Avoid committing major sins. Ugly, nasty sins. Live a decent, moral life. Practice religion. Go to church. Read the Bible and pray. Believe and recite the creed. Some people have made the mistake of thinking of the Christian life mainly in these terms. Refrain from the shameful, public sins, and one has for the most part done what is required. Remember, the Apostle John is seeking to distinguish true Christianity from the counterfeit preached by false prophets. So far he has said that Christians walk in the light (1:5-7). This means that they acknowledge and confess their sins to their Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, whose blood cleanses them from their sins (1:8–2:2). And it means that they keep the commandments of God (2:3-6). Were he to say no more than this, the stereotype of the rigid, harsh moralist might be possible. There it is, someone might say. Keep the commands. Avoid bad things. This is the mark of a Christian.

The Apostle John takes us a step further. Not only do believers confess sin and keep the commandments, they also love. The Apostle is not teaching a new form of legalism. Believers can’t just check off the rules that they keep, and sins they avoid, and conclude that they have passed the test. What Marshall calls “positive acts of love” are also required.”1 Those who walk in the light will love.

We note as well that love is a commandment. It is, indeed, the most comprehensive commandment, one which summarizes and encompasses the rest. We must not pit love against law. The law commands love. Love requires that we “do no wrong to our neighbor” (Rom 13:10). Law requires that we “love our neighbor as ourself” (Lev 19:18). If we love God we will love people. If we love people we will obey Christ’s commands. It is inevitably the case. The Apostle John later says,

If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 Jn 4:20)

We will now look at love and the Christian’s identity, love and Christian mission, and love and Christian living.

Christian identity

Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. (1 Jn 2:7,8)

The new/old commandment about which the Apostle John writes is the commandment to love, as verses 9 and 10 make clear. The Apostle is making two points: first, the command to love is an old command (v 7); second, it is a new command announced by John (v 8). This sounds contradictory, but obviously John is not so confused as to refute himself in succeeding verses. What does he mean?

First, the commandment to love is an old commandment. It reaches all the way back into the Old Testament (Lev 19:18). They have had the command to love “from the beginning,” meaning from when they first heard the gospel, the beginning of their Christian lives.2 From the beginning they heard the message of salvation is Christ (1:1-5). From the beginning they also were taught the command to love. “The love command was handed on alongside of the gospel message itself,” says Kruse.3 Salvation and ethic, grace and duty, were taught side-by-side. The apostolic witness “included both the record of God’s saving work in Christ,” says Bruce, “and instruction (based on the teaching of Christ Himself) about the way of life befitting the beneficiaries of this saving work.”4 The Apostle John even identifies the love commandment with the “word” itself, a critical term in his gospel vocabulary, as in John 1:1-14. “The old commandment is the word,” (logos) he says. The Apostle Paul will say, “preach the word,” using logos as his comprehensive term for the gospel (2 Tim 4:2). Love was basic, fundamental teaching, a part of the gospel “word” itself.

I. H. Marshall suggests that the Apostle John might be defending himself from the charge that he was introducing “novel rules which they could ignore.”5 Calvin notes that in his day novelty was universally “hated and suspected.”6 Even today one may discredit another by saying that he is introducing changes, or teaching something never before taught. So the Apostle John is saying that the command to love did not originate with him. It is an old command. The Old Testament commanded the people of God to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). Jesus repeatedly commanded us to “love one another” (Jn 13:34; 15:12,17). It was He who said, “Love your enemies” (Mt 5:43,44). It was He who told the parable of the Good Samaritan, illustrating what it means to love one’s neighbor (Lk 10:25-37). John is saying, there is nothing novel in my teaching. I am merely repeating the “old commandment,” what you have had “from the beginning,” from Jesus, and from Moses before Him.

Interest in demonstrating the antiquity of belief is not an unusual apostolic concern. Even in the days of the New Testament they will say, “I serve (God) with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did” (2 Tim 1:3; cf. Acts 24:14). The things learned from the Apostles, in turn, were faithfully to be passed on to succeeding generations (2 Tim 2:2). “Continue in the things you have learned,” they say (2 Tim 3:14). “Guard . . . the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Tim 1:13,14; 1 Tim 6:20,21).

The great nineteenth century Presbyterian theologian, Charles Hodges, speaking at the 50th anniversary of Princeton Seminary, boasted that there had never been a new idea at Princeton. Princeton taught the faith handed down from the Apostles, through Augustine, the Reformers, and the Westminster divines, he maintained. They had nothing new to say. They stood proudly in that great tradition. During my early years at Independent Presbyterian Church I was sometimes suspected of novelty. I took great consolation in reading about the men of God who had led this church in the past; of their commitment to the gospel, to Reformed theology, and to historic Reformed worship and ministry. Many of them, indeed, were Princeton men. When I discovered that they had conducted Reformation Sunday services, encouraged catechizing and family worship, it was reassuring. The Rev. Neal Anderson, pastor in the 1920’s, was attacked by the Mayor of Savannah for denouncing the opening of movie houses on Sundays. Bad press was nothing new at Ol’ Independent. We merely had returned to the old paths of the fathers of this church. This would be the Apostle John’s point. He is not an innovator. When looking for genuine Christianity, look for antiquity, for apostolicity, for historical rootedness.

