DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL
OF JOHN
THE LIGHT
John 3:18-20
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into
the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were
evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the
light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
NIV
We can
certainly see this is a choice of each and every person. This verse is one of
those which indicate that man has the choice to hate the light because they choose
to do evil deeds, which are much better done in the darkness. Now Jesus is not
talking about day and night, but in the light of his truth, or in the darkness
of denying his truth. It seems obvious to us believers that those who refuse to
believe do so because they are fully aware of the truth of God and simply do
not want anything to do with it because they prefer to serve their own passions.
It would seem that they think if they say they do not believe in Jesus, then
his light has no bearing on their lives and they can live however they want. In
fact they know full well they lives are not right in the eyes of God and will
not allow the light of Jesus into their lives because they fear the kind of
life they are living will be exposed, not to others, but to themselves. How can
people love the darkness, shutting out the light of Jesus? It has to be a cold and
lonely life, without true love, hope, and peace. It is a wonderful feeling to
know the light, to live in the light of Jesus, having the Spirit reveal areas
of our lives that need attention, knowing that God teaches us because he loves
us and desires for us to have the fullness of life, experiencing true love,
real hope and exceptional peace. But some would rather live in the misery of their
own lives, trying their best to hide from the light in the darkness of their own
closed minds. God has declared this as a verdict, not an indictment, He has
declared it as the truth because he knows the hearts of men, he knows their closed
mindedness to his truth, he knows their love of self and their hatred of having
to accept the truth. Still this does not reveal us from the responsibility of
sharing that light with as many people as we can in hopes that some will be as
we were, inspired by the Spirit to open their lives to the light of Jesus.
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