The Absurdity of Wickedness

John 3:19 “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

There’s a line in John 3 that I’ve always found jarring. In John 3:19, we’re told that “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” In fact, the wicked person “hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (3:20).

Think of it: people love the darkness and hate the light. The very opposite should be true. But in a fallen world, we can observe tragic things that we wish didn’t happen. One such tragic thing is the hating of what should be loved and the loving of what should be hated.

When Jesus teaches that “the light has come into the world” (John 3:19), the reader of John’s Gospel has seen this kind of language before. In John 1:4, Jesus was “the light of men,” in 1:5 this “light shines in the darkness,” and in 1:9 the “true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), and by his incarnation he has come into the world, shining in the darkness with the glory of his person, his teachings, and his mission. This backdrop informs what Jesus teaches in John 3. A major manifestation of people hating the light and loving the darkness is their rejection of Jesus. They don’t just resist some kind of nebulous notion of “light.” They resist the Savior. They don’t just love some ambiguous idea of “darkness.” They cling to wickedness and to their rebellion against God’s Anointed One.

“Love” and “hate” are binary verbs that involve the reality of affections in the heart. And because we read (in John 3:19–20) that people love what they should hate and hate what they should love, we can see that, apart from the merciful work of Christ in us, sin has distorted our affections, our “loves,” our allegiances.

Jesus gives a reason why “people loved the darkness.” He says it’s “because their works were evil” (John 3:19). They preferred the realm that corresponded to their actions and decisions. The wicked man “does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (3:20). This rebel loves the darkness not only because it corresponds to his actions (which are evil) but also because it provides a kind of cover for his deeds. Darkness covers, yet light uncovers. Light is penetrating and revealing. (The Absurdity of Wickedness)

Light and darkness are the realms of righteousness and wickedness, obedience and disobedience, life and death, blessing and curse, Christ and anti-Christ. To love the darkness means to love the way that leads to death. And to love the light means to love the way that leads to life—and that Way is Christ himself. He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

The language of light and darkness is part of how Paul conceives of our conversion. When Christ saves sinners, he delivers them from the realm of spiritual death, and that realm is the domain where wickedness was cherished by the spiritually blind who wanted their deeds concealed. Paul says that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13).

We did not muster our own way from darkness to light. We did not grope through the darkness until we found our way. God sought us. God delivered us and transferred us. As believers in Christ, we now love the light. And the reason we love what we should love is due to the sovereign mercy of God, who has given us the light of life in his Son.

Mitch Chase /

Bibical Theology - Substack

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