants and obeying counsels given and yielding one's own way and preconceived opinions. It means desiring truth in the inward parts, which requires purity of heart in order to see God, with self dying and the heart broken by falling upon the rock and receiving the engrafted Word to gain real victory and liberty and peace of mind against the assaults of the enemy. Coming means approaching Scripture humbly and honestly, willing to investigate evidence and accept truth rather than resisting it or criticizing it from a distance, and receiving and acknowledging the light God gives and walking in it.
Doing truth means coming to allow life to be examined, including searching motives, temper, words, and conduct and comparing them with Christ's example and God's law, and a profession of belief without a life showing its sanctifying influence does not show this willingness. It means closely investigating motives and feelings by the Word and cleansing the soul temple from envy, mistrust, and selfishness, putting trust in God instead of depending on others' approbation in bondage, working away from selfishness with an eye single to God's glory, and hanging the helpless soul upon Him. Standing aloof from meetings and taking no part shows a person is not right with God and something is wrong, and cherishing feelings like those of Cain is opposed to deeds wrought in God and is dangerous and ruinous unless earnest effort is made to work away from that spirit. Coming means hearing Christ's voice, humbling the heart before God, and receiving the Holy Spirit when Christ is present with plain evidence and life-giving power and mercy sufficient to convince. It means accepting the robe of Christ's righteousness instead of one's own dress, honoring truth and glorifying God.
Turning from the light instead is turning a deaf ear to the Saviour, refusing to hear and humble the heart, refusing the robe and the Spirit because of unwillingness, cultivating unbelief and strengthening resistance until the heart grows hard and unimpressible, standing disloyal to truth in opposition to Christ. Doing truth means living in keeping with the light received, and neglecting light and opportunities leaves people in darkness, while profession without matching works is vain pretense, though penitent sinners who turn to God are accepted and hypocrisy is condemned. Those who have received light should walk in it, as Christ is in the light, and the chapter also calls people to be born again and to humble themselves before God. Doing truth means responding to God's light with a life shaped by truth, and those who hear the message but close their hearts are not doers of the truth. Hearing solemn preaching does not profit when not received with faith, leaving them spiritually dead.
People whose hearts the Spirit is moving can be helped to come. Coming is a privilege and duty that helps discern spiritual things, requiring the holy influences God gives and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, apart from which they are not safe, and separation from those holy influences prevents discernment of spiritual things. People who know the truth but choose harmful practices choose darkness rather than light, and their knowledge makes them accountable for consequences of violating natural and moral laws. Living according to the light means acting on what one knows rather than excusing wrongdoing because it is popular or inconvenient. God sends light to reveal true condition and, through warnings and admonitions, gives opportunity to respond and show whether people truly desire to do His will.
One person's failure illustrates the danger: not knowing how to come to the light, kept by companions' praise and attention blind to need of Christ with affections turned from God, a deception that could prove fatal if continued, so that hours before death should be used to prepare the heart to meet the Saviour at the resurrection.
Witness in Life Work
He that does truth comes to the light so that deeds are made manifest as wrought in God, and this exposes professed believers joined together in church capacity among whom not all have the truth and not all are obedient to all the commandments and many are backsliders. Against loving darkness rather than light and hating the light lest evil deeds be reproved, which remains condemnation, coming to the light belongs to following on to know the Lord step by step. By so following, the intensity of His love for every soul is discerned, and as He leads increased light is given.
Magnifying human imperfections, commenting on them, and despising and condemning brethren who have them is forbidden, and instead the example of Christ is to be followed in seeking to save their souls. Christ as the embodiment of purity came to a world marred with the curse and filled with deformity and impurity not to condemn it but to heal human imperfections and to seek and save the lost. The love toward fellow creatures enjoined in the last six commandments requires the same restoring and saving work rather than condemning. Life is a manifestation of God's love and a costly talent committed to care in light of the sacrifice of the Son, expressing God's ownership by creation and doubly by redemption. God is Creator and Source of all life and Author of the higher life He desires for beings formed in His image, and man is the highest and noblest creature made in the image of God for His glory.
