John 3:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But if He came not to judge the world, how is it that the unbeliever "is judged already," when the time of judgment has not yet come?

He says this either because unbelief without repentance is in itself the greatest torment, or else He is foretelling the future.

A murderer, even if he has not been condemned by a judge's sentence, is already condemned by the very character of his deed. So it is with the unbeliever.

Adam died on the very day when he tasted of the tree. Such was the decree: "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17). Yet he lived after that.

How then did he die? Both by God's decree and by the character of his deed.

Whoever has made himself liable to punishment is under punishment, even if not yet in fact, but by decree.

What does it mean that he who believes in the Son is not judged? Is he not judged if his life is unclean? He is judged very severely.

Paul does not call such people sincere believers. "They profess," he says, "that they know God, but by their works they deny Him" (Tit 1:16).

Here, however, He says that a man is not judged on the very ground that he has believed. Though he will give the strictest account for evil deeds, he is not punished for unbelief, because he once believed.

"But he who does not believe is judged already." How?

First, because unbelief itself is condemnation. To be outside the light, this alone is the greatest punishment.

Having assured them by the deed itself that He is the Son of God the Father, and that He communicates to the world grace surpassing the ministry of Moses, He devises for us, as God, another way leading to faith.

For justification by grace is surely better than condemnation by the Law. Gathering the lost from every side to salvation, He offers to the believer freedom from judgment as a reward, and to the unbeliever punishment.

Through both means He brings them onto one and the same path. He zealously calls some to faith by desire for grace, and others by fear of sufferings.

The judgment has not yet taken place, yet the judgment has already happened. For “the Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim 2:19).

He knows who is appointed for the crown and who is appointed for the flame. He knows the grain on His threshing floor and He knows the chaff. He knows the wheat and He knows the tares.

He who does not believe is already condemned. Why is he condemned? Because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

"He who believes in Him is not judged": that is, he who believes sincerely, or who keeps His commandments.

Those of whom the Apostle Paul says, "They profess to know God, but by their works they deny Him" (Tit 1:16), are not such.

"But he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God."

Just as the faith of the one freed him from condemnation before the judgment, so the unbelief of the other condemned him before the condemnation. A murderer, or another criminal, is immediately condemned by the very kind of crime, and only afterward by the ruler's sentence.

Or otherwise: since the judgment has not yet taken place, but will take place, fear of condemnation already comes at once.

"In the name" stands for "in Him." This is a feature of the Hebrew writings. When speaking of God, out of reverence they put "His name" instead of "Him."

Separation from God is death, separation from light is darkness, and separation from God is the loss of all His good things.

Likewise, those who have blinded themselves in bright light, or have been blinded by others, are forever deprived of the joy of light. This is not because the light punished them with blindness, but because blindness itself brings such misfortune upon them.

Therefore the Lord said: "He who believes in Me is not judged," that is, he is not separated from God, for through faith he is united with God.

"But he who does not believe," He says, "is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God." That is, he has voluntarily separated himself from God.

He says that the one who believes is not judged. For why judge a believer? Judgment is carried out in matters that call forth doubt. Where there is no doubt, no judicial inquiry is required.

It does not follow from this that unbelievers must be judged, because there is no doubt that they are unbelievers.

Having removed judgment from believers and unbelievers, the Lord adds the reason for judgment and names those who must be judged.

There are some among the pious and the impious who are in the middle and belong to neither, because both are found in them.

Many in the Church are held by the fear of God, yet they are also driven toward worldly pleasures by temptations. They pray because they fear. They sin because they want to.

Over them there will be judgment, because they act like unbelievers and must not be numbered among the faithful.

Others are not judged at the last judgment and perish. Of them the prophet says: "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment" (Ps 1:5). And the Lord says of them: "He who does not believe is judged already" (Jn 3:18).

All unbelievers will rise, but for torment, not for judgment. For then the guilt of those who come to behold the occupied Judge is not annulled, since they have already been condemned for their unbelief.

Those who preserve the testimonies of faith but do not have the testimony of works are exposed in order to perish.

The one who has not kept the mysteries of faith does not hear the Judge's accusations at the final examination. Since he has been condemned beforehand to darkness for his unbelief, he is not deemed worthy to be exposed by Him whom he despised.

The judgment of this world is the unbelief of the impious, according to the following Gospel word: “He who does not believe is condemned already” (Jn 3:18).

It is also the judicial ordering of God’s providence, by which a sinful life is cut short and turned toward the good. For the righteous judgment of God acts according to the direction of the will in good or evil men.

It punishes some and has mercy on others. It crowns some and sends others to Hades.

He who believes in Him, the Son of God, is not judged. But he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God.

The love of God, on its part, has done everything for man. It delivered the Only-begotten Son to death on the Cross, in satisfaction or propitiation of His righteousness for men's sins.

The rest now depends on men themselves, on their faith or unbelief in the Son of God. Faith will justify and save them; unbelief will condemn and destroy them.

On another occasion Christ said that He does not judge the one who hears His words and does not believe. The one who rejects Him and does not receive His word, that is, the one who does not believe Him, has a judge in that very word which he heard.

"He who believes in Him shall not be condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: men loved darkness."

The condition of salvation in Jn 3:16 is explained. Whoever believes in the Son of God, being cleansed from sins by His blood, does not fear punishment and is free from condemnation.

But whoever does not believe is wretched by the very fact that he does not believe in the Son of God.

This means that men themselves are to blame for their perdition, because they loved darkness rather than the light that appeared for them.

"He who does not believe in the Son of God is judged already" (Jn 3:18). For what? Because when light is all around, he remains in darkness out of love for it.

Love of darkness and hatred of the light make him guilty on every side, even without a determination of what the truth is. For whoever has sincere love for truth will be led by it out of the darkness of error and brought to the light of truth.

The holy Apostle Paul is an example. He was a sincere lover of truth, wholly devoted to what he considered true, without any private interest.

Therefore, as soon as the truth was shown to him to be elsewhere than in what he had considered true, he immediately cast aside that old thing, which had proved untrue. With his whole heart he cleaved to the new thing, tangibly proven to be true.