6
A New Kind of Love
(1 John 2:7-11)
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. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 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. (2:7-11)
Love is the preeminent mark of a genuine believer. Love for God is the benchmark of one’s relationship to Him, and love for other people is the epitome of human relationships. The New Testament repeatedly sets forth the supremacy of love. Jesus cited two Old Testament verses (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18) as proof that to love God and man is to fulfill the supreme commandment of the law:
But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:34-40; cf. 7:12; Rom. 13:10; 1 Tim. 1:5)
In a majestic and lyrical passage in his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul argued for the superiority of love over spiritual gifts:
But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 12:31-13:13; cf. Matt. 5:44-45; John 13:34-35; 15:9; Eph. 4:32; Phil. 2:1-4; Col. 3:14; Heb. 10:24; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:8, 17-19)
Because love is the saint’s highest moral duty toward others, it is not only the ultimate mark of genuine salvation, but also provides the supreme assurance of that reality.
In this passage John reiterates the theme of light versus darkness that he had introduced earlier (cf. 1:5-7). Light represents the kingdom of Christ and eternal life (Luke 2:32; John 1:4, 9; 8:12; 12:46; 2 Cor. 4:4b; 1 Peter 2:9; cf. Ps. 36:9; Prov. 4:18; John 3:20-21; Eph. 5:13), and darkness represents the kingdom of Satan and eternal death (Prov. 2:13; Matt. 8:12; 22:13; Acts 26:18; Eph. 5:11; 6:12; Col. 1:13; 1 Thess. 5:5; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; cf. Isa. 59:9-10). Though a form of the word love appears only once in this section, love is clearly John’s theme as he emphasizes its primacy as a moral test to verify salvation (cf. 3:10-11, 16-18, 23; 4:7-12, 16-21; 5:1-3; 2 John 5-6). The passage describes love as an old commandment, a new commandment, and a way of life.
LOVE AS AN OLD COMMANDMENT
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. (2:7)
Throughout the centuries preachers, teachers, and commentators have called John “the apostle of love.” His love to fellow believers to whom he wrote often expressed itself by the familiar term beloved (cf. 3:2, 21; 4:1, 7; 3 John 2). That title was so appropriate in this epistle, which affirms love as the benchmark of true salvation.
In a play on words, extended into verse 8, John wrote that the commandment to love was not a new commandment in one sense, but actually an old commandment. It had been taught throughout the biblical text. Whether they were Jews or Gentiles, John’s readers would have heard from the Old Testament about the concept of loving one another (1 Sam. 20:17, 41-42; cf. Gen. 45:15; Ps. 133:1-2). In the Pentateuch, God established the law of love in unmistakable terms: “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18).
Instructing the Romans concerning brotherly love, Paul quoted the Decalogue and Leviticus 19:18:
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom. 13:8-10; cf. John 13:34-35; 1 Cor. 14:1; Phil. 1:9; Col. 3:14; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 6:10; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; 1 John 3:23; 4:7, 21)
There is an inseparable link between obedience and loving God and one’s neighbor; thus Paul declares that “love is the fulfillment of the law.”
The truth that they were to love one another was something his readers would have had from the beginning. The beginning in view here is not the creation or God’s giving of the Law to Moses, but the beginning of their Christian lives (cf. 2:24; 3:11; 2 John 6). This was taught them from the start, not merely by some recent innovation from John. The word concerning love which they heard was the old commandment, the Old Testament teaching on love, which Jesus had already reiterated (Matt. 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; cf. Matt. 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36). When John’s readers became Christians, they would have committed themselves to obey God’s law, love Him, and love others, all of which Jesus taught and exemplified during His earthly ministry (Matt. 5:1-7:27; 16:24-27; 19:16-26; 28:18-20; Luke 10:29-37; 14:25-35; John 4:21-24; 6:26-58; 8:12, 31-32; 12:23-26; 13:1, 12-17; 15:1-17; 21:15-19; cf. John 7:37-38; 10:11-18; 11:25-26). John’s teaching was thus part of the ethical instruction throughout all divine revelation and such as his readers had heard from the beginning of their Christian lives. Obedience to that instruction was a test of the reality of their conversion and a central element in the general submission of all who are in Jesus Christ and willingly bow to His lordship (Matt. 7:21-23; Luke 6:46; 9:22-26; Acts 4:19-20; 5:29; Rom. 6:17; 1 Peter 1:2, 14; cf. Eccl. 12:13; James 1:25).
LOVE AS A NEW COMMANDMENT
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. (2:8)
On the surface, I am appears to contradict John’s previous “I am not” (v. 7). But a closer look clearly reveals that John was using this seeming contradiction to clarify how the old commandment to love is at the same time not new and yet new. There is a sense in which John was writing a new (kainos) commandment. Kainos (used in both vv. 7 and 8) defines something that is fresh in essence and quality while not necessarily chronologically new (kairos).
The commandment’s newness is not found in the words, but in the illustration of love, described in the expression, which is true in Him. Even though the Old Testament taught the duty to love, never before had perfect love been so plainly manifested as it was in the incarnate Christ (John 13:1; 15:13; Acts 10:38; 2 Cor. 8:9; cf. Isa. 40:11; Matt. 4:23-24; 11:28-30; 23:37-39; Luke 19:41). So the newness is not in the command to love, but in the perfect manifestation of love in the person of Christ. This is one of many ways in which the Son of God incarnate revealed the nature of God in a fullness not before manifest (cf. John 1:14–15; Col. 2:9).
