Jesus said to Nicodemus,

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

John 3:16-21 - World English Bible

In these few verses from John 3, Jesus finished his dialogue with Nicodemus. A review might be in order. The passage opened with the Pharisee seeking the Lord at night to profess his general faith in him; the Lord responded with assertion that the saved must be born again (from above), since salvation meant a life in the Spirit (3:1-8). Next, after inquiry by Nicodemus, Jesus asserted he (as the "Son of Man") came from God and would return to God when he was "lifted up" on the cross, like the bronze snake Moses lifted up (3:7-15). Now, the Lord addressed the nature of divine judgment.

In 3:16-17, God the Father gave his Son, Jesus, to the world out of love, not condemnation. The one who responded in faith would not be damned, but acquitted. In fact, the only judgment imposed was self-inflicted when sinners rejected revelation (3:19). Why do evil people turn away from God showing himself (the "light") to the world? Quite simply, revelation not only displays the divine, it also shows the acts and character of those in relation to the divine. To fully employ the metaphor, revelation, like light, has a source (God) and a target (men) it "shines" upon. The evil hid from revelation in shame, while the faithful ("doer of truth") displayed his actions, to use a phrase in the vernacular, "done in broad daylight." In other words, John 3 viewed salvation-damnation in terms of honor and shame, the virtue-vice of the ancient world.

Have your actions this day brought honor or shame on the name "Christian"?