Fellowshipping With The Father And The Son - Part 10

1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

1 John 2:11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

According to John, the command for Christians to love one another is both old and new (1 John 2:7-8).

(1 John 2:7 NKJV) Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

(1 John 2:8 NKJV) Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

This seems to be a contradiction. Love obviously is not new. The commandment that men love God and each other is not a new thing. So what was John writing about? Let’s break it down.

First, John tells us that the command to love one another was an “old” commandment:

(Lev 19:18 NKJV) 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Zechariah 8:17 – “Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor…”

Jesus Himself combined Leviticus 19:18 with an Old Testament commandments from Deuteronomy 6:5 and said that these two commandments summarize all the Law and the Prophets. (Mark 12:28-34)

So, loving God and loving one’s neighbor were old, familiar responsibilities before Jesus ever came to earth.

John also lets us know that “loving one another” is a new commandment.

(John 13:34 NKJV) "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

(John 13:35 NKJV) "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

In what sense, then, is “loving one another” a “new” (1 John 2:8) commandment? Looking at the Greek helps to answer the question.

The Greeks had two different words for “new”—one means “new in time,” and the other means “new in quality.” For example, you would use the first “new” to describe a recent model of a car or a “new” hit on the recording chart.

But if you heard a kind of music or song that was so revolutionary that it was radically different, you would use the second word—new in quality or character. The DJ would introduce the CD artist as having a “new sound.”

The commandment to love one another is not new in time, but it is new in character. Because of Jesus Christ, the old commandment to “love one another” has taken on new meaning. It was “new music” to the ears of those who had been in bondage to the law or someone’s philosophy of life. It was a new quality or character of love.

In the Old Testament, loving your neighbor was the law. In the Old Testament if you didn’t love you’d die. (Lev. 20:9-10)

In the New Testament, Jesus comes and says, “I’m not coming to destroy the law, I have come to fulfill it.” (Matthew 5:17) The Bible says, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)

Love for God and love for others motivates a person to obey God’s commandments without even thinking about them! When a person acts out of Christian love he obeys God and serves others—not because of fear, not because of the law but because of love.

This is why John says that “Love one another” is a new commandment—it is new in emphasis. It is not simply one of many Old Testament commandments. No, it stands at the top of the list!

Now where there is true love, there is an absence of hatred. Psalm 97:10 says – “You who love the LORD, hate evil!” In verses 9-11 of our text John tells us you cannot say you love the Lord and hate your brother.

The true mark of a believer is that you love the brethren.

1 John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”

1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

John in essence is saying you can tell those who are in fellowship with God; they walk in light and they love. He is also letting us know that you can tell those who are not in fellowship with God; they walk in darkness and hatred.