For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Parallel translations
- WEB For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
- BSB Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
- NKJV For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
- NASB For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.
- NLT All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Everyone who practices evil hates the light and avoids it, fearing exposure. Sin instinctively shrinks from the truth.
Overview
Jesus diagnoses why people resist him: the light of his presence and truth threatens to uncover their wrongdoing. This hatred of the light is the natural posture of the unregenerate heart. The verse reinforces that conversion requires more than information; it requires God to give a new love for the truth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Eph 5:11–13And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
- Job 24:13–17They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
- Prov 1:29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
- Prov 4:18But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
- Jas 1:23–25For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
- 1 Kgs 22:8And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
- Ps 50:17Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee.
- Prov 5:12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
- Amos 5:10–11They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
- Prov 15:12A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.
- Luke 11:45Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 3:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.