Second, the commandment to love is a new commandment. Jesus before him identified the command to love as a “new commandment” (Jn 13:34; 15:12,17; 1 Jn 3:23). The Apostle John follows Jesus’ lead:

On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. (1 Jn 2:8)

In what sense was it new? Jesus gave to the command to love “a depth of meaning, which it had not possessed before,” says Bruce. Jesus gave it “new-covenant newness,” says Ian Hamilton.8 John Stott outlines 4 ways in which it is new:

o new in emphasis: Jesus stressed the importance of love far more than the Old Testament did.

o new in quality: the love He stressed was His love, a love which sacrifices life itself.

o new in extent: it embraces enemies, foreigners, tax-collectors, “sinners.”

o new in staying power – it is continually new because “God . . . as it were daily renews it”

The overall point, we might say, is that it was new in Christ. The new commandment is ‘true in Him.” Love received a fresh exposition in the life of Jesus. He embodied it. “True” may be understood as “real” (cf. Acts 12:9) or “genuine” or “realized.” The command was “truly expressed” “in Him.”10 We see love most clearly in His life and teachings, and especially His death. “Greater love has no man than this . . .” (Jn 15:13). And this love is reproduced in the lives of believers. What was true “in Him” was also true “in you.” The love that was “in Him” is realized in the lives of believers. We are to follow His example of love (Jn 13:15). We’re to follow in His steps (1 Pet 2:21). We’re to have the attitude which was in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5).

How can we do this, given our natural self-centered ways? Only because our hearts are changed by Christ. The love is Christ is “shed abroad” or “poured out” in our hearts (Rom 5:5). Love is fundamental to Christian identity.

Christian mission

The metaphor then shifts in verse 8 from love to light, as he identifies light with love. “Because the darkness is passing away,” he says. Love is overcoming darkness. Jesus’ love is light. Jesus is the “light of the world” (8:12; 9:5; cf. 1:4-9; 3:19-21; 5:35; 11:9,10; 12:35,36,46). His light (love) banishes the darkness. His love is the ethic of the new age in which darkness “is passing away” and “the true light is already shining.”

This gives us a picture of the mission of the church in our age. Notice the verb tenses. This is the age in which the darkness of sin and hatred “is passing away,” and the light “is already shining.” When? Now. Doesn’t the Apostle John mean that in the future the darkness will be overcome and the light will shine? No, the light now shines. The light now is overcoming. The darkness is passing away and the light is shining ever brighter now, in this era. What causes the darkness to pass away? The light of Christ’s love, as evidenced in His life and reproduced in the life of His people. By our love for God and one another we overcome the darkness. The church is in a mission of conquest, conquering the darkness through the light of love. This is the victory that we are involved in right now. It is not enough for us to be doctrinally sound. It is not enough for us to be morally upright. We must be both, but they are not in themselves sufficient. Love establishes the credibility of our doctrines and ethics. Love is absolutely central to our calling and mission as Christians. This is not a novel thing. This is vital and central to the accomplishment of the mission to which we have been called.

What does it mean in practical terms? It means caring, making oneself aware of needs (as opposed to settling for culpable ignorance), befriending and bearing the burdens of others. It means helping in the nursery. It means working with the youth. It means organizing the adult Sunday School activities. It means visiting the elderly. There are needs to be met. There are people to be helped. Don’t think in terms of the sensational. The best acts of love are quiet and unknown. Send a note. Make a call. Run an errand. I know of a member of our church who picked up another member, a young mother without a car at home, and took her grocery shopping every Tuesday for months and months. I know of another family in our church who welcomed into their home the family of a former convict for 2 weeks, people whom they had not previously met. This is what love is and does. Love sacrifices. Love gives. Love reaches out. Love forgives. Love prays. Frequently, it is quiet. But its impact is felt and it slowly overpowers evil, and runs to victory. Love for the brethren establishes a community of light which lends credibility to the gospel of light, which together banish the darkness.

What if we fail to love?

The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. (1 Jn 2:9)

“The one who says,” represents a claim of the false prophets. They may have claimed to be “in the light” in some mystical sense.12 Yet they hated their fellow Christians. They harbored hostility towards Christian brethren. It is doubtful that they hated all their fellow Christians. Their hated was selective. “The hatred of which Jesus speaks is probably not hatred of all Christians,” says Kruse, “but of those who are not a part of one’s own group, those who are on the other side.”13 The hated ones may have somewhat different convictions; or different practices; or different childrearing philosophies; or different approaches to Christian liberty. One cannot validly claim to dwell in God’s light and yet “hate (one’s) brother.” Why? Because hate is evil. Because God’s light is morally pure, and moral excellence is found in love which fulfills the law. If we hate our fellow Christian, no matter what we may claim, we are still in darkness, the darkness of sin, and the flesh, and the devil. We have not yet received the light of Christ. We are in the realm of evil. Hatred for our fellow believer is incompatible with life in God’s light. Love for the brethren is necessary for the believer, and love is tested in one’s treatment of others. “It is not a matter of sentimental feelings and language,” as Bruce explains.

