<p>3:19-21 and 12:32-46 see commentary there suggest that one level of meaning of Jesus as &ldquo;light of the world&quot; was that in the darkness that came over the land at the crucifixion, He upon the cross was the light of a darkened world. The Lord was &ldquo;the beginning of the new creation of God&quot; (Rev. 3:14); each believer who enters the spiritual world is enlightened by the light of Christ crucified. The Lord on the cross is the epitome of all that He was and is; His life, His word / <em>logos</em>, His Spirit.</p><p>John&rsquo;s Gospel is full of reference to Essence concepts. It&rsquo;s been widely argued that John&rsquo;s language alludes to the threat of incipient Gnosticism, and this may be true. But it&rsquo;s likely that John was written quite early, even before AD70. In this case, when John speaks of light and darkness, children of light and darkness, the Jewish &lsquo;Satan&rsquo; / adversary to Christianity as &ldquo;the ruler of this world&rdquo;, he would also be alluding to these common Essene ideas. For John, following the light means following Jesus as Lord; the darkness refers to the flesh, the desires within us to conform to the surrounding world and its thinking. His point, therefore, is that instead of fantasizing about some cosmic battle going on, true Christians are to understand that the essential struggle is within the mind of each of us.</p>