A godly life and holy conduct publicly testify against sin and show that professed truth is real. Unselfish conduct reflects Christ's character and gives unbelievers no cause to reproach the truth professed. Christian character and actions reveal this to others, for sincere zeal and conduct shaped by God give unbelievers a sense of peace they do not know and show that the work is for God. The faithful by obeying truth expose the contrast between righteousness and sin and between truth and error, and their conduct continually reproves those who refuse to obey. Deeds reveal whether a person lives in the light and whether works are done in God, so love existing only in words together with selfish and unrighteous actions marks a life not transformed by renewing grace, while those who live in Christ bear active, fruitful lives that glorify God, turn from wrongdoing, and grow in holiness.
The contrast applies to people who accept the light of God's truth and refuse to let prejudice or doubt turn them from it. Those who refuse the light because they do not want their darkness and error exposed and removed, including people who oppose the truth, show they do not love the light. Truth is to be lived and to be proclaimed amid evil as well as good report, representing an abiding Christ before people in wisdom and tenderness and love. The Word is to be presented unmixed with human impetuosity but with earnestness, with the authority that truth gives, with meekness yet with assurance and power, in demonstration of the Spirit, without marring and dishonoring truth by weaving in one's own spirit and sharp manner of speech. Deeds done in God are made known as God's work, for God works in and through people who wholly follow Him so that it is clear He is accomplishing the work.
Living according to His word and obeying Him are necessary for His promises to reach fulfillment, and when people fall short of obedience those promises remain beyond reach. Deeds done in God come from a life wholly following Him so that God is working in and through the person, connecting God's honor with faithful service and obedience, with the Lord as source receiving the glory and as present help in every time of need when deeds meet the high standard of the Bible and the claims of God. Deeds must be wrought in God and not produced by unaided human effort alone. A minister who has not reached perfection of character but earnestly seeks to become like Christ can have Christ with him, yet must pray and seek the Lord's presence because work cannot stand on imperfect efforts alone, and without that divine help cannot faithfully stand before the people, while those who rely only on their own efforts are miserable.
Such a minister seeks the Lord's presence in prayer knowing he cannot rightly stand without it, with words, conduct, and spirit observed by heaven. When a teacher's work is wrought in God it will have lasting effect even when it seems to have little effect on many minds and hearts, for some lessons of divine truth will linger in memory even of the most careless, and the Holy Spirit will water the sown seed so it springs up after many days and bears fruit to God's glory. Work truly done in God has its source in God and endures with power and permanency, while work not wrought in God comes to nothing when religious excitement passes. It is not driven by impulse, impression, excitement, or extravagant demonstration but by steady progress and perfection of grace in the heart under the Holy Spirit. It is learned in humility and meekness from Christ, brings the heart into sweet harmony with God's will, exalts rather than degrades before the world, does not make people coarse, rough, or unteachable, is not flashy or self-sufficient but enduring, healthful, wholesome, pure, and ennobling, showing the mind of Christ in home life and dealings with others, with grace and truth reigning in the heart to inspire and purify motives and control outward actions.
It requires thorough transformation in character and works and true inward heart-work, putting sin away instead of indulging it and smoothing over wrongs and coming to knowledge of the truth. Those with defective character who keep sin, refuse that inward change, and will not bear the test and exposure of the light drift into Satan's deceptions and hold back God's blessing, and their works are not wrought in God, with hope only in confessing and forsaking sins and with full purpose of heart turning to God. Work not done in God will fail when tested, while work God is doing stands, and opposing such work risks placing oneself in opposition to God. One life describes work wrought in God as the active, Spirit-filled life linked with the Eternal, with message and work forming an enduring influence. Accepting Christ is light, peace, and joy, while rejecting Him closes the heart to heavenly illumination and welcomes darkness and despair.
