John 1:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Jews, looking to the judgment of men, abandoned the sound faith. Though they knew that Jesus is the Only-begotten Son of God, they would not confess Him because of their rulers, lest they be put out of the synagogue.

So also Paul of Samosata, as they say, to please a certain woman, renounced his own salvation.

Truly, terrible and fearful is the dominion of vainglory. It can blind the eyes even of wise men, if they do not keep watch.

If love of money can do this, much more can the passion of vainglory, which is far stronger. Therefore Christ said to the Jews, "How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" (Jn 5:44).

"And the world did not know Him."

Here the Evangelist calls "world" the multitude of corrupt men, given over to earthly affairs, the crowd, the turbulent and senseless people.

But the friends of God and all wondrous men knew Christ even before His appearance in the flesh. Concerning the patriarch, Christ Himself said, "Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and was glad" (Jn 8:56).

Concerning David, in rebuke of the Jews, He said, "How then does David, in the Spirit, call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool?" (Mt 22:43-44).

Many times, disputing with them, He also mentions Moses. The Apostle speaks about the other prophets.

That all the prophets, beginning with Samuel, knew Christ and long beforehand proclaimed His coming is said by the Apostle Peter: "And all the prophets, from Samuel and those after him, as many as have spoken, also foretold these days" (Acts 3:24).

God Himself appeared to Jacob, to his father, and to his grandfather. He conversed with them and promised to grant them many great blessings, which He also fulfilled in reality.

How then, you ask, did He Himself say, "Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Lk 10:24)?

How then did they know Him? Certainly they knew Him. I shall try to prove this from the very words from which some conclude that the prophets had no knowledge of Jesus Christ.

He says, "Many desired to see what you see." Therefore they knew that He would come to men and perform the works which He indeed performed.

If they had not known this, they would not have desired to see it. No one can desire what he does not know at all.

Therefore they knew the Son of God and knew that He would come to men.

What then did they not see and hear? What you now see and hear.

Although the prophets heard His voice and saw Him Himself, they did not see Him in the flesh, nor in the form in which He lived among men and openly conversed with them.

He Himself clearly indicates this. He does not simply say, "They desired to see Me." What does He say? "They desired to see what you see."

Nor did He say, "They desired to hear Me," but "what you hear."

Thus, although they did not see His appearance in the flesh, they knew that it would be, and they desired it. They believed in Christ, though they did not see Him in the flesh.

If the pagans, wishing to reproach us, ask, What was Christ doing before, when He did not yet care for the human race? Why did He leave us for so long without care, and come only in the last times to order our salvation?

We shall say that He was already in the world before that time, that He was ordering events beforehand, and that He was known to all who were worthy.

If you say that He was unknown because not all then knew Him, but only chosen and virtuous men, then on the same ground you might admit that He is not worshiped by men at present, since not all know Him even now.

But now no one can deny that there are people who know Him merely because there are people who do not know Him.

So also no one may doubt this concerning former times, because many, or rather all chosen and wondrous men, knew Him.

But if someone asks why not all believed in Him then, and why not all honored Him, but only the righteous, I too shall ask: Why do not all know Him at present?

And why speak of Christ? Why, both formerly and now, do not all know His Father?

Some say that everything in the world moves of itself. Others ascribe care for all things to demons. Still others have invented for themselves another god besides the true God.

Among them, some blaspheme and claim that there is some power opposed to God. They also think that God’s laws belong to some evil spirit.

What then? Because some reject God, shall we say the same? Or shall we agree that He is evil, since some utter this blasphemy?

Away with such folly and such extreme madness. If we tested doctrines by the judgment of these madmen, nothing would prevent us also from falling into utter madness.

Surely no one will say that the sun is harmful to the eyes because some people have diseased eyes. On the contrary, by the judgment of those who are healthy, it is light-bearing.

Nor will anyone say that honey is bitter because it tastes so to the sick.

Then are not those who say that there is no God, or that He is evil, or that He sometimes cares and sometimes does not, like the sick?

Who will say that such people are healthy? Are they not rather deranged, senseless, and utterly out of their minds?

It is written, "The world did not know Him." Yet those of whom the world was not worthy did know Him.

After speaking of those who did not know Him, the Evangelist briefly sets forth the cause of this ignorance. He does not simply say, "No one knew Him," but, "The world did not know Him."