The Lord magnificently illustrated this truth in the upper room just hours before His death. His promises that night to the apostles that He would prepare a place in heaven for them (John 14:1-4), that His peace would be with them (John 14:27), that He would send the Holy Spirit to them (John 14:25-26; 15:26; 16:7-15), and that by abiding in Him they would bear much fruit (John 15:1-11) were reflections of His divine love. But He displayed love most graciously in His humbling service to them. John 13:1-17 records what happened:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
The Lord’s selfless, humble act was in keeping with Paul’s portrait of Christ in his letter to the Philippians:
He existed in the form of God, [but] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:6-8)
Christ’s ministry in the upper room manifested the heart of God—perfect love, perfect sacrifice (Isa. 53:3-12; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:12), and perfect humility (Luke 22:27).
But the commandment to love not only has a new expression because of love’s powerful display in Christ’s life and ministry; it is also fresh because of its manifestation in the lives of believers. It is a glorious demonstration of what it means to be a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). If anything defines this love from the human side, it is humility. Sinners are radically humbled (cf. James 4:6-10) to the point of self-hate (Luke 14:26) and self-denial (Matt. 16:24-27), so as to be like the penitent tax collector in Luke 18:13-14:
But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
At salvation, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the believer’s life (John 14:16-17; Rom. 8:9, 14; 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:14; 1 John 2:27; 3:24; 4:13) and sustains the original humility, out of which He produces spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22-23), the most important of which is love. The apostle Paul affirmed the presence of this love in believers when he wrote to the Romans, “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (5:5), and when he wrote to the Thessalonians that “as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you … for indeed you do practice it toward all But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more” (1 Thess. 4:9-10).
The new commandment or manifestation of love has come because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. Obviously, the true Light is Jesus Christ (John 8:12), who has come and inaugurated His kingdom (Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:5; John 12:12-15; Heb. 1:8-9; 12:28; cf. Ps. 24:7-10), in which He (and this new dimension of love) is already shining (cf. Eph. 3:16-19). With the inauguration of Messiah’s spiritual kingdom, the true Light began shining and overcoming the darkness of Satan’s kingdom (Rom. 16:20; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8; cf. Eph. 6:11-16). Right now the light coexists with the darkness, but the Light and the divine love He bears will increasingly dispel the darkness (cf. 1 John 2:17a), shine ever brighter during Christ’s millennial reign, and eventually rule supremely throughout eternity. Thus, it is only because believers have been “rescued … from the domain of darkness, and transferred … To the kingdom of His beloved Son,” the Light, that this new commandment is a reality in their lives (Col. 1:13).
LOVE AS A WAY OF LIFE
The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 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. (2:9-11)
In this concluding portion of the passage, John applies the test of supernatural love to those who claim to be Christians. Its presence is a sure indicator of transformation, salvation, and divine life. The false teachers of John’s day arrogantly claimed a higher knowledge of the divine nature and communion with deity, but it produced only proud disdain for unenlightened, common people. But the Christians, most of whom were slaves or members of the working class (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-29), were the truly enlightened who demonstrated their true knowledge of God as they not only loved one another, but reached out in love to those lost in sin’s darkness (cf. Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35).
It is a meaningless boast for someone to say he is in the Light (cf. Matt. 7:21-23; James 1:22; 2:14–26; 1 John 1:6); if he (or she) hates his brother—meaning that he does not love saints selflessly as God does—he is not in the divine kingdom of light but remains in the darkness until now. On the other hand, the one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. Those who love and obey God’s Word and express selfless love to fellow believers are truly transformed; they are not going to cause others to fall. In the New Testament, stumbling refers to sinning (cf. Matt. 5:29-30; 13:41; 18:6, 8-9; Luke 17:2; John 16:1; 1 Cor. 8:13; Rev. 2:14). John used the term to explain that the person who truly loves others—as a reflection of his love for Christ—will not cause them to sin (cf. Rom. 13:8-10) or reject the gospel. So there is a love that proves salvation, as the Son of God said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
John emphatically reiterates that anyone who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks [follows a normal course of life] in the darkness. Such people do not know where they are going [cf. John 12:35] because the darkness has blinded their eyes. They are like those who are completely blind and grope around to determine where they are (cf. Gen. 19:11; Acts 13:11-12). Such loveless people are clearly outside the kingdom of Light (cf. Matt. 5:21-22; 1 John 3:15) and void of spiritual life. John described such claimants earlier as liars:
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1:5-6)
Unconverted sinners, devoid of love and living in spiritual darkness, cannot possibly fulfill Jesus’ well-known love command (see again John 13:34-35), which He originally gave to the apostles in the upper room. Neither can they express the kind of sacrificial love Jesus showed when He washed the apostles’ feet (John 13:3-15), nor what He referred to later that evening when He declared, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13; cf. 1 John 3:16).
On the other hand, obedience to that commandment is a valid test for each believer’s genuineness. Such obedience provides a distinct contrast to those who are without love and persist in walking in darkness. Believers who manifest the new kind of love first taught by Jesus and reiterated by John truly obey the Lord’s command in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16; cf. Eph. 5:8; Phil. 2:15; 1 Peter 2:9).