John 3.17-21.
God will judge the world at the end of time. Rv 20.11-15 But too many Christians have the false belief, and wanna have the false belief, and promote the false belief, that God is judging the world right now. Because they’re judging the world right now. It’s pure projection.
In contrast, Jesus says multiple times he isn’t here to judge the world, but save it. True of his first coming; true of his second. He’s coming back to save the world again; not by defeating sin and death again, but by personally leading all his followers (well, the ones who aren’t secretly hypocrites) to actually love our neighbors, make peace, and legitimately fix the world’s problems instead of sitting around waiting for him to do something. You know, do what he’s always taught us to do.
But since it’s way easier to just condemn the world and wash our hands of it, we usually do that. And adopt any beliefs which tell us Jesus thinks exactly like we do—that when he returns, he’s gonna burn the world down, kill all the wicked, and set up a New Jerusalem with only them in it. It’s a graceless, and therefore sick ’n twisted ’n totally unlike Jesus, version of things. It’s not good news; it’s evil.
In Jesus’s discourse with Nicodemus, he once again says it: His mission is to save the world. For God so loved the world that he saves those who trust him. Jn 3.16 And for those who don’t really trust him—including all the Christians who preach their own sick ’n twisted “gospel” instead of what Jesus actually teaches, because they don’t trust Jesus enough to actually care what he teaches—Jesus doesn’t have to judge them. Their actions pretty much do that for him.
Back to the discourse:
- John 3.17-21 KWL
- 17 “For God doesn’t send his Son into the world
- to judge the world,
- but so that, through him, he might save the world.
- 18 One who trusts the Son is not judged.
- One who doesn’t trust him, was already judged—
- because they didn’t trust the name
- of the only begotten Son of God.
- 19 This is the judgment:
- The light came into the world.
- People love the darkness more than the light,
- for their works are evil.
- 20 Everyone who dabbles in meaningless stuff
- hates the light,
- and doesn’t come to the light
- lest their works be rebuked.
- 21 One who does the truth
- comes to the light,
- so their works might be made known
- because they were a labor done in God.”
Now this passage tends to confuse certain Christians—and certain pagans love to play dumb and deliberately let it confuse them—because in verse 17, Jesus says he’s not here to judge the world. (Or condemn the world; κρίνῃ/kríni, “he might critique,” can be translated either way.) Yet even though he says he’s not judging the world… verse 18 sure does make it look like he’s judging people who don’t trust him, and verses 19-21 sure do make it look like he’s judging people who embrace darkness instead of light.
But lemme point out the verb tenses here. Jesus isn’t here to (present-tense subjunctive) judge the world; but one who doesn’t trust the Son of God (perfect passive) was already condemned, at some point in the past. It’s the difference between a defendant on trial, and a convicted felon: One has yet to be judged, and the other’s been judged. And Jesus isn’t involved in either dude’s judgment. He’s actually here to save them both: If the convict wants parole, turn to Jesus! And if the defendant wants the verdict set aside, turn to Jesus!
So how do we know who’s a convict and who’s not? Simple. Jesus is the world’s light. If they’re not a convict, they’re happy to be in the light; it proves God is living and active in their lives. Jn 3.21 And if they are a convict, it’s just the opposite; they stick to the shadows, so they can hide their hypocrisy and disguise it as Christianity.
Dark people and dark Christians.
I talk about dark Christians and dark Christianity from time to time. I didn’t coin that term; I actually first heard it from a pagan. He wasn’t Christian himself, but he knew enough about Christianity and Jesus to recognize there’s a profound difference between what Jesus teaches, and what certain twisted Christians teach.
And yeah, there’s a ton of darkness in those twisted Christians. They hide from the light an awful lot. Not just because of hypocrisy; not just because they’re sinning but trying to convince their followers they’re good, perfect people. Some of ’em have big plans to make a lot of money off Christians, but not let us know that’s what they’re really about. Some of ’em seek political power, and are just fine with cheating the voters, undermining democracy, and bearing false witness against their opponents, so they can get it. Some of ’em regularly break the law—not because those laws are immoral, but because they have no respect for law, nor their neighbors who want these laws; yet somehow think they’re still good people.
All these people are just as much in the dark as any wayward pagan, or any deliberate evildoer.
You think Jesus wants to save them? Of course he does! The fact Jesus was saying all this stuff to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, was because Jesus wanted to save Pharisees. He wants to save everybody he can, 2Pe 3.9 including people who are currently in the dark. He regularly ate with sinners so he could fish ’em out of the dark. We Christians need to interact with sinners for the same reason; not hide ourselves in Christian enclaves, as if the Spirit within us isn’t mightier than anything in the world. 1Jn 4.4
Convicts and determinism.
A number of determinists, who believe everything in the universe has been fixed into place a long, long time ago, tend to spin this passage thisaway: All the people Jesus is talking about who live in darkness, are condemned already because God condemned ’em. “Oh, they’re that way because God intends for them to be that way. They’re judged already because God already judged them at the dawn of time, and decided they’re doomed to hell. Jesus didn’t come to save them; he only came to save Christians.”
Totally missing the point of this passage. Jesus isn’t judging these people! He’s not judging anyone. He isn’t sending these people to hell! He isn’t sending anyone to hell. People don’t go to hell because Jesus sends them there; people go there because Jesus is light, God’s kingdom is light, they shun light, so they shun the kingdom. And what’s the only alternative to God’s kingdom? Hell.
While such people embrace the dark, don’t be an idiot; don’t trust them. When people refuse to follow Jesus, and in fact do just the opposite of how Jesus teaches Christians to behave, don’t presume they’re Christian and destined for his kingdom! When they produce none of the Spirit’s fruit, and instead are angry and fearful and short-tempered and cruel, don’t believe them when they claim to be good Christians!
But they’re not doomed, and don’t treat ’em like they are. Anyone can repent. It’s not the End yet. Jesus isn’t here to condemn them, and wants to save them too. And we should wanna save them too. Most of them don’t know any better. Many of ’em do. Either way, let’s be light to them.
