The New Commandment
Notes
Transcript
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7 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. 8 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. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 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.
Introduction
John has shown the necessity for all believers to keep God’s commands. It should be as natural to our spiritual life as breathing is to our physical. As he continues so he emphasises the relevance of the commands for all of us.
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1. The New is Old v7
1. The New is Old v7
7 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.
Jesus’command
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34 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. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The New Testament does not eclipse the Old, it enhances and magnifys it. Love has always been preeminent but has now taken a greater depth and reality.
John observes that the readers have had the old command from the beginning. He implies that they have received God’s revelation and therefore know that this command as such is not new. “This old command,” writes John, “is the message [of God’s revelation] you have heard.” That is, the readers knew this command from the time when they first heard the preaching and teaching of God’s Word—the Old Testament and the New Testament—in the worship services of the local church. Kistemaker
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2. The True Light v8
2. The True Light v8
8 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.
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a. Literal
a. Literal
The word new in Greek suggests that the old has given birth to the new. The old does not cease to exist but continues along with the new. We note a good example with respect to the two testaments: the Old Testament prepared the way for the New Testament, but did not lose its validity when the New arrived. Kistemaker
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b. Theological
b. Theological
“Yet I am writing you a new command.”
The Good Samaritan
In New Testament times, however, Jesus gave new meaning to the command to love one’s neighbour when he taught the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) and when he told his listeners that the command to love one’s neighbour extended even to the enemy (Matt. 5:43–44). Kistemaker
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
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c. Evidential
c. Evidential
“Its truth is seen in him and you.” Indirectly John refers to Jesus. In the preceding context he mentioned him directly when he said, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (2:6). John commends the readers for conduct that is truly characterised by this new command to love one another. “If the Christian fellowship is marked by such love, then it will be recognised as the fellowship of Christ’s followers; it will bear the unmistakable stamp of his love.” Kistemaker
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3. Light and Darkness v9-11
3. Light and Darkness v9-11
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 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.
a. Negative v9
a. Negative v9
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
To hate a brother is not a trifling matter. John repeats the thought of this text in each of the next two chapters when he says, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (3:15), and “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar” (4:20). Whoever hates a Christian brother breaks God’s commands, is devoid of truth, and lives in spiritual darkness. Kistemaker
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15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
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20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
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b. Positive v10
b. Positive v10
10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
John writes, “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.” Love is not so much a matter of the word as of the deed. Whoever loves his spiritual brother as himself “lives in the light.” And when a person lives in the light, he does not stumble, because he is able to see clearly. Kistemaker
He means that as soon as Christ brings light, we have the full brightness of knowledge: not that every one of the faithful becomes wise the first day as much as he ought to be (for even Paul testifies that he laboured to apprehend what he had not apprehended—Philippians 3:12), but that the knowledge of Christ alone is sufficient to dissipate darkness. John Calvin
c. Consequence v11
c. Consequence v11
11 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.
John’s concluding remarks are straightforward. First, anyone who hates his brother is in darkness, for he has separated himself from the light of the gospel. Second, he is relatively safe if he stays where he is, but as soon he begins to walk around in the darkness, literally as well as figuratively, he stumbles because of his inability to see (John 12:35). Kistemaker
35 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.
Conclusion
When a person is in spiritual darkness, life becomes meaningless and goals are without purpose. The tragedy is that walking in darkness need not take place, for God’s true light is available to everyone.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
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