The verse calls parents to examine whether conduct and obedience are grounded in God, including when administering discipline to children whether they themselves obey God's commandments. It calls leaders in institutions to show work wrought in God by being workmen who need not be ashamed, with words and works untainted by earthliness and sensualism. It lays on them the solemn responsibility of giving youth a worthy example corresponding to positions of trust and holy profession, because they are sowing seeds that will blossom and bear fruit. It requires putting away all coarseness and trifling as fruit borne on a corrupt tree, recognizing that as educators their lessons to believers and unbelievers in words and actions will be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
He who practices truth comes to the light instead of hiding from it, so that it becomes openly clear that his deeds are wrought in God. By contrast he who does evil hates the light and stays away from it lest his deeds be exposed and reproved, choosing darkness rather than light. Coming to the light in this way happens only through being born again, with the heart opened toward heaven so selfishness is driven out and the whole mind and character are purified and renewed. It means humble, thorough repentance and obedience, bringing the soul and its motives, words and conduct to God's Word to be examined, confessing and forsaking wrong and walking in the light received. Deeds thus wrought in God are not produced by unaided human effort but by God working in and through the one who wholly follows Him, and that work endures with power and permanency while work not wrought in Him comes to nothing.
Plain Sense of Verse
The one who practices truth comes to the light rather than hiding from it, so that it becomes openly clear that his deeds are wrought in God. Coming into the light without hiding actions lets the light make deeds visible and reveal that they have been done in God and through God. Receiving the gospel produces such good deeds of lasting worth.
It stands in direct contrast to doing evil, for the evildoer hates the light and avoids it lest his deeds be exposed and reproved, choosing darkness rather than light. Refusing the light because of fear of reproof shows a preference for darkness, while those who love the light come so their deeds can be exposed. Rejecting the light expresses a choice to follow one's own way instead of God's and to avoid reproval. God's warnings and admonitions give opportunity to respond to the light and show whether there is true desire to do His will. This marks the difference among professed believers joined together in church capacity, where not all have the truth and not all obey the commandments and many are backsliders, and coming to the light belongs to following on to know the Lord step by step, by which the intensity of God's love for every soul is discerned and increased light is given as He leads, while loving darkness rather than light remains condemnation.
Deeds wrought in God can bear the test of exposure and be made plain by the light, while works that will not bear that test are avoided being brought to it so they will not be shown as not wrought in God. Light exposes evil concealed in darkness, and works examined by the light God has given meet the high standard of the Bible and meet the claims of God, with the Lord a present help in every time of need. They require thorough transformation in character and works and true inward heart-work, putting sin away instead of indulging it and smoothing over wrongs, and coming to the knowledge of the truth. Those with defective character who keep sin, refuse that inward change, and will not bear the test and exposure of the light drift into the deceptions of Satan, hold back God's blessing, and their works are not wrought in God, with hope only in confessing and forsaking sins and with full purpose of heart turning to God. People who look alike outwardly may in fact serve opposing masters, though the difference between them is vast.
Deeds shown to be done in God accompany faith rather than sinlessness as the basis of salvation. What is true must come fully into the light, with nothing kept secret. Christ is the world's central light: those who do what is right come to Him and welcome the light, while those who do evil prefer darkness for fear their deeds will be exposed and reproved.
Interview With Nicodemus
The verse belongs to Christ's secret night conference with Nicodemus, the honored rabbi to whom He gave personal instruction and opened His richest teaching because He discerned in him an open, receptive heart. Christ brought Nicodemus into contact with all light and called him, though awakened and convicted yet held by influences, to do truth and come to the light so that his deeds might be shown to be wrought in God. He was to carry away practical points showing that he needed truth and a new heart rather than learning or controversy. Until the heart is changed, reasoning about points of difference brings no saving results but strengthens resistance, and therefore Christ did not enter into controversy but kept to the affirmative of the great questions.
John the Baptist's testimony that Christ comes from above is almost the counterpart to this interview, with John's defense of Jesus corresponding to what Jesus gave to Nicodemus. The lesson to Nicodemus sets out the terms of salvation so clearly and belongs so vitally to the way of life that it can guide a soul even if it were the only Bible text available. Nicodemus illustrates movement toward the light, for he became a believer and later spoke in the Sanhedrin against condemning Jesus without hearing Him. He later showed his faith openly by supporting Christ's followers in their time of danger, though this cost him wealth and standing.
His example shows that moral respectability and even a correct moral character do not remove the need to humble oneself before God. A person must give up reliance on personal righteousness, renounce his own righteousness, seek Christ's righteousness, and depend wholly on Him. That righteousness is counted to the believer, and all strength and goodness come from divine grace. God's workers today are to follow this same method, not being led away by opponents into controversy on false theories, in Los Angeles and in other places.
