Light came into the world to bring men out of darkness.

“condemnation” (KJV) or “verdict (NIV) is krisis in the Greek and means judgment, decision of condemnation, or verdict.  Notice the continuation of usage of judicial language.

How well does witnessing work?  How successful is it?  This verse tells why it is not more successful than it is.  Men do not want to come into the light because their deeds are evil and they do not want to change.  To be exposed to the light would be painful. Have you ever turned on a light in a room infested with cockroaches? They immediately flee. Light exposes our sin (Eph 5:13) and then we must make the choice of either dealing with what is wrong with us or turning our backs on it. Knowledge brings responsibility. We would rather walk in blissful ignorance and hide our guilt in our hearts (Job 31:33).

Eph 5:13  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,

Job 31:33  if I have concealed my sin as men do, by hiding my guilt in my heart

Since the fall of man, we dread the approach of God (Gen 3:8) for we know that when God comes, He sees all and will expose all. Sin is what keeps us separated from God because it is the exact opposite of Who God is. In Old Testament times it was thought that to see God meant death (Judges 13:22). Man’s sin made him flee from God then and it still does today.

Genesis 3:8  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Judges 13:22  “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

“Jesus himself is the only moral and spiritual light of the world #8:12 as he dared claim to his enemies. The pity of it all is that men fall in love with the darkness of sin and rebel against the light like denizens of the underworld, ‘for their works were evil…’ When the light appears, they scatter to their holes and dens… In the end the god of this world blinds men’s eyes so that they do not see the light 2Co 4:4. The fish in the Mammoth Cave have no longer eyes, but only sockets where eyes used to be. The evil one has a powerful grip on the world 1Jo 5:19.” (RWP)

John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

2 Cor 4:4  The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

1 John 5:19  We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.