What is judgment? Many would say it is something going to happen on the last day. Yet man’s curiosity knows no end and he would go any length to know his final destiny. For those who are eager to know of the judgement much before the actual judgment day, there is a shortcut suggested by John the evangelist. We read; ‘And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil’ (Jn 3:19).
Everything is fair in love, they say. Those who love darkness rather than light, are least worried about their choice, because for them darkness is better than light and loving darkness is a fair business.
The light John mentioned was Jesus Christ himself, ’the true light which enlightens everyone’ (Jn 1:9). The only way to evade this eternal light that enlightens the whole world is to close one’s eyes towards it. Paul calls them ‘persons whose senseless minds were darkened (Rom 1:21). Again he uses harsher words; ‘They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart’ (Eph 4:18). By way of explanation he narrates the traits of such people. ‘They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity’ (Eph 4:19).
This is the case with every person who abhors light and loves darkness; they have no sensitivity left, they have allowed themselves to be enslaved to licentiousness, and they crave to indulge in every kind of impurity. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is an idolator), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph 5:5).
‘God is light and in him there is no darkness at all’ (1 Jn 1:5). So it is natural that the children of darkness would never stand in God’s presence. The irony of our times is that many think themselves to be children of light even while doing the works of darkness. John suggests a simple test to distinguish them. ‘Whoever says, “I am in light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light , and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling’ (1 Jn 2:9-10). The distinction is clear for us who walk in the light, but for others, it is hidden from their understanding. They are ‘in the darkness, walking in the darkness, and do not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness’ (1 Jn 2:11).
Those who follow the ways of darkness – the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars (Rev 21:8)- live in judgment and await the final judgment. It is the duty of those who walk in the light to bring their brothers and sisters also to the path of light. Let us unite in prayer for the conversion of those who still love darkness rather than light, for the time is short.
