First John: 1 John 2:7-The Familiar Command to Love One Another as Christ Loves
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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. (NASB95)
“Beloved” is the vocative masculine singular form of the adjective agapētos (ἀγαπητός), which indicates the close personal relationship that existed between the recipients of this epistle who were believers residing in the Roman province of Asia and the apostle John.
This adjective agapētos also speaks of the relationship the recipients of this epistle possessed with the Trinity and expresses the fact that they were the recipients and beneficiaries of God’s love.
“A new commandment” is composed of the following: (1) accusative feminine singular form of the noun entolē (ἐντολή), “a commandment” (2) accusative feminine singular form of the adjective kainos (καινός), “new.”
The noun entolē means “command” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command recorded in to love one another as He loved which is indicated by John’s teaching in where he contrasts loving one’s fellow believer with hating them which is in fact the absence of love.
The noun kainos does “not” mean “new” in the sense of originating with John or new in time or even new in quality and character.
Rather, it means, “new in the sense of being unfamiliar” since John goes on to make the following statement regarding the command in the adversative clause allʼ entolēn palaian hēn eichete apʼ archēs (ἀλλʼ ἐντολὴν παλαιὰν ἣν εἴχετε ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς), “but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning.”
This adversative clause reminds the recipients of this epistle that this command is something they have been under obligation to obey from the beginning of their Christian instruction.
Therefore, kainos expresses the idea that this command is by no means “unfamiliar” to the recipients of this epistle since they have been under obligation to obey this command from the beginning of their Christian indoctrination.
“But an old commandment which you have had from the beginning” stands in direct contrast to the previous assertion.
In the former, John asserts that he was by no means providing information in writing for the benefit of the recipients of this epistle regarding a new or unfamiliar command.
“An old commandment” is composed of the following: (1) accusative feminine singular form of the noun entolē (ἐντολή), “a commandment” (2) accusative feminine singular form of the adjective palaios (παλαιός), “old.”
In the emphatic position of this adversative clause is the accusative feminine singular form of the noun entolē which once again means “command” and refers to the Lord Jesus Christ’s command in requiring the believer to love their fellow believer as He loves them.
The noun entolē is modified this time by the adjective palaios which means “familiar” in the sense of being closely acquainted with a particular thing.
Therefore, this adjective is expressing the idea that this particular command is old to John’s readers in the sense that they have heard this command taught to them since the beginning of their Christian indoctrination.
“You have had from the beginning” is composed of the following: (1) second person plural imperfect active indicative form of the verb echō (ἒχω), “you have had” (2) preposition apo (ἀπό), “from” (3) genitive feminine singular form of the noun archē (ἀρχή), “the beginning.”
The verb echō is employed in in the active transitive sense and means “to have, to be under obligation” in the sense of being obligated to something.
The second person plural form of this verb “each of you” since the word refers to the recipients of this letter as a corporate unit and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
Therefore, the verb echō expresses the idea that each of the recipients of this epistle possessed or had this familiar command to love one another from the beginning of their Christian indoctrination in the sense that they were obligated to obey this command.
The noun archē means “the beginning” and is used in a relative sense to denote the beginning of the recipients of this epistle Christian instruction regarding the Christian way of life.
This noun archē is the object of the preposition apo, which means “from” since the word functions as a marker of the extent of time from a point in the past and is pertaining to the beginning of John’s reader’s Christian indoctrination and specifically their instruction in loving one another as Christ loved them.
“The word” is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun logos (λόγος), which is used in the objective sense for a doctrine or teaching, which is communicated by instruction.
This doctrine or teaching is the Lord Jesus Christ’s command requiring the believer to love their fellow believer as He loves them.
This is indicated by the fact that the verb eimi marks this word as identical to the phrase hē entolē hē palaia (ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ παλαιά), “the command which is familiar,” which we noted refers to this command.
Therefore, the noun logos refers to the “doctrinal instruction” that the recipients of this epistle received from the apostle John and other pastor-teachers concerning the Lord Jesus Christ’s command requiring them to love their fellow believer as He loves them.
Beloved, I am by no means providing in writing information for each one of you regarding an unfamiliar command but rather a familiar command, which each of you have been under obligation to obey from the beginning. This familiar command is identical with the teaching each of you have heard. (My translation)
marks a transition in the epistle in that this verse marks a transition from the apostle John’s teaching in to his teaching in .
Both address the subject of fellowship with God.
Therefore, marks a transition from teaching the doctrine that the believer’s obedience to the Lord’s commands will enable them to experience fellowship with Him to the doctrine that obeying the Lord’s command to love one another will enable them to do so as well.
In , the apostle John reminds the recipients of this letter that he was by no means providing for the benefit of each one of them information in writing regarding an unfamiliar command.
Rather, he was writing to them regarding a familiar command, which each of them have been under obligation to obey from the beginning of their Christian instruction.
He then asserts that this familiar command is identical with the teaching each of them have heard from the beginning of their Christian instruction in the gospel.
Of course, as we have already established the recipients of this epistle were believers living in the Roman province of Asia.
This “familiar command” in refers of course to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command recorded in to love one another as He loved.
This is indicated by John’s teaching in where he contrasts loving one’s fellow believer with hating them which is in fact the absence of love.
What John says in , he says in .
I was prompted to greatly rejoice because I found some of your children making it a habit of living by means of truth just as we received the command from the Father. 5 Specifically I now make a request of you lady-I am by no means communicating at this particular time in writing to you as it were an unfamiliar command but rather one which we were habitually subjected to from the beginning-that we make it our habit of divinely loving one another. 6 In fact, this is divine-love, namely that we are living according to His commands. This is the command, just as all of you heard through instruction from the beginning, namely that all of you make it your habit of living by means of it. (Author’s translation)
Now, in , when the apostle John asserts that this command was “familiar,” he means that the recipients of this epistle were all closely acquainted with the Lord’s teaching to love one another as He loves them.
He means that they have heard this command taught to them since the beginning of their Christian indoctrination.
The Old Testament command to love one’s neighbor in is not in view in the context of .
Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one another in and 15:12-13 is being referred to by John because in he speaks of loving one’s fellow believer rather than one’s neighbor and Jesus’ command was to love one’s fellow believer.
John also asserts in that each of the recipients of this epistle were under obligation to obey which is indicated by the adjective agapētos, “beloved” which reminds them that they are the beneficiaries of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’s love for them.
Lastly, John reminds the recipients of this epistle that this familiar command is identical with the teaching each of them have already heard from the beginning of their Christian instruction.
In other words, this familiar command is in fact the teaching each of them had already heard from the beginning of their instruction regarding the Christian way of life.