1 John 2:7-11
The Old Commandment Made New
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. - 1 John 2:7-11
Introduction
In an attempt to kill the dead religiosity of the last century, preachers have placed an over-emphasis on a “personal relationship with Jesus.” I believe the motive behind this is well and good. I also think many of the talking points of these preachers are Biblical and appropriate. No one gets saved by joining a church, getting baptized, or being raised in a Christian family. Salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; the new birth is a grace that every Christian must experience personally as an individual. However, the saturation of Evangelicalism with these kinds of sermons has created a mindset in many that is equally as deadly as the dead religiosity it was trying to refute. To think God saved us just so we could live private Christian lives without a local church or fellowship with other believers is as sinful as it is unbiblical. It’s possible that so many in 2020 were willing to abandon the local assembly in exchange for “virtual church” because they never saw the need for the corporate gathering in the first place. What’s the difference between watching a live-stream sermon and showing up in person if Christianity is only about your individual relationship with God? We need to remember that when God reconciles us to Himself, He also reconciles us to His people. Do you love the people of God? If the answer is “no,” you may not be a Christian.
In the text before us, John lays out yet another test of true conversion. If the light of God’s grace has shown in our hearts it will inevitably give us a supernatural love for other Christians that the world knows not. To “love Jesus” and hate the Church is to hate Jesus. A lack of love for believers demonstrates a lack of gospel light; we are still unconverted if we have no love for the people of God. Christ is the head and the Church is His body; to reject the body is to be cut off from the head. Christ is the groom and the Church is His bride; to reject the bride is to have no fellowship with the groom. Here, John lays out the teaching of an old commandment made new, the family dynamics of God’s children, and the blind hatred of the falsely converted yet living in darkness.
The Commandment
The dated language of the old King James Version can be a little tricky in verses seven and eight. In verse seven, he says “I write no new commandment unto you…” and then in the next, he says “a new commandment I write unto you….” Before getting confused or frustrated, we need to recognize that the problem is never with God or His Word. Most apparent “contradictions” in Scripture can be remedied with only a surface level study. I find the NASB helpful:
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. [emphasis added]
John is re-emphasizing an ancient truth. This ancient truth is the supernatural love that Christians have for each other. This is a truth that God has always had for His people, and was already being practiced naturally among the true converts in the church John wrote to.
First, we have something old, something ancient. When there were only two human beings free from sin and death in the Garden of Eden with God, it was not just love for God that united them, but love for each other. When humans were cast from the Garden in the curse, God still expected them to trust Him and care for each other. Cain’s famous question following the murder of his brother was, “Am I my brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9)?” Despite being cast from the Garden, bearing sin, and bound for death, God still expected these people to love and faulted them when they didn’t. This even continued on to the giving of the law and mt. Sinai. The moral law of God can be summarized by loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, as well as loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39); commandments 1-4 show how we love God, commandments 5-10 show how we love others. The commandment to love is nothing new!
Next, we move to the way that this old commandment is made new to us by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christian love is a direct result of gospel light. John learned this firsthand from Jesus. He records in his Gospel:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 12:34-35).
Here, Jesus took the ancient commandment to love one another, and directly applied it as a fruit of the new birth. There always has and always will be a love that God’s people should have for the lost world, but there is a unique love that only Christians have for each other. Here, Jesus talks about a Christian love that the world recognizes, not a love that they partake in. We love the lost world by preaching the gospel, sacrificially giving, and representing Christ to them; Christian love for the lost is demonstrated by the parable of the good samaritan. No matter how broken, different, or hurting they are, we should be willing to give of ourselves in love to help. However, Christians love each other by communing together in regular fellowship and worship. They bear one another's burdens of temptation, lamentation, tribulation, etc. and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). The world cannot know Christian fellowship unless they experience the new birth. Thus, there is a unifying love that only Christians can have. Red flags should be raised if a church does not have this love.
The Family of God
For many years, I struggled with the assurance of salvation. One of the greatest comforts of my soul came when I spent a day journaling out my Christian testimony in light of the tests in 1 John. My assurance grew when, looking back at my life, I could see a distinct time when a supernatural love for God’s people was born in my life. For example, when I first began middle school, I was lost. I had no joy in God, His Word, or His church. I would go to the youth group and dread every second of it, then I would hang out with my pagan friends and have the time of my life! After my heart was regenerated a year later, I went back to school and found that my old friends didn’t enjoy my company the way they once did. One of my buddies told a dirty joke one day and when I went to join in with the coarse jesting I felt a sting of conviction I had never felt before. Suddenly, spending time with the other kids in the youth group became life giving; whereas time with my lost friends was kind of draining. By the time I began high school, my best friends on earth were naturally other Christians. It’s not that I didn’t love my lost friends anymore, nor did I ever want them cut out of my life. It’s just that my lost friends were just that, friends; believers became my brothers and sisters.