New Birth and Transformation
Coming to the light so that deeds are shown to be wrought in God happens only through being born again, with natural traits, temperament, and disposition transformed into Christ's likeness as the unchanging condition for entering the kingdom of heaven. It is Christ's own testimony concerning righteousness and truth and gives a wonderful lesson. Together with the first chapter of John and the rest of the third chapter it defines true higher education, the only education of saving value. Its instruction must be read verse by verse thoughtfully and prayerfully. It is only feebly comprehended, cannot be understood in its full import until a man is born again, and can only be received through sanctification of the Spirit of God.
Coming to the light means opening the heart, mind, impulses, and feelings toward heaven, so that selfishness and earthliness are driven out and God's grace and Spirit purify and renew the whole person, mind, and character. Deeds are wrought in God when thoughts and feelings are sanctified and powers are devoted to serving the Redeemer. Work is wrought in God when self is hidden in Christ rather than carried out according to human plans, which means less of self and a great deal more of Jesus. Such a life requires drinking in of the Spirit of God in new conversion and planting the feet on the solid Rock. It requires purity of heart, much of the love of God in the heart, the graces of the Spirit of Christ, the special working of the Spirit upon the heart, Christ abiding within, and faith and firm reliance upon God, with the witness of the Spirit that one's ways please God sought and not satisfied without. Without this all profession of truth is of no avail and one is a channel of darkness.
When Christ's character thus appears in words, spirit, and actions, it shows that God sent His Son and that no other power could produce such a change. When Christ is working in a person, fruits of righteousness appear. But when the Spirit does not control, subdue, and sanctify and shape the character after Christ, deeds are not wrought in God, and where selfishness prevails even God's blessings are turned to selfish purposes. Receiving and walking in the light of God's Word exposes imperfections and dispels moral darkness, and through the Holy Spirit's influence and sanctification through truth people grow in grace and become more like Christ. Daily surrender allows Him to guide plans and work and shape life more and more after Him.
Work truly shaped by truth and grace is learned in humility and meekness from Christ, is wholesome, pure, and ennobling, with truth and grace purifying motives and guiding outward actions so that conduct at home and among others reflects the mind of Christ. Through Christ's grace people consecrate their whole being to God so that words and works reflect His character and can influence others to come to Christ. This means denying self, seeking God earnestly each day, giving themselves unselfishly to the work, depending on God's wisdom rather than their own, and heeding His reproofs and counsels to keep from sin. A life lived on God's side in this way bears works wrought in God: when a person talks faith and relies on the Lord for what cannot be done alone, the result is a noble life and work shaped by God, making that person a useful instrument in His hands. All deeds pleasing to God are done through His power and not through self, needing divine grace, faith, and the righteousness of Christ. Truth must be received inwardly and become part of a person, shaping all that person does; merely preaching it without being transformed by it is not living the truth. Harshness and reliance on self show works not wrought in God and need for transformation, reliance on grace, and bringing powers under God's will.
Light Tests and Judges
The light given to people brings judgment, and those who neglect it or turn away from it are judged and condemned by it. Rejecting the light and refusing to obey it brings condemnation. Condemnation is that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. He that believes is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already for not believing in the name of the only begotten Son of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, sending Him not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.
This giving of God's sinless only Son to bear the punishment of the guilty for the redemption of the fallen race is what God seeks in bringing people to the light. It gives unmistakable expression of His love and His desire to lead men to obey His precepts and bring them back to allegiance to Him. It displays the great interest of the Father and the Son in saving a fallen world. Response to Christ's truth brings people into the light where purposes and deeds are revealed. Christ's life and death expose what is in hearts, attitude toward Him shows whether they belong to His side or Satan's, and in choosing their response they pass judgment on themselves.
At the final judgment people are judged according to their deeds, and those who refused God's gift have no excuse. The gospel when accepted produces good deeds of lasting worth and brings comfort in this life and eternal life to the believer. The light exposes what is hidden and tests works, and many avoid it because they do not want their works shown to be ungodly. God's people are to live as examples of holiness so the light they receive can enlighten or convict others, while neglected or rejected light becomes a witness against them.
