choosing darkness

One of the saddest verses in the Bible comes in John 3, right after the story of Jesus teaching Nicodemus that if he wants true life he’ll have to be born again. Jesus goes on to explain God’s purpose in sending him to earth; this is one of the first times when Jesus pulls the curtain back a little bit on God’s master plan.

But that sad verse is this one, John 3:19: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

It’s our nature to love the darkness. It seems crazy when there’s life in the light, but in the darkness we can do what we want and no one will see. The darkness is a comfortable place for sinners.

This passage comes just a few verses after maybe the most famous passage in all the Bible, John 3:16. That verse, and the two in between, read like this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

God loved the whole world, sinners included. God sent his son because of that great love – that’s why we just celebrated Easter. God did it to save us, and all we have to do is believe in the name of Jesus.

So all those darkness lovers are self-condemned, not God-condemned. They love the darkness when they could love the light.

I have to be careful to judge, because I still have my secrets too. I still have those times when I’m drawn to a dark corner to do a thing I know I shouldn’t. But by the grace of God, that happens less and less. I’m becoming a person who lives with all the drapes and blinds pulled back. Both literally and figuratively, I’m a lover of the light. Praise God! And may he use me to help others become the same.