Witness to the Word. Karl Barth

its work in the world in spite of the world, reaches its goal, finds faith, and gives birth to children of God. Even though it is present to the world in the dignity of the Creator, it meets only with resistance in it. Like what is said in v. 5 (that it shines in isolation, in the darkness which does not comprehend it, but that it still finds its witness in the sphere of darkness, that by its power and deed it still finds open ears in the world that resists it), this truth shames the world and brings blame upon it and complaint against it. Yet again we must not make the Evangelist stop there. We must not find in him only an attitude of what might be called theological pettiness in face of the world. The church’s right to judge the world depends upon the judgment not being a last word but having only subordinate significance. And this is what it has in this passage. What the Evangelist says about the world is not said for its own sake but for the glorifying of the Word, which, although it is not received by men, sees to it that nevertheless it is received, because it has the power to give exousia where none exists. To this goal, which is intimated in v. 9, we have taken the first step in v. 10.