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The Word as Light visited men before the Incarnation (John 1:9, etc.; comp. John 5:38; Romans 2:15, etc.); at the Incarnation (John 8:12; John 12:46; John 3:19-21; comp. 11:9, etc.); and He still comes (John 14:21); even as the Spirit who still interprets His "name" (John 14:25; John 16:13; comp. 1 John 2:20-27). St. John draws no distinction in essence between these three different forms of revelation, in nature, in conscience, and in history; all alike are natural or supernatural, parts of the same harmonious plan. But man has not independently light in himself. The understanding of the outward revelation depends upon the abiding of the Divine Word within (John 5:37, etc.). Love is the condition of illumination (John 14:22, etc.). And the end of Christ's coming was that those who believe in Him may move in a new region of life (John 12:46), and themselves become sons of light (John 12:35, etc.), and so in the last issue of faith have the light of life (John 8:12).

(Bp. Westcott.)

Christ, the Light: — Among all created excellencies, none can be borrowed more fitly representing Christ, than that of light.

1. Light is primum visibile, the first object of sight: and Jesus Christ, whom the apostle styles "God over all, Blessed forever," is primum intelligibile.

2. Light being the first thing visible, all things are seen by it, and it by itself. Thus is Christ among spiritual things, in the elect world of His Church (Ephesians 5:13, 14; 2 Corinthians 4:3). The rays of Christ's light are displayed through both His Testaments, and in them we see Him (Psalm 36:9).

3. No one is ignorant there is light; yet what light is few know (Job 38:19). The "generation" of Christ "who shall declare?" (Isaiah 53:8).

4. Light resembles Christ in purity: it visits many impure places, and lights upon the basest parts of the earth, and yet remains most pure and undefiled. Though Christ was conversant with sinners, to communicate to them His goodness, yet He was "separate from sinners," in immunity from their evil (Hebrews 7:26).

5. The light of the sun is neither parted nor diminished, by being imparted to many several people and nations, that behold it at one time: nor is the righteousness of this Sun of Righteousness either lessened to Himself or to individual believers, by many partaking of it at once: it is wholly conferred upon each one of them, and remains whole in itself.

6. The sun hath a vivifying power, a special influence in the generation of man. The sun we speak of is the proper and principal instrument in man's regeneration (John 1:4).

7. The sun drives away the sharp frosts and the heavy fogs of winter, it clears the heavens, decks the saith with variety of plants and flowers, and awakes the birds to the pleasant strains of their natural music. When Christ, after a kind of wintry absence, returns to visit a declining Church, or a deserted forsaken soul, admirable is the change that He produces, etc. (Isaiah 55:12, 13; Song of Solomon 2:10-18).

8. All darkness flies before light: so Christ arising in the world made the day break, and the shadows flee away, the types and shadows of the law, ignorance, idolatry, the night of sin, misery, etc. All the stars, and the moon with them, cannot make it day in the world: this is the sun's peculiar: nor can nature's highest light, the most refined science and morality, make it day in the soul; for this is Christ's (John 8:12; 12:85; Psalm 19; Wisd. 7:26, 27; St. Luke 1:78, 79; Ephesians 5:8).

(Abp. Leighton.)

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Parallel Verses

KJV: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

WEB: While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."