1 John 2:7-11
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The Commandment from the Beginning
The Commandment from the Beginning
Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
Ancient sources say that when John got old, 80’s or even better, he couldn’t make it to the assembly on Sunday mornings on his own (no arthritis medicine back then), so younger men of the church would come and get him and carry him to the ekklesia. Each service, they would ask him to speak. Imagine having this sort of resource in your church, the beloved disciple himself, one who not only walked with Jesus but was his closest friend, he must have the answers to all of our questions. Surely they wanted to know, John could you go over the how God could die thing again, John how can we have free will if God is sovereign, John how should we understand Genesis 1-11, John do we have this stuff about women right, John are we baptizing correctly, John are we singing the right songs, John is our church better than the one down the road. Here, a source with all the answers. Surely they sat at his feet with amazement, waiting to learn something new and fresh and profound; they would sit up and open their eyes wide when he began to open his mouth. Tradition says that each week they would carry him down front to say something, and he would repeat the same one phrase, week after week, “Little children, love one another.” After months of this, the people began to be annoyed . . . “Teacher, why do you always say this?” To which he replied, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment and it is enough.” ENOUGH.
Do you realize the weight of that answer? It is enough.
John says this, agreeing with Paul (Rom 13:8), agreeing with Peter (1 Peter 4:8), agreeing with the OT (Prov 10:12), and he sat there and watched the Lord’s mouth move as he said (Matt 22:38-40)
Romans 13:8 (ESV)
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Proverbs 10:12 (ESV)
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.
Matthew 22:38–40 (ESV)
This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
When in doubt: Love, and let God handle the rest.
This little book of 1 John uses the word LOVE 26 times in 5 short chapters, that is the most in the NT despite it being one of the shortest books. The next closest is 16 in Romans, and it is 4x as long. The only book that uses the word love more times than 1 John in the NT . . . . John’s Gospel, same author of course, uses it 39 times, but its 8x as long as 1 John.
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
Commands that hold hands, are connected, were presented side by side - to John, the Christian life could be summed up as - Trust Christ, Love one Another
John then seems to contradict himself in the next verse, saying
1 John 2:8 (ESV)
At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you
Let’s say a couple things about this, first, there is a connection to the way Jesus gave this identical command in John’s gospel.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
The command to love one another is not new, it goes back to the beginning, UNLIKE THE FALSE TEACHERS GIVING NEW TEACHINGS, THIS TEACHING GOES BACK TO THE GOSPEL ITSELF, and further to the oldest books we have and in the highest sense it goes back to Eden and the Divine Council itself - beginning beginning beginning
But the new part is the deeper meaning given to it by Christ.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Sometimes we misunderstand what it means to love, we think, largely due to our culture, primarily about a feeling or emotion - let me make it a bit more concrete when the Word says to love others like Christ loves you
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We dont have to ask what John means by love, we don’t have to “What is Love” - Jesus made it clear - it is to give yourself up for another - that’s why “I love you” is a massively heavy statement
The command is also new in that he connects it to their living out the command, 1 John 2:8 their living out the command brings it to life today, as does yours. The old command you know becomes new as it is proclaimed through us.
At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
“It is as old as the sun and as new as the dawn.”
Its Hard to Walk in the Dark
Its Hard to Walk in the Dark
If you’ve been with us in this series then already several times this metaphor of life being like a walk has come up. Walking in the light or walking in darkness. Walk in the way of Christ or opposite that way.
1 John 2:9–11 (ESV)
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever 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.