That is, those given over to the world alone and thinking only of worldly things did not know Him.

Christ too usually called them by this name. For example, He said, "Righteous Father, the world has not known Thee" (Jn 17:25).

As we have said, the world did not know not only the Son, but also the Father. Nothing disorders the mind so much as attachment to temporal things.

Knowing this, withdraw as far as possible from the world and refrain from fleshly works. From them comes the loss not of casual blessings, but of the very highest blessings.

A man too occupied with the affairs of this present life cannot properly receive heavenly things. Necessarily, while caring for the former, he is deprived of the latter.

"You cannot serve God and mammon" (Lk 16:13).

For the name "world" signifies this universe, as when it is said here, "the world came to be through Him." It also signifies those who think in a worldly way, as when it is said here, "the world did not know Him," meaning men attached to the earth.

But all the saints and prophets knew Him.

He did this lest anyone, carrying the statement into absurd thoughts, should number the Light among the separate parts of this world, such as the sun, moon, and stars.

These are in the world as parts of the world and as members of one body.

By this he again establishes us and guides us toward the unerring and right reception of the truth.

Indeed, who could be so undeveloped, or so simple in mind, as not to understand Him to be altogether other than the world, when it is said that the world came to be through Him?

Who would fail to set the creature in its own place, and to distinguish the Creator from it, understanding Him as of divine nature?

What is created must be different in nature from the Creator. Otherwise the one creating and the thing created would prove to be the same.

If they are thought to be the same, with no distinction in the mode of being, then what is created will be raised to the nature of the Creator. The Maker will descend to the nature of creatures.

Then there will be no one who has power to create creatures. That power will belong even to creatures, if nothing at all separates them from consubstantiality with God.

Thus, in the end, the creature will be the maker of itself. The Evangelist will appear to ascribe an empty dignity to the Only-begotten when he says that He "was in the world" and that "the world came to be through Him."

But he knows the One who by nature is Creator of all.

Therefore, among those who possess the right faith, creation and Creator, God and creature, must by no means be considered the same.

Creation must be subject in servile obedience, recognizing the limit of its nature. The Son must reign over it, for He alone has with the Father the almighty power and strength "to call things that are not as though they were" (Rom 4:17).

By ineffable power He brings into being what did not yet exist.

That the Son, being God by nature, is entirely distinct from the creature has already been sufficiently examined in the work On the Holy Trinity. We shall add nothing here beyond what has already been said.

Yet we shall usefully add this. When he says that the world was created through Him, he thereby leads us to think of the Father.

He teaches us, together with "Him through whom" all was created, to bring in "Him from whom" all was created. For all things are from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 8:6; 1 Cor 11:12; Rom 11:36; 2 Cor 5:18).

"And the world did not know Him."

Again the Spirit-bearing Evangelist hastens watchfully to forestall the subtle devices of certain people. Again the manner of his contemplation deserves wonder.

He called the Son the true Light and affirmed that He enlightens every man coming into the world. He also says that He was in the world and that the world came to be through Him.

But then one of the opponents might say to us: If the Word, beloved, was Light and enlightens the heart of every man, clearly for the knowledge of God fitting to men, and if He was always in the world and was Himself its Creator, how could He remain unknown for so many ages?

Therefore He not only did not enlighten, but the Light itself did not exist at all.

Against such thoughts the Theologian rises fervently, saying, "The world did not know Him." He says that He was not unknown through any fault of His own. Rather, the world must accuse its own weakness.

For the Son enlightens, but the creature does not receive the grace. Sight was given to it so that it might understand Him who is God by nature, but it did not use the gift profitably.

It stopped at the contemplation of created things alone. It did not reach beyond the limit of created beings.

It lightly misused the enlightenment and neglected the gift. Paul commands his disciple to "be watchful" (2 Tim 4:5; 1 Tim 4:14), so that he may not fall into this.

Thus the wickedness of those enlightened says nothing against the Light.

The light of the sun rises for all, but the blind man does not benefit from it. Yet this gives us no ground to accuse the sun’s radiance. Rather, we must blame the lack of sight.

One illumines, while the other does not receive the illumination. So, I think, we must understand the Only-begotten.

He is the true Light. But "the god of this age," as Paul says, "has blinded the minds of unbelievers, lest the light" of the knowledge of God should shine in them (2 Cor 4:4).

