There is a difference between expressing agapao (men loved the darkness, v19) and possessing agape (you do not have the love [agape] of God in you, Jn 5:42b) as genuine believers do (Rom 5:5). Apparently, unbelievers can express supreme love as in Jn 3:19, but in order for the lost to possess agape love within the heart (Rom 5:5), salvation must first be experienced; or, you must be born again (Jn 3:3), transforming their darkness (Eph 4:18) into light (Jn 8:12; Eph 5:8; Col 1:13; 1 Pet 2:9). Consider that the devil transforms himself into an angel of light to deceive (2 Cor 11:14), but we know that he is devoid of light for he is the prince of darkness. That ruse is malevolent, deceptive, and creepy.
Extant
secular records of agape or agapao are scant,
but the Holy Spirit during inspiration selected these words
out of koine Greek to be not only descriptive of Divine love (agape),
but also to describe the intensity of an unbeliever’s love for the darkness (agapao).
This spiritual warfare of light and darkness is powerfully divisive and
combative, the clashing of two supreme loves, one’s love and loyalty for the
light and one’s love and loyalty for the darkness; it is good versus evil, two
different worldviews colliding at every turn, et al.
The
various shades of meaning of agapao and agape are
rich and have many nuances to glean from the context of their appearances in the
NT (agapao, NKJV (109x) and agape, NKJV (106x). The one that
captures, at least in my mind, the best meaning of agape/agapao
is a sacrificial love that would cause one to offer up his or her very life for
another (cf. Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 3:16). There is no greater love than this,
Greater love [agape] has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (Jn 15:13).
As
I said earlier, the noun form (agape) is never used for the lost (those
without the Holy Spirit). Whenever the verb form (agapao) is used in
connection with unbelievers, it is never directed toward God or believers but
the darkness (Jn 3:19). There are rare exceptions to that as in the giving of
one’s life for another. If there wasn’t a distinction between natural love and
supernatural love, Rom 5:5 would be meaningless.
The
world can mirror action but not possession. When you express something you do
not have, it is an imitation or worse, hypocrisy, but here the verb agapao
reveals not hypocrisy by the lost man but an unnerving intensity of an
unbeliever’s passion for the darkness!
Another thing I might note on this for your consideration is that contextually when agapao is used of God or believers it is referring to a supernatural
love. Whenever it is used with unbelievers, it remains in the realm of natural
love because this passion by the lost is not connected with the Holy Spirit
(cf. Rom 5:5). I trust this will help add further distinction between agapao
usage by the lost and by the saved.
Loved
in v19 is
the same TVM as loved in v16: (tense): aorist, (voice): active, (mood):
indicative. Since man is finite and has a beginning, it is readily apparent
that the tense of the verb in v19 cannot possibly share the same quality as the
aorist in v16 in their respective contexts. The parlance would be that of
comparing apples to oranges: God so loved (agapao) the world versus men
loved (agapao) the darkness (NASB).
For everyone
practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed, v20.
This
condemnation not only does not love the light (v19), it hates the light and
refuses to come to the light for fear that the deeds (practicing evil) will be
exposed. The darkness hated Jesus exposing their sins. The world is not happy
when believers call sin for what it is, sin. I like MacArthur’s analogy of
exposing sinfulness by placing a crooked stick beside a straight stick. As the
God-Man, His holiness revealed the true nature of man as unholy or sinful.
Again, the world doesn’t like straight sticks!
But he who
does [practices] the truth comes to the
light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God, v21.
This
condemnation not only loves darkness over light; hates the light and refuses to
come to the light for fear of the deeds being revealed to be evil; but men of
darkness have something to hide in order to prevent exposing the true nature of
their actions because they are not practicing the truth but evil.
Those
practicing the truth, however, are out in the open for all to see that they
have been done in God. Those who practice evil avoid the light; those practicing the truth are drawn to the light. Obviously, the light here is a metaphor
for Jesus. John is returning to the metaphors of light and darkness of chapter 1 (light, 1:4-5, 7-9; darkness, Jn 1:5) and delivering these
distinctions.
Vs
19-20 identifies that condemnation. V21 is one of those verses that illustrates a truth by
presenting a contrast to amplify understanding. In other words, sometimes it is
helpful to see what something is by what it is not. So, v21 is included in the
conversation of identifying this is the condemnation. If we summarize in one word this is the
condemnation,
it would be this, unbelief, and we can see that unbelief is being exposed by its
reaction to the light as seen in vs 19-21 and belief’s interaction with the
light (v21).
We
live and give out the Word to the best of our ability, ideally empowered by the
Holy Spirit, but this sin of unbelief is between the individual and Yahweh. We
are responsible to share the Gospel, but it still remains a personal decision. The
difference between whoever willingly refuses to believe in Him will perish and
whoever willingly believes in Him will have everlasting life is as clearly
delineated as darkness versus light, as evil versus good, yes?
As
we make our way down the backside of the Summit of St John 3:16, we discovered
another path of agapao; didn’t we! At the higher elevation, we had
seen agapao graciously seeking the highest good for another and giving
the best that it has, even at great personal sacrifice (v16). What is the
highest good? To be like Christ. In the lower elevation (v19), we saw the evil
one commandeering the passion of agapao for purely selfish reasons for
that which is unholy, to be anything but like Christ.
With
this trek up the Summit and down the other side, we saw the sin of unbelief for
what it is, not some intellectual, innocuous opinion of academia but a
worldview that is evil, defiant, and hates the light and anyone or anything
associated with the light. We sense that peace that passes all understanding on
top of the Mount, yes, but biblical peace never means the absence of conflict
for as we made our descent we were reminded that we are engaged in a great
spiritual warfare that spans the globe, but even in the valley of the shadow of
death, as believers, we can have that peace that passes all understanding as on
top of the Summit of St John 3:16.
Everything
that you can imagine (or don’t want to imagine) of the darkness is below the
Summit. As much as we would prefer to remain on this towering Summit of truth,
we have to reengage with the world of darkness as a light set upon a hill, to
walk in the light as He is in the light. David learned throughout his life that
there was peace in His presence, For You are with me (Psa 23:4). To the
Summit we came and went and are returning to a world of darkness as luminaries
for the Lord. We can either take this all at face value, allegorize it to
death, or reject it; those are our choices.
This
love for the darkness is “what ruins souls” (Matthew Henry). Condemnation is
that men will not come to the light due to unbelief primarily. Jesus said when
the Holy Spirit comes,
He
will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin,
because they do not believe in Me (Jn 16:8-9, emphasis mine).
Oh,
the lost “prefer their darkness to God’s light because of what the darkness
hides, namely, their sin” (Constable). Would the least of all the sins in the
world be worth missing heaven for? To those in darkness, the answer is yes.
That is a staggering truth that leaves me dumbfounded (cf. Mt 23:37; Ezek 33:11)!
But then again, we are talking about spiritual blindness and a love (agapao)
for the darkness that it is not surprising.
The verb in the phrase hates the light (v20) by
those practicing evil is ongoing and points to a negative intensity that
cannot even tolerate the light but must rid itself of it (cf. Mk 3:6). Keep
this in mind; they hated Jesus without a cause, and all who desire to live godly in
Christ Jesus will be hated without a cause, too (cf. 2 Tim 3:12)! The opposites
of attractions are evident; unbelievers are attracted to the darkness (v20),
but the
followers of Christ are drawn to the light (v21).
With
v22, we have finally left the Summit and concluded our little expedition in
John 3:1-21, After
these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea…. <><
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44.png){kind=small}
%20sunflower%20makeover%2045x63.png){kind=small}
