Coming to the Light

John 3:16-21

It was one of those moments which most parents know well: the child was quiet and that meant that nothing good was happening. My sister-in-law searched the house, and she came to the bathroom. The door was closed and locked. She knocked. “I’m in here.” “What are you doing?” my sister-in-law asked. “I’m using the bathroom.” A little suspiciously, my sister-in-law asked a follow-up question, “Where is the cat?” “He’s in here with me.” My sister-in-law paused. “What are you doing?” she asked again. Silence. “I’m painting the cat.” By the time my sister-in-law got the door open, my niece had painted the cat and the toilet and the wall with blue fingernail polish.
Why did my niece go to the bathroom and lock herself in to paint the cat? If it was such a good and fun idea, why not do it in the living room where everybody else was? Why not just ask her mom’s permission? The answer, of course, is that she was doing something which she knew that she should not do, so she sought to do it some place where she would not be caught or stopped. She wanted to do it somewhere away from prying eyes and intervening moms. Essentially, she illustrated the truth of Jesus’ words from John: “And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (3:19). The darkness allows concealment, it allows evil deeds to be done in secret. That is why so many crimes and illicit activities happen at night.
This teaching probably is common knowledge for us, which is why I was struck more by the conclusion of this section. Jesus says, “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (3:21). This is not quite what we would expect Jesus to say in this moment. The counter-position would be that people who do what is true have no need to hide—they just do their true deeds wherever and whenever. Instead, Jesus explicitly says that they come to the light. What Jesus describes is more akin to the child who made something at school for their parents and wants to show it to them. They bring it out so that their work may be seen, so that their parents may find joy in it. It is not a work meant to be concealed.
Finally, though, the last phrase is important: “…his works have been carried out in God.” The reason for showing off these true deeds is to show that they have been done in God. To put it another way, “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). The deeds are brought forward because we want the praise and glory to go to God. Like the child showing off their work, we also show off our work, but not for our own glory. We display our steadfastness in God, that we are attached to him, that we “walk in the light as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7); and so those who look on us know the God whom we serve and that our deeds are worthy of his name. It is a slightly different mindset, but one which I think that we ought to have as we live as Christians. Bring your good deeds out into the light so that God may be praised and that the world may know what is good. -TL

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