Coming to the light means yielding to the light and evidence God sends, submitting to God and repenting, and those who submit are pardoned. Wrath and being cut off from salvation come not merely because of sin already committed, even putting to death the Son of God, but because men choose continued resistance, persistently reject light, stifle convictions of the Holy Spirit, repeat past sins despite light and evidence, and determine continually to be opposed to God. They could yield but will not, and every day of refusal renews rebellion, makes obstinacy more determined, intensifies malignity with each successive act of resistance, arms the sinner with the attributes of Satan, ruins the soul, and at last places him where he knows nothing but resistance. Turning away from the light after conviction by the Spirit of truth leads into darkness and can degrade moral sense until even grave sins seem trivial. Herod had nearly become John's disciple but rejected the truth and ultimately killed a prophet he knew was true.
Error is more in accordance with the carnal heart than truth, so men at ease take error for granted as clear and love error and darkness and refuse to come lest deeds be reproved. In their darkened state they settle that error is truth because they cannot see where truth had the advantage. By contrast those who cherish iniquity turn away and their spiritual vision becomes dark and untrustworthy. Resisting light from God and treating it as darkness or fanaticism prevents discerning it. Receiving the message and the spirit of truth, marked by God's mercy, justice, and love, keeps from calling the Holy Spirit's work fanaticism and error.
Resisting or despising that light deepens darkness in proportion to unbelief. Refusing to heed the light leads away into darkness and deception. Those unwilling to come remain open to unbelief, while responding to the light God gives is evidence of being on His side. Those who love the light come so deeds can be exposed, while those who refuse avoid reproval and choose their own way instead of God's, and rejecting the light expresses that choice. Refusing light and knowledge is the opposite response in which people may reject blessings and truth they need even when eternal interests are at stake. Turning from truth and righteousness to falsehood is choosing darkness instead of that light.
Repentance and Obedience
Light is for the sinner if he will come, and coming means humble, thorough repentance, dying to self and being crucified to self, and letting the life show that truth has accomplished a good work by a consistent life and godly conversation that honors the cause of truth. Not coming is loving darkness rather than light, with sensibilities benumbed and blunted by sin and wrong, conscience seared, and sacred things dragged down to a level with common things, leaving character spotted over with imperfections, sin, and corruptions and found wanting in the day of God. Coming to Christ's light exposes the true character of deeds, revealing selfish and impure motives and showing the sinner the need for cleansing and a renewed heart from Christ. Receiving light brings wrongdoing to view and calls the sinner to repentance, while rejecting truth and preferring darkness leaves sin hidden.
Taking a firm stand for what is right and pressing earnestly toward the light expresses doing truth, and repentance begotten by the Holy Spirit enables this change and brings glory to God. Coming requires beginning repentance with making wrongs right, breaking the heart before God, confessing and forsaking what separates from God, being cleansed from defilement of sin, changing the whole disobedient course entirely, and leaving no work of restitution undone in the crisis, including making wrongs right with a mother. Coming thoroughly out of darkness means direct, complete confession of wrong feelings and wrong spirit when God moves on the heart and sets truth and light before a person, listening to the truth God gives and making clean work. Those who refuse to confess do not become free but will be brought over the same ground again when circumstances arise and will reveal the same spirit, and wrongs left unrepented may be repeated. Such refusal exposes a proud spirit rather than work wrought in God.
Doing truth when the Spirit convicts means acknowledging wrong when false statements are exposed, opening the door of the heart to Christ, and yielding instead of bracing against the truth. Refusing is fighting the Spirit inch by inch, holding secret self-deception, and trying more vehemently to make self and others believe a wrong course is justified, yet deeds done against the light are still made manifest, for words spoken in public are written in God's book. Coming includes acknowledging error and correcting mistakes, showing willingness to stand on the side of truth and righteousness. Coming includes accepting reproof and allowing life to be seen as God sees it. The light of God's Word, including its reproofs and warnings, exposes wrong and is meant to bring the whole person to sanctification, while those who refuse make excuses and criticize message or messenger to conceal faults and avoid repentance.
