Verse 18
He that believeth - As stated before on [Joh 3:16].
Is not condemned - For past sin, that being forgiven on his believing in Christ.
But he that believeth not - When the Gospel is preached to him, and the way of salvation made plain.
Is condemned already - Continues under the condemnation which Divine justice has passed upon all sinners; and has this superadded, He hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God, and therefore is guilty of the grossest insult to the Divine majesty, in neglecting, slighting, and despising the salvation which the infinite mercy of God had provided for him.
Verse 19
This is the condemnation - That is, this is the reason why any shall be found finally to perish, not that they came into the world with a perverted and corrupt nature, which is true; nor that they lived many years in the practice of sin, which is also true; but because they refused to receive the salvation which God sent to them.
Light is come - That is, Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, the fountain of light and life; diffusing his benign influences every where, and favoring men with a clear and full revelation of the Divine will.
Men loved darkness - Have preferred sin to holiness, Belial to Christ, and hell to heaven. חשך chashac, darkness, is frequently used by the Jewish writers for the angel of death, and for the devil. See many examples in Schoettgen.
Because their deeds were evil - An allusion to robbers and cut-throats, who practice their abominations in the night season, for fear of being detected. The sun is a common blessing to the human race - it shines to all, envies none, and calls all to necessary labor. If any one choose rather to sleep by day, that he may rob and murder in the night season, he does this to his own peril, and has no excuse: - his punishment is the necessary consequence of his own unconstrained actions. So will the punishment of ungodly men be. There was light - they refused to walk in it. They chose to walk in the darkness, that they might do the works of darkness - they broke the Divine law, refused the mercy offered to them, are arrested by Divine justice, convicted, condemned, and punished. Whence, then, does their damnation proceed? From Themselves.
Verse 20
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light - He who doth vile or abominable things: alluding to the subject mentioned in the preceding verse.
The word φαυλος, evil or vile, is supposed by some to come from the Hebrew פלס phalas, to roll, and so cover oneself in dust or ashes, which was practised in token of humiliation and grief, not only by the more eastern nations, see [Job 42:6], but also by the Greeks and Trojans, as appears from Homer, Iliad xviii. l. 26; xxii. l. 414; xxiv. l. 640; compare Virgil, Aen. x. l. 844; and Ovid, Metam. lib. viii. l. 528. From the above Hebrew word, it is likely that the Saxon ful, the English foul, the Latin vilis, and the English vile, are derived. See Parkhurst under φαυλος.
Lest his deeds should be reproved - Or discovered. To manifest or discover, is one sense of the original word, ελεγχω, in the best Greek writers; and it is evidently its meaning in this place.
Verse 21
Wrought in God - In his presence, and through his assistance. This is the end of our Lord's discourse to Nicodemus; and though we are not informed here of any good effects produced by it, yet we learn from other scriptures that it had produced the most blessed effects in his mind, and that from this time he became a disciple of Christ. He publicly defended our Lord in the Sanhedrin, of which he was probably a member, [Joh 7:50], and, with Joseph of Arimathea, gave him an honorable funeral, [Joh 19:39], when all his bosom friends had deserted him. See Dodd.
Verse 22
Came - into the land of Judea - Jerusalem itself, where Christ held the preceding discourse with Nicodemus, was in Judea; but the evangelist means that our Lord quitted the city and its suburbs, and went into the country parts. The same distinction between Jerusalem and Judea is made, [Act 1:8]; [Act 10:39]; and in 1 Maccabees 3:34; and in 2 Maccabees 1:1, 10. See Bp. Pearce.
And baptized - It is not clear that Christ did baptize any with water, but his disciples did - [Joh 4:2]; and what they did, by his authority and command, is attributed to himself. It is a common custom, in all countries and in all languages, to attribute the operations of those who are under the government and direction of another to him by whom they are directed and governed. Some however suppose that Christ at first did baptize; but, when he got disciples, he left this work to them: and thus these two places are to be understood: -
1. this place, of Christ's baptizing before he called the twelve disciples; and
2. [Joh 4:2], of the baptism administered by the disciples, after they had been called to the work by Christ.
Verse 23
In Aenon - This place was eight miles southward from Scythopolis, between Salim and Jordan.
There was much water - And this was equally necessary, where such multitudes were baptized, whether the ceremony were performed either by dipping or sprinkling. But as the Jewish custom required the persons to stand in the water, and, having been instructed, and entered into a covenant to renounce all idolatry, and take the God of Israel for their God, then plunge themselves under the water, it is probable that the rite was thus performed at Aenon. The consideration that they dipped themselves, tends to remove the difficulty expressed in the note on [Mat 3:6]. See the observations at the end of Mark.
Verse 25
John's disciples and the Jews - Instead of Ιουδαιων, Jews, ABELS. M. BV, nearly 100 others, some versions and fathers, read Ιουδαιου, a Jew, which Griesbach has admitted into the text. The person here spoken of was probably one who had been baptized by the disciples of our Lord; and the subject of debate seems to have been, whether the baptism of John, or that of Christ, was the most efficacious towards purifying.
Verse 26
And they came unto John - That he might decide the question.
Verse 27
A man can receive nothing, etc. - Or, A man can receive nothing from heaven, unless it be given him. I have received, not only my commission, but the power also by which I have executed it, from above. As I took it up at God's command, so I am ready to lay it down when he pleases. I have told you from the beginning that I was only the forerunner of the Messiah, and was sent, not to form a separate party, but to point out to men that Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world: [Joh 3:28].
Verse 29
He that hath the bride - The congregation of believers.
Is the bridegroom - The Lord Jesus - the Head of the Church. See [Mat 22:2], etc., where the parable of the marriage feast is explained.
The friend of the bridegroom - The person whom the Greeks called the paranymph - there were two at each wedding: one waited on the bride, the other on the bridegroom: their business was to serve them, to inspect the concerns of the bridechamber, and afterwards to reconcile differences between husband and wife, when any took place. John considers himself as standing in this relation to the Lord Jesus, while espousing human nature, and converting souls to himself: this is the meaning of standeth by, i.e. ready to serve. See the observations at the end of the chapter.
Verse 30
He must increase - His present success is but the beginning of a most glorious and universal spread of righteousness, peace, truth, and good will among men.
I must decrease - My baptism and teaching, as pointing out the coming Messiah, must cease; because the Messiah is now come, and has entered publicly on the work of his glorious ministry.
Verse 31
Is above all - This blessed bridegroom, who has descended from heaven, [Joh 3:13], is above all, superior to Moses, the prophets, and me.
He that is of the earth - John himself, who was born in the common way of man.
Speaketh of the earth - Cannot speak of heavenly things as Christ can do; and only represents Divine matters by these earthly ordinances; for the spirit and meaning of which, you must all go to the Messiah himself.
Verse 32
And no man receiveth his testimony - Or, And this his testimony no man taketh up. That is, the testimony which John had borne to the Jews, that Jesus was the promised Messiah. No man taketh up. - No person is found to tread in my steps, and to publish to the Jews that this is the Christ, the Savior of the world. See this sense of the original fully proved and vindicated by Kypke in loc.
Verse 33
Hath set to his seal - That is hath hereby confirmed the truth of the testimony which he has borne; as a testator sets his seal to an instrument in order to confirm it, and such instrument is considered as fully confirmed by having the testator's seal affixed to it, so I, by taking up this testimony of Christ, and proclaiming it to the Jews, have fully confirmed it, as I know it to be a truth; which knowledge I have from the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit. See [Joh 1:33], [Joh 1:34].