We do not think that the blindness into which man has fallen, according to these words, deprives him of light entirely. The reason given by God undoubtedly remains in his nature.

But man quenches it into an inactive state. He extinguishes it, as it were, by his impulses toward vices, and dissolves the measure of grace.

Therefore the most wise Psalmist, when presenting such a man to us, rightly prays for enlightenment. He says to God, "Open my eyes, and I shall understand the wonders of Thy law" (Ps 118:18).

For "the law was given for help" (Isa 8:20). It kindles the divine light in us and removes from the eyes of the heart the darkness that clung to us through ancient ignorance, like some discharge.

Thus the world is accused here of ingratitude and also of insensibility, because it did not know its Creator and did not bear the good fruit of enlightenment.

So at last there appeared true in it what is again said by the prophetic voice concerning the sons of Israel: "I expected it to bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns" (Isa 5:4).

Indeed, the true knowledge of the Only-begotten was the fruit of enlightenment. It was like a grape hanging from the branch, that is, from the reason of man.

The contrary fruit is folly, which draws one toward the falsehood of polytheism. It grows up in us like a sharp thorn and, by falsehood, strikes the mind unto death.

The term psilon means empty, inactive, and not realized in deed or actuality.

Did heaven not know Him, when the sun was darkened during His sufferings on the Cross? Did the earth not know Him, when it trembled as He was crucified?

But the world did not know Him whose prince is the one of whom it is said, "The prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" (Jn 14:30).

Evil men are called the world. Unbelieving men are called the world. They receive their name from what they love.

By loving God, we become gods. Therefore, by loving the world, we are called the world.

What then? If He came here, where was He before? He was in this world. He was here, and to this same place He came.

He was here according to His Godhead. He came here according to the flesh.

When He was here according to His Godhead, neither the foolish, nor the blind, nor the impious could see Him.

The impious are the darkness of which it is said, "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (Jn 1:5).

And now, behold, He is here. He was also here and always remains here. He never departs and goes nowhere.

You need that by which you may see that He never withdraws from you. You must not withdraw from Him who goes nowhere.

You must not abandon Him, and then you will not be abandoned by Him. Do not let yourself fall, and He will not set for you.

If you fall, then He too will set for you. But if you stand upright, He is near you.

Yet you did not stand upright. Remember why you fell, and why the one who fell before you cast you down.

He cast you down not by force or compulsion, but by your own will. If you had not consented to evil, you would have stood upright and remained enlightened.

Now, since you have already fallen and have become sick in the heart by which that Light could be seen, He came to you in the form in which you could see Him.

He showed Himself as such a man that He sought testimony from a man. God seeks testimony from man, and God has man as witness.

God has man as witness, but for man’s sake. So weak are we.

With the help of a lamp we seek the day. John himself was called a lamp in this saying of the Lord: "He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s" (Jn 5:35-36).

Thus He showed that, for the sake of men, He wished to be revealed through a lamp for the strengthening of believers, and so that His enemies might be confounded through this lamp.

These were the enemies who tempted Him and said, "Tell us, by what authority doest Thou these things?"

He answered them, "I also will ask you one thing. Tell Me: the baptism of John, from where was it? From heaven, or from men?"

They were troubled and reasoned among themselves: If we say, "From heaven," He will say, "Why then did you not believe him?" For John testified of Christ and said, "I am not the Christ, but He is."

But if we say, "From men," we fear the people, lest they stone us, for they regard John as a prophet.

Fearing to be stoned, and fearing still more to confess the truth, they set falsehood against truth, and impiety raised falsehood against itself. For they said, "We do not know."

Since they themselves had closed the doors before themselves by claiming not to know what they did know, the Lord did not reveal Himself to them, because they were not knocking.

For it is said, "Knock, and it will be opened to you" (Mt 7:7). But they not only failed to knock so that it might be opened to them. By denying the truth known to them, they closed the door for themselves.

And the Lord said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things" (Mt 21:27).

They were confounded through John, and the prophecy was fulfilled concerning them: "I will set a lamp for My anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame" (Ps 131:16-17).

"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him" (cf. Jn 1:10).

Do not think that He was in the world as the earth is in the world, or the heaven in the world, or the sun, moon, stars, trees, cattle, and men in the world. He was not in the world in that way.

How then was He? As the Maker, artifex, governing what He had made.