Similarly, hatred is not merely the passion to destroy or harm. Hatred can be merely a passion to avoid, a refusal to love, a refusal to care, to bear burdens, to help. To hate can be to remain indifferent in the face of the needs of the brethren. This is far easier to do and far more common than we generally recognize. The Apostle Paul says that there are not many wise, mighty, or noble believers, according to the flesh. Most of us, he says, are foolish, weak, base, and despised. We are of the “are nots” and “have nots” rather than the “ares” and “haves” (1 Cor 1:26-28). It is easy for us to fall into a pecking order and not want to associate with our inferiors. If we are “wise,” it is easy to disdain the foolish; if we are “mighty” it is easy to disdain the “weak and poor;” if we are “noble” it is easy to disdain those of lower social orders, the base and despised. We place a distance between ourselves and those we perceive to be our intellectual, social, or monetary inferiors. We avoid mixing with them. We deliberately remain ignorant of their needs. We keep them at arm’s distance and keep ourselves aloof. We see this all up and down the generations, from the children to the youth to the adults. There are the cool and the uncool, the in and the out, the accepted and the respected at every level.

We also may tend to choose those with whom we will associate based on whether or not we are able to derive some benefit from them. Those who offer no advantage to us, from whom we cannot benefit socially or financially, who cannot enhance our reputation or status or opportunities, we ignore, while we pursue those who have something to offer us. The rest we ignore. This, too, is to fail to love. This is what the Apostle John says cannot be.

The one who loves his brother abides in the light . . . (1 Jn 2:10)

There is a one-to-one correlation between love and light. Love is the sure sign that one is truly in God’s light. Love, as we have seen, is concrete. It means sacrifice. It means service. It means care, concern, burden bearing, giving. This is where the light of God leads. His light is love, and so the one who is in the light loves. The absence of love both betrays our claim of Christian identity and undermines Christian mission.

Decision-making

. . . and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (1 Jn 2:10b)

Love is the great simplifier and the great clarifier. It eliminates the darker options and directs one along the paths of life. One’s ethic becomes the simple “do the loving thing.” Because law and love are in harmony with one another, love never misleads. As the Apostle Paul says,

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom 13:10)

“It is love,” says Stott, “which sees straight, thinks clearly and makes us balanced in our outlook, judgments and conduct.”15 The Apostle John says, “there is no cause for stumbling in him,” that is, he is kept from falling into sin. The root meaning of “stumbling” (skandalon) is “trap.” It appears fifteen times in the New Testament, and always means that which causes some sort of harm to a person. “The author is saying that in the lives of those who walk in the light there is nothing to cause them to fall into sin.”16 When love directs one’s choices, then one is kept from the deceptions and complications of the world of sin. The course of life is guarded from the sand traps of pride, of destructive hatred, of selfish lust.

Consider this an axiom of life: sin is complicated, righteousness is simple. Obey God and life is pretty straightforward. Commit adultery and get caught and life gets complex. Get drunk and have a car accident and life gets complicated. Get arrested for embezzlement and life gets complicated. Sin leads to further lies and deception and a “tangled web” of trouble.

This seems to be the Apostle John’s point. Notice the progression.

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

The hater “is in the darkness,” then “walks in the darkness,” then becomes lost “and does not know where he is going,” and finally is “blinded.” “Hatred distorts our perspective,” says John Stott.17 Hatred clouds our judgment. It warps our perspective. We become disoriented, choosing not the right and moral thing, but that which will harm the object of our hatred. They “don’t know where (they are) going,” the Apostle John says. Because of hatred one “is disabled from forming ethical decisions which are crystal-clear.”18 The same is true of lovelessness. “Lack of love . . . can blind a man’s spiritual vision as effectively as the prejudice arising from hatred does . . .,” says Bruce.19 One chooses not the virtuous or proper or wise course, but that one which is self-promoting or self-aggrandizing.

Let’s summarize what we have seen. The Apostle John places the new/old commandment to love in the center of things.

First, love is central to Christian identity. The true Christian loves the brethren.

Second, love is central to Christian mission. Love for the brethren creates a community of life which underscores, even establishes, the credibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Love is indispensible to the Christian mission and message (Mt 5:13-16).

Third, love is central to Christian decision-making. It simplifies and clarifies life and its decisions. We cannot do without love. Yet it comes not from within ourselves. Love is “in Him” and consequently He places it “in us” (2:8). The love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5). It is His gift to us. It is only left to us to seek it, to pursue it, to be governed by it.