Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Jesus speaks in the temple treasury. The crowd that wanted to stone a woman has just walked away, one by one. He does not offer a new rule or a better teacher. He offers Himself as the light for the whole world. Anyone who follows Him carries that light inside as life.
A claim made in the treasury
The setting matters. He stands in the building where God's glory once lived. He takes that glory for Himself. Then He widens the audience far past Israel.
F. W. GrantHe was standing in the temple, which He called His Father's house right up to the moment they finally rejected Him. God's glory of old had lived there. He stood in the treasury, where worshippers brought their gifts, and there He claimed that glory as His own. "I am the Light of the world," He says. The Sun is indeed rising above the hills of Judea, and the nations far and wide are to enjoy its light. More than that: Israel herself now appears as part of that world lying in darkness.
Light does not stop at a border. Neither does God, once He shows Himself.
F. W. GrantWhen the sun rises, it treats no one as a special case. Once God shows Himself, we can ask what the apostle asked: "Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also?" That is what we read here: "I am the light of the world." And again: "God so loved the world." And again: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."
What light does when it arrives
The accusers had just walked out. That scene is the picture; this verse is the teaching drawn from it.
Hamilton SmithWhat happened with the woman shows the Lord as the Light. That Light exposes everyone who comes into His presence. Now He declares openly that He is the Light of the world. Christ came into the darkness of the world, and His presence uncovered man completely and revealed God fully.
Not a rule book, but a Person to follow
The chapter began with men quoting the law of Moses at Him. His answer replaces a written standard with a living one.
William KellyHe had just acted as light among those who had appealed to law; here He goes on, but widens the sphere... The life was the light of men, the perfect display and guide of the life He was to His followers. The law never is this — good if a man uses it lawfully, but not for a righteous man whose Christ is.
The difference is not only in the standard but in the effect. One condemns; the other supplies what it asks for.
J. N. DarbyIf the law shone, it was death. And man could not bear it... But Christ is something real and positive in Himself: He is the light of life. To walk in the light of this life, you must first have the life. That is why He says, "whoever follows Me."
The one condition: following
Everything in the promise hangs on one phrase at its centre. Nothing else qualifies a person, and no achievement can take its place.
C. H. MackintoshThese words from the Master's lips stop us short: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Notice the words, "whoever follows Me." Only Jesus gives life and light. A man who does not follow Jesus is sunk in death and darkness, even if he has the most brilliant mind and all the learning of science and knowledge.
The promise also works in reverse. It gives a test for dark days.
Hamilton SmithIf, as too often happens with us, our way seems dark, does it not warn us that we are only following Him feebly?
The light of life
The promise is more than a lamp held out on the path ahead. Light also enters the heart.
F. W. GrantIn Himself, Christ is the Life, and that Life is the Light of men... But Christ received in the heart, the life received, becomes the light for that heart. In His light it finds light, and so in following Him it has the "light of life."
The two gifts belong together. God does not give the one without the other.
C. H. MackintoshAs we get "life" so we get "light" in Christ... God would not give us life and leave us in the dark. This would not be like Him. He has given us His Son; and believing in Him, we get life. Then following Him, we get light — the light of life.
Summary
- Light — He claims the temple's ancient glory as His own. He will not keep it inside one nation. The sun rising over Judea is meant for the world.
- Exposure — Light shows things as they are. It uncovers man and reveals God — as the accusers had just found out.
- Following — The whole promise turns on "whoever follows Me." Talent and learning leave a person in the dark without it.
- Life — Light received is not only a path lit ahead but life within, because God does not give life and leave His people in the dark.
- Freedom from darkness — The law shone, and it meant death. This light gives the very life it asks for, so the follower never walks in darkness.