Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 3:21

ποιῶν τ. ἀλήθ. To do the truth (1 John 1:6) is the opposite of ‘doing’ or ‘making a lie,’ ποιεῖν ψεῦδος (Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15). It is moral rather than intellectual truth that is meant, moral good recognised by the conscience (John 18:37). To ‘do the truth’ is to do that which has true moral worth, the opposite of ‘practising worthless things.’ In 1 Corinthians 13:6 we have a similar antithesis: ‘rejoicing with the truth’ is opposed to ‘rejoicing in iniquity.’ see on John 1:9.

αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔργα. Αὐτοῦ is emphatic; ‘his works’ as opposed to those of ὁ φαῦλα πράσσων. Φανερωθῇ (see on John 1:31) balances ἐλεγχθῇ: the one fears to be convicted; the other seeks the light, not for self-glorification, but as being drawn to that to which he feels that his works are akin. Ὅτι is better rendered ‘that’ than ‘because.’

ἐν θεῷ. Note the order and the tense; that it is in God that they have been wrought and still abide: the permanent result of a past act. ‘In God’ means in the presence and in the power of God.

These three verses (19–21) shew that before the Incarnation there were two classes of men in the world; a majority of evil-doers, whose antecedents led them to shun the Messiah; and a small minority of righteous, whose antecedents led them to welcome the Messiah. They had been given to Him by the Father (John 6:37; John 17:6); they recognised His teaching as of God, because they desired to do God’s will (John 7:17). Such would be Simeon, Anna (Luke 2:25; Luke 2:36), Nathanael, the disciples, &c.

We have no means of knowing how Nicodemus was affected by this interview, beyond the incidental notices of him John 7:50-51; John 19:39, which being so incidental shew that he is no fiction. The discourse exactly harmonizes with his case, teaching that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is powerless to gain admission into the kingdom of heaven. One by one his Pharisaic ideas of the kingdom, the Messiah, salvation and judgment, are challenged: from mere wonder at miracles and interest in the Worker of them he is made to look within and consider his own moral sympathies and spiritual convictions. Again we ask could a writer of the second century throw himself back to this?

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 3:21

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