But He did not make all things as a craftsman makes something. A craftsman is outside the chest he is making, and the chest lies in another place while it is being made.

Even if he sits nearby, the one making it is nevertheless in another place and outside what he makes.

God, however, makes by filling the world with Himself. He makes by being everywhere and by withdrawing nowhere.

This is not like a craftsman turning the material he works on while holding it outside himself.

Through the presence of His power He creates the creature. Through His presence He governs what He has made.

He was in the world as the Maker of this world. For "the world was made through Him," and "the world did not know Him" (cf. Jn 1:10).

What does "the world was made through Him" mean? Heaven, earth, the sea, and all that is in them are called the world.

But, in another sense, those who love the world are also called the world (cf. 1 Jn 2:16).

"The world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him."

Did the heavens not know their Maker? Did the Angels not know their Maker? Did the stars not know their Maker, whom even the demons confessed?

Everything everywhere bore witness to Him. Who then were those who did not know Him? Those who are called the world because of their love for the world.

For by loving something we live there in the heart. They deserved to bear the name of that in which they lived.

How do we commonly speak? "That house is bad," or, "That house is good."

We do not reproach the walls in the house we called bad. Nor do we praise the walls in the house we called good.

By a bad house we mean its bad inhabitants, and by a good house its good inhabitants.

So also by the world we mean those who inhabit the world by loving it. Who are they? They are those who love the world, for they live in the world by the heart.

Those who do not love the world, though they remain in the world by the flesh, live in heaven by the heart, as the Apostle says: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).

Thus it follows: "The world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him" (Jn 1:10).

It reveals the super-infinite and great Counsel of God, which existed before the ages infinitely and without limit. Its Angel was the very essential Word of God, Who became Man.

He revealed, if it is permissible to speak so, the deepest ground of the Father's Goodness. In Himself He showed the End for whose sake, as is evident, creatures received the beginning of their being.

For through Christ, or through the mystery according to Christ, all the ages and the things in those ages received both the beginning and the end of their being.

Before the ages, God had already conceived the union of limit and infinity, measure and immeasurability, boundary and boundlessness, Creator and creature, rest and motion.

This union was revealed in Christ at the end of times and fulfilled God's Foreknowledge. Thus around Him Who is immovable by essence, the things that move by nature might constantly abide.

Yet they abide after fully passing beyond movement in relation to themselves and to one another. This also occurred so that rational beings might receive by experience the active knowledge of Him in Whom they were deemed worthy to abide.

This knowledge is unchanging and always identical with itself. It grants them spiritual delight in the One Who is known.

Those who were not such knew Him even before His manifestation in the flesh. Therefore, in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel (Mt 13:17), Jesus Christ said to the Apostles: "Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

If they had not known Him, they would not have desired to see or hear, as it says. Therefore they knew Him, and they knew the mystery of His Incarnation, but only in mental contemplation.

They desired also to see His miracles with their senses, to hear His teaching, and in general to see Him in human form.

It is clear that the Evangelist, indignant at the blindness of those who did not know Him, said, "and the world came to be through Him, and the world did not know Him." That is, those created did not know their Creator.

They say that he, the lord and cause of the ordering of this creation, by whom this world was created, was produced by the Mother. But the Gospel plainly says that all things were created through the Word, Who was in the beginning with God.

And this "Word," it says, "became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).

But how does this agree: "He was in the world" and "He came to His own"? The one seems opposed to the other. If He was, then He did not come. If He came, then He was not.

The expression "He was" is understood according to His Divinity, while "He came" is according to His humanity. Jesus Christ was in the world from eternity as boundless God, being everywhere and filling all things.

Christ was in the world from the beginning as God, since the world also came to be through Him. He came as man when, having become incarnate of the holy Virgin, He appeared in the world and lived with men.

Note also that the word "world" has a twofold meaning here. It is taken for the universe, and for the multitude of men.

When it is said, "He was in the world" and "the world came to be through Him," it is taken for the whole creation. So too in these words of Scripture: "He gave me unerring knowledge of things that exist, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements" (Wis 7:17).

And again: "Your all-powerful hand, which created the world out of formless matter, was not unable" (Wis 11:18). But when it is said, "and the world did not know Him," it is taken for men.

Yet it is not taken for all, but only for some, as here: "Behold, the world has gone after Him" (Jn 12:19).

