Light Reveals Our Flaws

Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

–John 3:20

Jesus is the Light of the world. But one aspect of light we don’t like is that it reveals our flaws. We have romantic dinners by candlelight, not by floodlight, because there are certain things about ourselves that we don’t want accented. Jesus is like a perfectly straight ruler that reveals how crooked people’s lives really are.

That doesn’t appeal to everybody. In fact, Jesus predicted that some people would reject Him for this reason. In John 3:19–20, Jesus said, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” Some people are drawn to the light; others are repelled by it.

We see those two distinct reactions in the Christmas story itself. Matthew 2:1–3 says, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.’ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” The idea that another king was on the scene bothered King Herod greatly. So he said to the magi, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him” (v. 8). But Herod’s real purpose in finding the Light was to extinguish the Light. Herod had no desire to know the real Jesus, so he stumbled around in darkness for several years and died without ever finding Him.

Contrast Herod’s reaction to that of the magi. Their desire to know the true God was so sincere that God sent a star to illuminate the way to Jesus. When God senses a heart that truly wants to know Him, He will move heaven and earth to make sure that person finds Him. In Jeremiah 29:13, God said, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” If you want to know God, He will lead you to the same place he led the magi: to the feet of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our way to God. That’s why light is so powerful. It repels those who don’t want to know God, but it draws those who are earnestly seeking Him.

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Today’s devotion is adapted from “When Darkness Overcomes the Light” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2023.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.