Coming to the light means facing reproof, setting wrongs right, and bearing fruit in a life made righteous by Christ, welcoming exposure and reproof rather than choosing darkness. Doing truth means bringing the soul up to the light, which is the standard of God's Word, to be tried at last by what God does say and not by what is imagined He ought to say, listening to His words through His delegated servants and obeying counsels given and yielding one's own way and preconceived opinions. It means desiring truth in the inward parts, which requires purity of heart in order to see God, with self dying and the heart broken by falling upon the rock and receiving the engrafted Word to gain real victory and liberty and peace of mind against the assaults of the enemy. Coming means approaching Scripture humbly and honestly, willing to investigate evidence and accept truth rather than resisting it or criticizing it from a distance, and receiving and acknowledging the light God gives and walking in it.
Doing truth means coming to allow life to be examined, including searching motives, temper, words, and conduct and comparing them with Christ's example and God's law, and a profession of belief without a life showing its sanctifying influence does not show this willingness. It means closely investigating motives and feelings by the Word and cleansing the soul temple from envy, mistrust, and selfishness, putting trust in God instead of depending on others' approbation in bondage, working away from selfishness with an eye single to God's glory, and hanging the helpless soul upon Him. Standing aloof from meetings and taking no part shows a person is not right with God and something is wrong, and cherishing feelings like those of Cain is opposed to deeds wrought in God and is dangerous and ruinous unless earnest effort is made to work away from that spirit. Coming means hearing Christ's voice, humbling the heart before God, and receiving the Holy Spirit when Christ is present with plain evidence and life-giving power and mercy sufficient to convince. It means accepting the robe of Christ's righteousness instead of one's own dress, honoring truth and glorifying God.
Turning from the light instead is turning a deaf ear to the Saviour, refusing to hear and humble the heart, refusing the robe and the Spirit because of unwillingness, cultivating unbelief and strengthening resistance until the heart grows hard and unimpressible, standing disloyal to truth in opposition to Christ. Doing truth means living in keeping with the light received, and neglecting light and opportunities leaves people in darkness, while profession without matching works is vain pretense, though penitent sinners who turn to God are accepted and hypocrisy is condemned. Those who have received light should walk in it, as Christ is in the light, and the chapter also calls people to be born again and to humble themselves before God. Doing truth means responding to God's light with a life shaped by truth, and those who hear the message but close their hearts are not doers of the truth. Hearing solemn preaching does not profit when not received with faith, leaving them spiritually dead.
People whose hearts the Spirit is moving can be helped to come. Coming is a privilege and duty that helps discern spiritual things, requiring the holy influences God gives and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, apart from which they are not safe, and separation from those holy influences prevents discernment of spiritual things. People who know the truth but choose harmful practices choose darkness rather than light, and their knowledge makes them accountable for consequences of violating natural and moral laws. Living according to the light means acting on what one knows rather than excusing wrongdoing because it is popular or inconvenient. God sends light to reveal true condition and, through warnings and admonitions, gives opportunity to respond and show whether people truly desire to do His will.
One person's failure illustrates the danger: not knowing how to come to the light, kept by companions' praise and attention blind to need of Christ with affections turned from God, a deception that could prove fatal if continued, so that hours before death should be used to prepare the heart to meet the Saviour at the resurrection.
Witness in Life Work
He that does truth comes to the light so that deeds are made manifest as wrought in God, and this exposes professed believers joined together in church capacity among whom not all have the truth and not all are obedient to all the commandments and many are backsliders. Against loving darkness rather than light and hating the light lest evil deeds be reproved, which remains condemnation, coming to the light belongs to following on to know the Lord step by step. By so following, the intensity of His love for every soul is discerned, and as He leads increased light is given.
Magnifying human imperfections, commenting on them, and despising and condemning brethren who have them is forbidden, and instead the example of Christ is to be followed in seeking to save their souls. Christ as the embodiment of purity came to a world marred with the curse and filled with deformity and impurity not to condemn it but to heal human imperfections and to seek and save the lost. The love toward fellow creatures enjoined in the last six commandments requires the same restoring and saving work rather than condemning. Life is a manifestation of God's love and a costly talent committed to care in light of the sacrifice of the Son, expressing God's ownership by creation and doubly by redemption. God is Creator and Source of all life and Author of the higher life He desires for beings formed in His image, and man is the highest and noblest creature made in the image of God for His glory.
