A New Commandment that’s Pretty Old

Evidently one of the characteristics of the false teachers John was combating was a lack of love toward fellow believers. That is pretty common among heretics. Heretics divide churches because they don’t love the people within the church. There is no one better qualified (except Jesus of course) to write on the subject of love than the Apostle John. John is known as the Apostle of love. The Scripture makes direct mention to John as the disciple Jesus loved five times (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). As a result he is known as “John the beloved”. John’s gospel as well as his epistles is full of references to love. I believe there is a connection between John being loved by Jesus and his many references to love in his writings. Here’s my point. When we recognize the great love that God has for us we will realize how important it is for us to love others. There may have been some in the church that minimized John’s preaching because he talked about love so much. The Gnostics focused on knowledge, which in turn led them to pride. John continually encouraged the people to love God and love one another. Perhaps that concept was too shallow for the more advanced false teachers of John’s day. Let’s look at what John has to say about love.

The command to love is nothing new. We see that in verse 7. John says the command to love is “old” and that it is “from the beginning”. “From the beginning would refer to the beginning of God’s written revelation. The Old Testament taught the Jews that loving God and others were primary in a relationship with God. Leviticus 19:18 says “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD”. Deuteronomy 6:5 says “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might”. Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments were to love God and love people (Matthew 22:37-40).

This command shows us just how important love is. It is a sin not to love God and others. Because these two commands are the greatest of commands it can be said that these are the greatest sins we can commit. Especially that of not loving God. What could be worse than to refuse to love God? Paul teaches us that religion without love is empty and vain in 1 Corinthians 13. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 16:22 “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha”. That’s pretty serious. It means “Let him be accursed when Jesus returns”. There is nothing more important than loving God and others. There is nothing more devastating than refusing to love God and others.

The fact that this is not a new command is revealed in the Ten Commandments. The first two commandments are there to show us how important it is for our love to be fully devoted to the One True God. If we break the commandments down we will find that the first four will be followed if we love God and the last six will be followed if we love others. John’s focus on love is nothing new. It’s the same command that God has given from the beginning.

John’s command to love is new. Some of you may be thinking “Wait a minute, you just contradicted yourself”. Well, just look at verse 8. John says that the command to love is new. What does he mean? He means it is new in the sense that we have never seen the love of God expressed like we see it expressed in Christ. Jesus came to show us the fullness of love. Colossians 2:9 says of Christ “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”. Before, we had an idea of what it was like to love God and others. In Christ our knowledge of love is deepened. John 1:14 says “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth)”. In watching the life of Christ the disciples came to know what it meant to love God and love others. That was one of the great privileges of the incarnation. Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. Jesus told His disciples “Love people in the same way I have loved you”.

Before we come to know Christ we can’t love in the way God wants us to love. Look at verse 8. It says we were in darkness. That is, we were unsaved. Our spiritual eyes were blinded to the truth. The “true light that now shineth” is the light of salvation in our lives. Salvation opens our eyes to the truth of God. Without the light of salvation we will not love God. Titus 3:3 says that before we came to know Christ we were “hateful and hating one another”.

Notice John says that the command to love is true “in Him (Jesus) and you”. We can love because the love of Christ has been extended to us through the new birth. Romans 5:5 says that the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We have the capacity to love in a new and fresh way because Jesus lives in us. 1 Thessalonians 4:9 says “But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another”. Even the most immature of believers recognizes how important it is to love God and one another. The Spirit of God teaches us that. So the command to love is new in the sense that we see it expressed fully in Christ and we experience it in our lives through the new birth.

It is impossible to love God and hate others at the same time. Look at verse 9. Notice John says “He that saith he is in the light”. That is, the person claims to be saved. John says that a person who claims to be saved, but hates his brothers, is in darkness. It’s important that we remember that to John to be in the realm of darkness means to be lost. To be in the realm of light means to be saved. John is teaching us that it is impossible for us to hate people and love God. We can say we love God, but that does not make it so. One of John’s major points in this letter is that love is the ultimate mark of salvation (3:10, 16-18; 4:7-8, 20; 5:1).

Look at verse 11. John elaborates on what it means to be in darkness in this verse. The person in spiritual darkness doesn’t know where he is or where he is going. Spiritual darkness has blinded his eyes. That would mean that it would be very common for an unsaved person to believe that their hatred of people is ok. They are ignorant, void of the truth of God. The longer they walk in the darkness the further they stray from the truth. When we look at our culture we see that it is full of hate. People hate God and they hate one another. How do we know? Well, we just look at their lives.

People hate God. God says that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (1 John 5:2). Look at our culture. Look at how many people worship false gods or no god at all. Listen to how many people take the name of the Lord in vain. Notice how many people fail to go to church. Our culture is full of liars, thieves, children that disobey their parents, adulterers, murderers, & covetous people. Peoples actions prove that they do not love God.

People hate one another. The Scripture teaches that our love for others is revealed in our actions toward them. Look at 3:17 for an example of this. Unforgiveness, prejudice, vengeance, a lack of compassion and a host of other sins prove that our culture has a problem with love. People do not love one another when we measure love by the standard of the Bible.

John’s analogy of walking in the darkness is striking. It shows that people will continue in their ignorance with no fear at all. The further they walk, the further they get away from the truth. Therefore, the less they will love. We can tell how far a person is from God by their attitude toward God and their actions toward man. A truly saved person will love God and it will be evidenced by a striving to keep His commandments. A truly saved person will love others and it will be evidenced by his actions toward others.

Love brings clarity and stability into our lives. Look at verse 10. John says two things about those who love God and others. These are two blessings that we all want in our live so let’s look at them carefully.

We abide in the light. That is, we exist in the realm of salvation. Our spiritual eyes have been opened (Acts 26:18). We can see and hear spiritual truth. We are sensitive to the things of God. To put it plainly, we live in Christ. He leads us day by day. He speaks to our hearts. He teaches us truth. He convicts us of sin. It is a great blessing to simply understand the basic doctrine of salvation. It’s like being in a darkened room and having the lights turned on. We know where we are and we know where we are going. To love God and love others means that we are saved and there is absolutely no knowledge better than that. That brings great stability into our lives.

We do not cause others to stumble. John makes it clear that when we love God and others we do not cause other people to stumble. To stumble would mean to cause someone to fall into sin or to keep someone from being saved. Jesus said that it would be better for us to have a millstone tied around our neck and thrown into the ocean than to cause someone to stumble (Matthew 18:6). Causing people to live a life of sin is a terrible thing.

When we love God we will manifest the type of life others are to live. We will encourage people to turn from their sins and follow Christ. We show them the importance of loving and living for God. When we love others we will treat them kindly. We respect their feelings. If we wrong them we apologize. As believers we don’t want people to live in sin or miss heaven. Therefore, we love. To love is to do the greatest thing we can do. Let us follow after that.