Charles Ellicott Commentary John 3:21

"But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God." — John 3:21 (ASV)

He who does truth is opposed to him who practices evil. With fixed purpose, he does not do that which is evil or worthless, but that which, when every veil by which it is hidden from himself or others is removed, remains morally true. Regarding truth as the work of life, he comes to the light. Though for him too it will be a revelation of sins, errors, and deeds of shame, he hates them the moment he knows them. He cuts them from his life at whatever cost and carries his whole being to the light so that his being may become genuinely true, and that his true works may be made manifest.

He will hate the darkness, for he can have nothing to conceal in it. He will love the light, for everything which it reproves he reproves too, and every ray he can gather from it becomes part of the truth which is his life-work. For the remarkable expression to do the truth, which, with its opposite to do a lie (John 8:44; Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15), is common in Rabbinic writers, compare Job 13:4 and 1 John 1:6; and for walking in truth, compare 2 John 1:4 and 3 John 1:3–4. In 1 Corinthians 13:6, truth is opposed to iniquity.

That they are wrought in God.—Perhaps better, because they are wrought in God. This is the reason for their being made manifest in the light revealed in the person of Christ. However full the light that had guided people’s steps had been, it was still part of the true Light which lighteth every man, and must lead to Him.

Every work wrought in God had already bound them in union with Him and prepared them to receive Him. That Light was in the world: in the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures (Matthew 5:17); in the witness of things invisible, ever borne by the things that are made (Romans 1:20); and in the law written upon human hearts (Romans 2:14–15).

As before (John 3:19), these words are general, but we may not exclude from them a special meaning. He who spoke them warrants our applying them to characters like the true Nathanael, in whom there is no guile (John 1:47); like the rock-man Peter (John 1:42); and like the witness John (Matthew 11:11). Some ground was good when the Sower went forth to sow.

Two thoughts are suggested to us at the close of this first discourse. One is that the writer, with perfect naturalness, says nothing of the effect on Nicodemus but leaves the after-glimpses to tell their own tale (John 19:39). The other is that we have come upon teaching distinct in style and matter from that of the earlier Gospels. On this, see Excursus D: The Discourses in St. John’s Gospel.