Someone breaks into our home to kill us and kidnap our children every night . . . in my wife’s mind. He sneaks out by the time I get up to go look, he’s good. So a couple nights ago, he broke in again about 3 am and I was commissioned to the kids room to see if I could find any clues about where he had taken them. Picture it, grumpy barefoot Rene, hard to remember how sanctified he is at 3 am, walks carefully into their room, not because he fears the kidnapper, the stubborn skeptic, but because he doesn’t want to wake his 7 yr old or 4 yr old and cause himself a new list of keep me awake problems. Obviously the light has to stay off, so I walk into the toy riddled room with reckless half-conscious abandon, only for the bottom of my foot to come down with fervor upon, what, you know, a lego. And if you know, you know, I’m convinced that stepping onto a blade up sword would only be mildly worse. For some reason I am shocked by this toy being there and it just crumples me. And now I am REALLY glorifying God with my actions and words.
Just 7 hours earlier I had walked into that room and navigated around the toys with no issues. The difference? The light was on then.
Well obviously Rene, I know it is obvious, but think about the incredible difference between walking in the darkness and walking in the light.
We can’t really explain scientifically how we see. We can explain all the parts of the eye, (cornia, pupil, iris, lens, rods and cones in the retina) how they all function, but we can’t get from parts to SIGHT, we just know the brain makes it work. Actually being able to see what is around you. We don’t often think about how insane it is that all these little bits of matter join together to make an eye that literally shows us what is around us.
And yet sight makes all the difference for our experience of things, and our walking.
A common metaphor for the lost person in the Bible (even that word lost) is not being able to see properly, and so struggling to walk.
Proverbs 4:19 (ESV)
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.
So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
John 11:9–10 (ESV)
“If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
In the darkness, we walk slowly, not sure of where to step, afraid of every shadow. In the light, we walk confidently with assurance (not perfectly, but truly), we see where to put our feet, we see there are no monsters in the corner, and that there is no reason to fear.
1 John 2:10 (NIV)
Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble
Psalm 119:105 (ESV)
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Doesn’t mean you always take the right step, but you know it.
It is not prosperity Gospel to say that doing things God’s way tends to go better for you, it is a great parallel to walking in light as opposed to walking in darkness. When you are saved, it is like the lights have been switched on. You haven’t been entirely removed from the world you were in while in the darkness, but it might as well be an entirely different world because of how much the light changes everything. There will still be troubles in the light, obstacles, enemies, my own sin, but I see them now, I see my real enemy, I see my real obstacles, which by the way are almost all my sin at the deepest level. Its hard to fight an enemy that you cannot see, that you can’t even identify. AS WELL AS, you now see that your father is in the world with you. You now see what God has done for you in Christ. So you’re still physically in the same world, but the way you perceive the world and your path is entirely different in the light than it was in the darkness.
to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now I see.
And it doesn’t say your word lights up the whole pathway, it is a lamp. Imagine walking in the dark and holding a lantern down near your feet to see the ground. You know how much light you’ll get, enough for 1 step. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Take the step in front of you. That’s all you need to concern yourself with.
Darkness IS Passing Away, Light IS Shining
Darkness IS Passing Away, Light IS Shining
1 John 2:8 (ESV)
At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
There is a real day in our future when Christ will return and darkness will be no more and the true light will shine. But notice that isn’t what is says here, it isn’t future tense, John is talking about was was already happening then, what is still happening today, present tense, the darkness IS . . .
We aren’t just waiting for the light to invade and to win over darkness, it already is
All Jews were familiar with the division of history into “the present age” and “the age to come.” The age to come Came with Jesus. He inaugurated it so that not the two ages overlap. Dear Christian, you, we have been delivered out of the evil age and have already begun to taste the beauty and the powers and the joys of the age to come!
Galatians 1:4 (ESV)
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age
and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
The picture often used is that Christ was the Sun that rose in the darkness and became himself the dawn that brought light to the world.
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
Matthew 4:16 (ESV)
the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
Luke 1:76–79 (ESV)
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
Every morning proclaims that the Son has Risen, and that Darkness has been overcome
Darkness and light cannot coexist, where there is light, there cannot be darkness, light always wins.
John 1:4–5 (ESV)
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Sun has risen, the darkness will not remain forever, everything will be touched by his light eventually, now is the time.
The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.