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THE KING ’S BUSINESS
describes the real character of the ac tivity of men as a class. It is the habit of doing evil, not a single evil act, that the word describes. One worth less or wicked act done does not prove that a man is really wicked, nor does one good act prove that he is really righteous. The word translated “ evil” in this „verse, both in the Authorized and Revised Versions, is not the word commonly so translated, which is used in verse 19, but not here. The prim ary meaning of the word translated “ evil” in verse 19 is “ full o f labors, annoyances, hardships.” Its secondary meaning, and the meaning which it has in verse 19 and generally through out the New Testament, is “ bad,” “ of a bad nature.” Possibly in two in stances it is used in a physical sense (in Matt. 6:23 and Luke 11:34), but almost always in an ethical sense. The primary meaning of the word trans lated “ evil” in verse 20 is “ easy, slight, ordinary, mean, worthless, of no ac count,” and so it comes to mean “ bad” or “wicked,” but not in the sense of positive viciousness as much as in the sense of unworthy or worthless acts. It is used four times in the New Testa ment (John 3:20; 5:29; Titus 2 :8 ; James 3 :16). It is not only the man who is doing positively vicious things who is doing evil and who therefore hates the light. .The man who is squan dering his life on worthless or unwor thy things hates the light because' it convicts his work as much as the work of the outbreaking sinner. The 19th and 20th verses do not declare that men as a class are criminals but it does declare that men a-re practicing worth less- things, things that will not stand the light of God, and, therefore, they hate the light and do not come to the light, and the reason they do not come to the light is in order that their worthless works may not be convicted and exposed in their real character as evil and hateful to God. The word translated “ reproved” in both the Au
thorized and Revised Versions means '(as rendered in the margin of the Re vised Version) “ convicted” or “ re futed,” and generally carries,with it a suggestion of the shaine of the per son so convicted. The same Greek word is used in 1 Corinthians 14:24 where it is translated “ convinced” in the Authorized Version and “ re proved” in the Revised Version. The same Greek verb is used by our Lord in John 16:8 where He tells us that the Holy Spirit when He is come “ will reprove the world of sin,” or as the Revised Version better translates it. “ will convict the World in respect of sin.” So the thought plainly is, that why men hate the light is because they are unwilling that the character of their deeds should be convicted in a way that will bring shame upon them. V. 21. “ But he that doeth truth (rather, he who is doing the truth ) cometh to the light, that (rather, in order that) his deeds (rather, works ) may be made manifest, that they are (rather, have been ) wrought in God.” While men as a class love darkness rather than light and hate the light, there are those among men who are doing the truth. They are sincere seekers after the truth and doing it as they know it. These welcome the light, hasten to it as soon as they see it, they are conscious of their sincerity and that their works “ have been wrought in God” and therefore wish them to be manifested. So what men do with Christ is the great test of what men are. Christ is the Light, He is the perfect incarnation of God in all His perfections. He who loves and is doing the truth will welcome Him and hasten to Him. He who is doing wicked or worthless things will turn from Him. The word “ doeth” used in this pas sage (as already noted above) is en tirely different from the word trans lated “ doeth” in the preceding verse.
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