My assurance of salvation grew more and more as I traveled the world and met Christians in the 10/40 window. When I served in the Himalayas, I can recall a time at church when the congregation began to sing There is Power in the Blood in their country’s language. Tears filled my eyes as the Lord illuminated my perspective to see the same blood that washed my sins away had united me with these people at the ends of the earth. Even though we were different regarding color, culture, country, and communication, we were one in Christ. When I went to share the gospel in the streets, there were multiple occasions that I met believers at random. Every time, there would be an immediate connection between us. Although we knew nothing about each other, our Spirits bore witness with one another that we were siblings in the family of God.
I once heard of a public reunion in celebration of wartime veterans. One veteran was in the room with his large group of friends and family. Everyone there gathered around the elderly warrior and asked him questions about his service, and listened to tales of military life. At one point, a second veteran who had served with the first overseas walked in the room. The crowd went silent as the two men stoically greeted one another. They had fought together, suffered together, endured the misery of war together. There was an unspoken connection between the two of them that the rest of the room couldn’t possibly understand. No matter how hard the veterans could have tried to explain it, only they had the ability to share that bond, because only they had experienced that kind of life.
When a person is born again, they pass from death to life. They undergo a God-given grace-empowered change of their desires, disposition, and default setting throughout the entirety of their being. Their relationship with sin goes from love to hate. Their relationship with God goes from hate to love. They are taken from the broad road on its way to destruction, and are placed on the narrow road on the way to eternal life. When two delivered pilgrims meet on the narrow road, there is an immediate connection between them that transcends the deepest friendships of unregenerate life. Without having to say a word, true believers share this supernatural love for the brethren.
I don’t think it would be appropriate to discuss Christian love without looking at 1 Corinthians 13:4-6. For the sake of clarity, I quote from the NASB. I want you to look at each verse, and ask yourself some critical questions about the way you demonstrate love toward your fellow members in the local church:
Verse 4: Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.
Ask yourself, “When the leadership takes too long to make a decision; when the worship team plays a song I don’t like; when the pastor steps on my toes and offends me; when someone at Sunday School gets under my skin; am I patient? Am I kind to those people?” Ask yourself, “Do I think I’m better than other people in the church? Do I think everyone would be better off here if only I had the microphone or center of attention? Do I brag? Am I proud?
Verse 5: It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered
Ask yourself, “Do I get easily triggered when things don’t go my way? Do I desire the will of God, the glory of God, and the good of the church above my own ideas? Do I value my opinion above all others? Do I hold grudges? Do I have a record of other Christians who have wronged me who I refuse to forgive?”
Verse 6: it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth
Ask yourself, “When things get painful and messy, do I rejoice when the truth wins out? Do I rejoice when the truth is spoken and made known? Or, do I rejoice when sin is swept under the rug, and unrighteousness continues?”
Verse 7: it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Ask yourself, “Have I been quick to give up on my church? Do I keep the faith in hard times? Do I hope for the best when situations look bleak? Do I endure for the sake of my Church family?”
When a member of my church looked back on a painful church split in years past, I commended her and her family for staying. She simply said, “Church is your family. You don’t give up on your family.” That mindset is so powerful when compared to others I know of who tuck tail and leave the day they get offended or butt heads with another member. We need to be better than that. The gospel should have more of a life-changing effect on us than that. When a church commits corporate apostasy, you should leave; but until that time, your church is your family. Love them. Believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.
The Hatred of the Blind
First, John notes that those who hate their brothers in Christ, are “in darkness even until now.” This means that they are not now nor were they ever saved. We can define hatred as a violation of the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not murder.” Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that this commandment goes far beyond merely avoiding the physical act of taking another’s life unjustly. Jesus said:
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire (Matthew 5:22)
Seeking to destroy another’s reputation, curse them, consider them worthless or good-for-nothing, and harbor grudges in our hearts, is no different in the eyes of God than the way Cain took the life of Abel. It is so serious that Jesus promised we will not escape the judgement of hell for such sins.
Second, John tells us that these individuals who claim to be in the light yet live in hate cause others to stumble. Just as Jesus said they would know we were Christians by our love (John 13:35), so they will know we are not Christians by our hate. When you keep murder in your heart, you block others from coming to Christ, and inadvertently teach Christians that sin is okay. Hatred is a stumbling block.
Finally, these people walk in darkness and know not where they are going. This means they continue in their unregenerate condition. As the parable proclaims, the blind cannot lead the blind, otherwise they will both fall in a pit (Luke 6:39). You cannot remain in this condition, or look to others like you and expect to find Christ at the end of the road. You must heed John’s words here and now if true assurance will ever be born in your heart.
Conclusion
What brings Christian love according to the text? Light. If you feel as though you are guilty of hatred for the brethren, you do not first need better behavior, you need the blessing of salvation. You can’t stirr up better love, you can only look at the light. Consider the light of the gospel that was revealed in Jesus Christ; how He bore the sins of those who hated Him at Calvary; how He suffered a punishment He did not deserve and offered life to a people bound for death. When we believe this good news of the cross, the light of the gospel will shine in our hearts, and love for God’s people will be the result.
