21 Bible Verses About Darkness and Evil

Genesis 3:5

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Reflection: The serpent says this to the woman right after contradicting God’s warning with “You will not certainly die” (Genesis 3:4). He promises that eating will open their eyes and make them “like God, knowing good and evil.” Their eyes are opened, as he said, but verse 7 records that what they saw was that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

James 1:14-15

“but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Reflection: James is answering anyone who says “God is tempting me” (1:13), and his reply is that “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” Temptation comes from a person’s “own evil desire,” and he describes its course as a birth: desire conceives, sin is born, and sin grown up gives birth to death. A few lines later he sets God on the other side as “the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (1:17).

Romans 7:19

“For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

Reflection: Paul describes wanting the good and doing the evil, and he names the cause as “sin living in me” (7:20). Two verses later he puts it as a rule he has found at work: “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (7:21). Near the end of the chapter he cries, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” and answers, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:24-25).

John 3:19-20

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

Reflection: The verdict in John 3 comes two verses after the statement that God sent his Son “not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (3:17). Condemnation follows from what people prefer: they loved darkness because their deeds were evil, and they stay away from the light “for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” Verse 21 gives the opposite case, that whoever lives by the truth “comes into the light.”

Isaiah 5:20

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Reflection: Isaiah 5 pronounces a run of woes, and this one falls on people who swap the names of things: evil called good, darkness called light, bitter called sweet. The woes around it name those who mock God’s plan (5:19), those who are “wise in their own eyes” (5:21) and those who “acquit the guilty for a bribe” (5:23). Verse 24 gives the charge behind them all: “they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty.”

Ephesians 6:12

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Reflection: Paul names the opponents as “the powers of this dark world” and “the spiritual forces of evil,” so the fight is with more than other people. The verses on either side tell the reader to “put on the full armor of God” against “the devil’s schemes” (6:11), so that “when the day of evil comes” they can stand their ground (6:13).

2 Corinthians 11:14

“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

Reflection: Paul is writing about rival teachers he calls “false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ” (11:13). Their disguise does not surprise him, since Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light, and “his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness” (11:15). In this passage the danger is evil that looks like light, and Paul says of those teachers, “Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

1 Peter 5:8

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Reflection: Peter writes to believers who are suffering, and he tells them in the next verse that “the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (5:9). The command against the prowling lion is to stay alert and then “resist him, standing firm in the faith.” The verse before tells them to cast their anxiety on God “because he cares for you” (5:7), and the verse after promises that God “will himself restore you” after they have suffered a little while (5:10).

Psalm 139:11-12

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

Reflection: The psalmist asks, “Where can I flee from your presence?” (139:7), and tries the heavens, the depths, the dawn and the far side of the sea. Darkness is the last place he names, and it hides him no better than the others.

Daniel 2:22

“He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.”

Reflection: Daniel says this in praise after “the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision” during the night (2:19). He and his friends had asked for mercy so that they “might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (2:18). He ends by thanking God: “you have made known to us the dream of the king” (2:23).

Psalm 23:4

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Reflection: The King James Version reads “the valley of the shadow of death” where the NIV has “the darkest valley.” The psalm does not say the valley is safe or that evil is absent; the next verse spreads a table “in the presence of my enemies.” The reason given for not fearing is the shepherd’s company: “for you are with me.”

John 1:5

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Reflection: John’s Gospel opens “In the beginning,” the words that open Genesis, where “darkness was over the surface of the deep” until God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:2-3). The verse before calls the Word’s life “the light of all mankind” (John 1:4). Where the NIV says the darkness “has not overcome” the light, the King James Version reads “the darkness comprehended it not.”

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.’”

Reflection: Jesus says this to the people. The promise is attached to following him: the follower “will never walk in darkness.” The Pharisees answer at once that his testimony about himself “is not valid” (8:13).

2 Corinthians 4:6

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

Reflection: Verse 6 recalls the creation command of Genesis 1:3. Two verses earlier Paul says “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel” (4:4). Verse 6 then says that God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” “made his light shine in our hearts.”

Colossians 1:13-14

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Reflection: These verses belong to Paul’s prayer for the Colossians, which gives thanks to the Father for a share “in the kingdom of light” (1:12). Darkness is called a dominion, a realm with its own authority, and the verbs are past: God has rescued and has brought. The rescue is then defined as “redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Revelation 21:23, 25

“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp… On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.”

Reflection: John sees the new Jerusalem, where there is no temple “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (21:22), and no need for sun or moon. The gates stay open because there is no night. Two verses later evil is shut out as well: “Nothing impure will ever enter it” (21:27).

Ephesians 5:8, 11

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light… Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Reflection: Paul says his readers “were once darkness,” the thing itself, and are now “light in the Lord.” The fruit of that light, he says, “consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth” (5:9). The deeds of darkness are to be exposed as well as avoided, and verse 13 adds that “everything exposed by the light becomes visible.”

Romans 13:12

“The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

Reflection: Paul reads the time: “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (13:11). The next verse names the deeds of darkness: “carousing and drunkenness,” “sexual immorality and debauchery,” “dissension and jealousy” (13:13). Verse 14 adds, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5-8 joins the same pictures of night, waking and armor.

1 John 1:6-7

“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Reflection: The test rests on the verse before: “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1:5). Claiming fellowship with God while walking in darkness is called a lie. Walking in the light still involves sin that needs cleansing, since the same verse says the blood of Jesus “purifies us from all sin,” and the next warns, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves” (1:8).

Proverbs 4:18-19

“The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”

Reflection: The two paths close a warning that begins “Do not set foot on the path of the wicked” (4:14). The wicked “cannot rest until they do evil” (4:16). Their darkness is a failure to see their own danger: they “do not know what makes them stumble,” while the path of the righteous grows brighter like the morning.

Romans 12:21

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Reflection: This line ends a run of commands about enemies. Paul tells the Romans not to “repay anyone evil for evil” (12:17), to leave vengeance to God, and to feed a hungry enemy and give a thirsty one a drink (12:20). Verse 21 states the principle behind those commands.