For even before the Son of God became incarnate, righteous and holy men knew the mystery of His Incarnation. Therefore our Lord said concerning Abraham, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (Jn 8:56).

Concerning David He said, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand'" (Mt 22:43)?

Likewise the prophet Moses, foreseeing and believing in His coming in the flesh, said, "The Lord our God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like me" (Deut 18:15).

Similarly, all the prophets from Samuel and those after him, as many as spoke, also foretold the Lord's becoming man (Acts 3:24).

By "His own" the Evangelist meant the earth, since it is God's own creation. By "His own people" he meant all men, since all are God's creation, and especially the Jews, "from whom is Christ according to the flesh" (Rom 9:5).

Since many even from the Gentiles received Him, that is, believed in His name, while he had said, "His own did not receive Him," he immediately adds something lest anyone think that none believed.

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name."

The appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh was hardly noticed by Jewish historians. Flavius mentions Him in one place, and also John the Forerunner in one place. Of these two passages, one is considered spurious.

So little did they concern themselves with this matter.

Having turned aside from the truth of God, it made for itself many gods instead of the one true God. Here the Gentile world is chiefly meant, in contrast to the Jewish people, who are discussed in the following verse.

The holy Apostle Paul beautifully and thoroughly unfolds this thought in his Epistle to the Romans (Rom 1:18-32). He speaks there of the Gentile world's failure to know the true God, its guilt in this, and the consequences of this failure.

The sun pours out the rays of its light upon all, but the blind man does not see the light, nor does the one buried in the earth.

In order to receive the rays of heavenly Light into oneself and be penetrated by them, one must open within oneself the capacity to receive the Light. By the power of the will one must broaden the activity of the nature created by God.

So it has always been, so it is, and so it will be. The Lord was pleased to establish it so, first of all, according to the character of this Light, which is life-bearing.

The ways of life, or His life-giving actions and movements, are everywhere hidden from the eye of the curious. Then also He does this so as not to cast pearls before those who may trample them (Mt 7:6).

He does it so as not to bind freedom by the brightness of the light, but to illumine only those who desire and seek. He draws to Himself only those who are worthy and fit.

Thus those who go toward the Light manifest some activity of their own. They also have merit in that they have known the true Light.

This is like the parables. In the parables the truth is concealed. One who has the seed or forevision of truth understands it, while another understands nothing in it.

For the structure of his mind, the rules of his life, the tastes of his heart, and his whole store of experiences and concepts are entirely different.

So it is here. To know and receive the true spiritual Light from the Lord, one must have the proper organ of the spirit ready for it. Whoever lacks this will neither know nor receive Him.

Just as only he who has ears to hear hears, so only he who has eyes to see sees. The organ for receiving the light of truth is the spirit placed in our nature.

It exists in all, and no powers are able to destroy it. It can be suppressed, stifled, and beaten down, but it cannot be destroyed.

The spirit in us is the fear of God, or the sense of the Godhead, with the awareness of our dependence on Him. It is conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything created.

Whoever is not swallowed up by the world, who guards his conscience and preserves the fear of God, will know the true Light in the Lord as soon as it is proclaimed to him.

Sin suppresses our spirit and closes the organ for knowing and receiving the Light, the Lord. But awareness of one's sinfulness opens it again and makes it ready to meet the Lord.

Repentant publicans, sinners, and harlots all streamed to the Lord as soon as they met Him, and all were enlightened. Such people knew the Lord; those unlike them did not know Him.

The elders of the people almost all failed to know Him and led the people away from the path of truth. "Have any of the rulers believed in Him? ... But this people" (Jn 7:48-49).

The people felt His power and clung to Him. Later they were darkened for a time. But as soon as the light of the Resurrection illumined them, they again followed Him fearlessly.

Even before the Ascension, more than five hundred brethren saw Him on the mountain. After the descent of the Holy Spirit, three thousand immediately clung to Him. A little later, another five thousand did so.

Then the number of such people grew and grew. The light of Christ, having enlightened all in Israel who were able to be enlightened, soon poured beyond its borders and shone throughout the world.

"Their sound went out into all the earth" (Rom 10:18), the gospel preaching. All who were able to be enlightened by the light of Christ were enlightened, and are still enlightened, by Him.

Yet in all times this has taken place and still takes place hiddenly, invisibly, by ways known to God alone. Even among those who bear the name of Christ, not all partake of His light.

