John 3:1-21, Psalm 104:1-23, Judges 17:1-18:31, Proverbs 14:20-21

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - John 3:19

‘And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil’. God bases His condemnation on the fact that Jesus has come as ‘the light’ into the world (John 1:4-5; John 1:9; John 8:12), and by His life and teaching has offered the light of life and revealed the light of truth. But men turn from Him because they love their sins and His light therefore shines on them and condemns them. They do not want to give up their... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - John 3:20

‘For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved’. While we are behaving like ‘nice Christians’ and doing good, men will praise us and say nice things about us, but let us once speak and behave in such a way that it condemns their own selfish and evil living, and they will immediately change and begin to show their anger and condemn us. For men hate the light. So it was even more supremely with Jesus. While He preached in parables... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - John 3:21

‘But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God’. On the other hand those who do what is right have no fear of the truth about their lives coming out. They gladly come to Jesus and listen eagerly to His words and to the word of God and let Him examine them, for they know that His words will help them get rid of sin and that when He examines them He will help them rid themselves of what is spoiling their lives. They want their... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - John 3:1-21

John 3:1-Ecclesiastes : . The Conversation with Nicodemus.— Nicodemus is an example of those to whom the Lord could not trust Himself. The story shows how He tried to bring those whom His teaching had impressed to a truer conception of the Messianic kingdom. Here as in all the Johannine speeches the conversation is recorded in terms which reflect later thought, and it passes out into more general thoughts and ideas Nicodemus disappears, and before the end the author is teaching the men of his... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - John 3:1

The particle there being put in only to fit our idiom to the Greek, where is nothing but the verb, signifies nothing to prove that what we read in this chapter was done at Jerusalem. It is a dispute amongst some interpreters, whether he was there or no. It should seem by John 7:50, that Nicodemus’s chief residence was there. He was one of the Pharisees, who were a sect (as we have showed before) which had their name either from a Hebrew word, which signifieth to explain, (because they were... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - John 3:2

He came by night to Christ, not, as some (too charitably) possibly may think, that he might have the freer and less interrupted communion and discourse with him; but either through fear, or possibly shame, being a master in Israel, to be looked upon as a scholar going to learn of another. He saluteth him by the name they usually gave to their teachers, (as we showed, John 1:49), and saith, we know, by which he hints to us, that not only he, but others of the Pharisees also, knew that he was a... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - John 3:3

We observed before, that the term answered doth not always in the New Testament signify a reply to a question before propounded; but sometimes no more than a reply, or the beginning of another speech: whether it doth so here or no, some question. Some think Christ here gives a strict answer to a question which Nicodemus had propounded to him, about the way to enter into the kingdom of God; which question the evangelist sets not down, but leaves to the reader to gather from the answer. Others... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - John 3:4

By the answer of Nicodemus, it should seem that he was an old man; which is also probable, because he was one of the rulers: he puts the case as to himself; I am, saith he, an old man, how should I be born? Can a man enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? How true is that of the apostle, 1 Corinthians 2:14, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God! What a gross conception doth Nicodemus (though doubtless a learned as well as a great man) discover of... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - John 3:5

To excite his spirit and attention, our Saviour again expresses the authority of his person, I say; and twice repeats the solemn asseveration, Verily, verily, to show the infallible certainty and importance of what he propounds, that it is a truth worthy of his most serious consideration, and to be embraced with a stedfast belief. After this preface, he declares, If any one be not born of water and the Spirit, to rectify the carnal conceit of Nicodemus about regeneration. In John 3:3 our... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - John 3:6

That which is born of the flesh: that which is born of natural flesh; for flesh sometimes signifies the man. So the prophet saith, All flesh is grass, Isaiah 40:6. So Genesis 6:12, All flesh, that is, all men, had corrupted their way. Or, that which is born of corruption, from vitiated and corrupted nature; so flesh is oft taken in Scripture, Romans 8:4,Romans 8:5,Romans 8:8, &c. Is flesh; that is, it bringeth forth effects proportionable to the cause; a man purely natural brings forth... read more

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