Joh 3:19-20 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (20) For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

In your contacts with evil, most of you have known how wickedness works overtime to conceal itself. That is what John is talking about in these verses. The wicked love darkness because it lends itself to hiding. To concealment. To secret-keeping. Truth, on the other hand, God’s truth – exposes what is lurking in the darkness.

Secrecy is a common tactic of this darkness. Secrecy blinds people to what is really going on in the dark. And evil people demand that everyone keep their secrets. That everyone maintain the disguise for them. Evil insists that its evil never be spoken of. Rather, lies are to be told that support the whitewashed exterior mask and keep the true person hidden.

You will always be punished by the wicked for speaking truth because truth reveals reality. When that revelation happens, the fangs come out. Jesus, the Light of the world, experienced that and He told us that we who belong to Him will experience it in this world as well. Evil people are murderous toward anyone who speaks the truth about them. From tyrant dictators right on down to the domestic abuser who wears a “christian” disguise, these evil ones insist that we keep their secrets. All of their power and control tactics are aimed at maintaining this secrecy. “Don’t you ever talk to anyone about what goes on in this family.”

And this is also one of the primary reasons the wicked hate the righteous. Cain killed Abel because Abel’s deeds were righteous. At the root of so much domestic abuse and violence that we see hiding in churches is this very thing. Murderous hatred toward the victim simply because her/his life exposes what is hidden. That is to say, Christian domestic violence victims are being persecuted by an emissary of the devil.

Joh 3:21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”