Outward enrollment in the flock of Christ is not yet a sure witness of inward illumination. The worldly spirit drives away the true light of Christ even from Christians.

"He was in the world ... and the world did not know Him." "He was in the world" by His creative and providential activity, and especially by the arrangements preparing for His manifestation.

All this was very clear to those who had eyes to see. Yet not the whole world knew Him. Knowledge of Him was not the common possession and common feature of all and each, but only of those who understood Him.

Therefore, when He came to His own, His own did not receive Him, because they did not know Him. They did not know Him because they had submitted to other principles and developed other needs, caring for their satisfaction and feeding on other hopes.

This gave them an inward disposition by which the true Light became inaccessible to them. The Lord walks among His own, and many of His own do not receive Him.

The reason is the prevailing spirit of the world: "the world did not know Him." In the word "world" the cause of this failure to understand is also indicated.

The world means people attached to the world, who think about worldly things and in a worldly manner. Nothing darkens the mind so much as passionate love for the world.

The spirit of the world is the spirit of forgetfulness of God. It is the spirit of egoism, ready to sacrifice everything to itself, even piety, conscience, and faith.

It is the spirit of all-sided consolation through power, visible position, secular education, splendor, the delight of hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch, and every sweet irritation of the flesh.

This is a dark realm. Like a thick cloud, it separates the light of Christ from the soul and conceals it. Not one ray of that light penetrates the soul so long as this spirit rules in it.

The light of revelation and of God's presence was always in the world. This is indicated by the expression "was," ἦν, erat. God never left mankind in complete darkness.

Otherwise every good thing, truth, and love would have vanished from the face of the earth without a trace. God spoke to all men in their conscience and in the laws of righteousness handed down from Adam and Noah to all nations and tribes of the earth (Rom 1:19-20; 2:14-16).

God spoke directly to the chosen people of Israel in revelation and in the law. The Light was in the world, but men loved darkness rather than light (Jn 3:19).

But now, for the return of mankind to love, righteousness, and God, "a great Light" shone forth (Mt 4:16; Isa 9:1-2): God Himself, incarnate in the perishable body of man.

"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages" (Heb 1:1-2).

In verse 10 the Evangelist John indicates by the words "and the world was made through Him" that the Light who came into the world, the Word who enlightens man, is none other than God Himself, the Creator of the world.

Therefore in this verse the word cosmos is used three times as God's creation, although this world had been so clouded by sin that it did not know its God and Creator.

Yet this darkness and fog of sin are powerless before the Light: "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (Jn 1:5).

As fog lying over low places disappears before the face of the sun, so the darkness that enveloped the world disappears before our Lord Jesus Christ.

Passing to the consideration of the second verse, we must pause over the expression "His own." "He came to His own." Moses and the prophets more than once pointed out to Israel, as a people, that it was the people of God.

"You shall be My possession," the Lord said to the people (Ex 19:5). "The Lord found this people in a desolate and wild wilderness; He encircled him, cared for him, kept him, raised him to the heights of the earth, and fed him with the produce of the fields ... and Israel grew fat" (Deut 32:10-15).

"The Lord expected that His vineyard, Israel, would bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild berries" (Isa 5:2). "The Lord entered into covenant with Jerusalem" (Ezek 16:8).

"The Lord brought near to Himself the whole house of Judah and the whole house of Israel, that they might be His people, His glory, His praise, and His adornment, but they did not listen" (Jer 13:11).

But it was not enough that they did not listen. When the master of the vineyard sent his son to his vinedressers, they not only "did not receive Him," but also killed Him.

Such, in brief words, is the sorrowful history of the people of Israel. It is all presented in compressed form in the verse we are reading: "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him."

The sons of Israel were "sons of the kingdom" (Mt 8:12), but were "cast out." Their people and land are repeatedly called "the Lord's possession" and "the holy land" (Zech 2:12), and "the Lord's land" (Hos 9:3; Jer 2).

Yet they "did not receive" their Lord and King when He came to them. The vinedressers of the parable did not receive the Lord and killed their King (Mt 21:33; Mk 12:1; Lk 20 and following), saying, "The inheritance will be ours."

The Jews and their rulers were not seeking the Kingdom of God, but their own fleshly kingdom. In that kingdom, the Source of love and righteousness was to them a hated reprover of their unrighteousness.