One possibility is that this passage is partially about denial, and that
"coming to the light" does not refer to salvation, but to the process of
abandoning our denial which is part of our journey to salvation - after all,
"whoever does evil does not come to the light, that his deeds not be
exposed". Salvation does not expose our evil deeds - but there is a step
before salvation, and that involves coming into the light. I think that the
opposite of "coming into the light" may be denial, and I think that 1 John
says some important things about denial versus truth. So I think that this
one of the big reasons people do not come to God is that they are in denial
and do not want to be exposed. It is interesting that Jesus is saying this
to Nicodemus, who came to him by night so that nobody would see him talking
to Jesus.
>and if doing "the truth" refers to the practice of righteousness
I suspect that "doing the truth" here may mean quite literally practicing
truthfulness.
It may well be that one of the big reasons people do not come to God is that
they are afraid to look at themselves, and that having the courage to see
ourselves clearly is an important part of coming to God.
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
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