A godly life and holy conduct publicly testify against sin and show that professed truth is real. Unselfish conduct reflects Christ's character and gives unbelievers no cause to reproach the truth professed. Christian character and actions reveal this to others, for sincere zeal and conduct shaped by God give unbelievers a sense of peace they do not know and show that the work is for God. The faithful by obeying truth expose the contrast between righteousness and sin and between truth and error, and their conduct continually reproves those who refuse to obey. Deeds reveal whether a person lives in the light and whether works are done in God, so love existing only in words together with selfish and unrighteous actions marks a life not transformed by renewing grace, while those who live in Christ bear active, fruitful lives that glorify God, turn from wrongdoing, and grow in holiness.
The contrast applies to people who accept the light of God's truth and refuse to let prejudice or doubt turn them from it. Those who refuse the light because they do not want their darkness and error exposed and removed, including people who oppose the truth, show they do not love the light. Truth is to be lived and to be proclaimed amid evil as well as good report, representing an abiding Christ before people in wisdom and tenderness and love. The Word is to be presented unmixed with human impetuosity but with earnestness, with the authority that truth gives, with meekness yet with assurance and power, in demonstration of the Spirit, without marring and dishonoring truth by weaving in one's own spirit and sharp manner of speech. Deeds done in God are made known as God's work, for God works in and through people who wholly follow Him so that it is clear He is accomplishing the work.
Living according to His word and obeying Him are necessary for His promises to reach fulfillment, and when people fall short of obedience those promises remain beyond reach. Deeds done in God come from a life wholly following Him so that God is working in and through the person, connecting God's honor with faithful service and obedience, with the Lord as source receiving the glory and as present help in every time of need when deeds meet the high standard of the Bible and the claims of God. Deeds must be wrought in God and not produced by unaided human effort alone. A minister who has not reached perfection of character but earnestly seeks to become like Christ can have Christ with him, yet must pray and seek the Lord's presence because work cannot stand on imperfect efforts alone, and without that divine help cannot faithfully stand before the people, while those who rely only on their own efforts are miserable.
Such a minister seeks the Lord's presence in prayer knowing he cannot rightly stand without it, with words, conduct, and spirit observed by heaven. When a teacher's work is wrought in God it will have lasting effect even when it seems to have little effect on many minds and hearts, for some lessons of divine truth will linger in memory even of the most careless, and the Holy Spirit will water the sown seed so it springs up after many days and bears fruit to God's glory. Work truly done in God has its source in God and endures with power and permanency, while work not wrought in God comes to nothing when religious excitement passes. It is not driven by impulse, impression, excitement, or extravagant demonstration but by steady progress and perfection of grace in the heart under the Holy Spirit. It is learned in humility and meekness from Christ, brings the heart into sweet harmony with God's will, exalts rather than degrades before the world, does not make people coarse, rough, or unteachable, is not flashy or self-sufficient but enduring, healthful, wholesome, pure, and ennobling, showing the mind of Christ in home life and dealings with others, with grace and truth reigning in the heart to inspire and purify motives and control outward actions.
It requires thorough transformation in character and works and true inward heart-work, putting sin away instead of indulging it and smoothing over wrongs and coming to knowledge of the truth. Those with defective character who keep sin, refuse that inward change, and will not bear the test and exposure of the light drift into Satan's deceptions and hold back God's blessing, and their works are not wrought in God, with hope only in confessing and forsaking sins and with full purpose of heart turning to God. Work not done in God will fail when tested, while work God is doing stands, and opposing such work risks placing oneself in opposition to God. One life describes work wrought in God as the active, Spirit-filled life linked with the Eternal, with message and work forming an enduring influence. Accepting Christ is light, peace, and joy, while rejecting Him closes the heart to heavenly illumination and welcomes darkness and despair.
The verse calls parents to examine whether conduct and obedience are grounded in God, including when administering discipline to children whether they themselves obey God's commandments. It calls leaders in institutions to show work wrought in God by being workmen who need not be ashamed, with words and works untainted by earthliness and sensualism. It lays on them the solemn responsibility of giving youth a worthy example corresponding to positions of trust and holy profession, because they are sowing seeds that will blossom and bear fruit. It requires putting away all coarseness and trifling as fruit borne on a corrupt tree, recognizing that as educators their lessons to believers and unbelievers in words and actions will be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.