7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heart from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eye.

Verse 7: "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning."

Those who claimed superior knowledge and insight were bringing new doctrines that the apostles did not teach. But John calls them back to the word which they had heard from the beginning; that is, the beginning of their lives as Christians (cf. 2 John 5). His commandment is nothing new to them, nor should it be to us. In fact, the Lord Himself issued this commandment while He still walked in the flesh upon earth. When the last supper was ended and Judas had gone out to betray the Lord, the Master began to prepare the disciples for His death by commanding them:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will konw that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

Later, in the same conversation, He declared, "These things I command you, that you love one another." (John 15:17)

Thus, Paul could remind the brethren in Thessalonica, "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (1 Thessalonians 4:9).

By loving one another, we are walking in the steps of our Master (1 John 2:6). "As I have loved you, that you also love one another" (John 13:34).

Furthermore, this is the ultimate demonstration that we are truly His disciples, that we indeed follow the Master. "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

Verse 8: "Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because in darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining."

At the same time, this is a new commandment. It is new in that it is unique to the gospel.

Not that the Old Covenant didn't teach Israelites to love each other, for it indeed did (Leviticus 19:18). They were even taught to love the foreigner who lived among them (Deuteronomy 10:19). Jewish teachers understood that love for one's neighbor was second in importance only to love for God among the commandments of the law (Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28).

But the love Christ teaches is new in width. While Moses taught Israelites not to mistreat their personal enemies (Exodus 23:4), David could righteously sing:

Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies. (Psalm 139:21-22)

Saul the Jew was "concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Philippians 3:6), though he "persecuted" disciples of Christ "to the death" (Acts 22:4). But as Paul the Christian, he could honestly state of God’s enemies, unbelieving Jews, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:3). John the young man, newly called to be an apostle, was a "Son of Thunder" (Mark 3:17), who wanted "to command fire to come down from heaven and consume" those who rejected Christ (Luke 9:54). But John the aged apostle, who had been molded into the likeness of His Master, is "the apostle of love."

This passage is the first of three in First John that demand we love one another as the proof of and requirement for walking in the light (cf. 3:11-18; 4:7-21). The Master taught, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). But Jesus gave His life for His enemies (Romans 5:6-8), and He teaches us, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

Further, the love we must demonstrate in our lives is new in depth. As Christ willingly gave Himself on the cross for us, “we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

“True” (adjective) and “truth” (abstract noun) are important terms with John. In his three letters, he employs the word “true” seven times (1 John 2:8 [twice],27; 5:20 [three times]; 3 John 12)and the term “truth” twenty (1 John 1:6,8; 2:4,21 [twice]; 3:18,19; 4:6; 5:6; 2 John 1 [twice],2,3,4; 3 John 1,3 [twice],4,8,12). In each of these usages the apostle contrasts reality with error (cf. 1 John 4:6) rather than with copies and shadows (cf. Hebrews 8:1-5). The primary internal issue facing the church was no longer Judaism but the beginnings of gnosticism.

This truth is “in Christ Jesus” and in the brethren to whom John wrote. The false teachers who plagued them were not the source of truth but of lies. Truth was made known in the life and teaching of Jesus (John 1:14,17; 8:31-32; 14:6), was revealed by the Holy Spirit to the apostles (John 16:13), dwells in those who receive the words of the apostles (1 John 2:21; 4:6; 2 John 2), and their lives are lived in it (2 John 4; 3 John 3,4).

Christ came to bring the light of truth to a benighted world (Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:14-17; John 1:9; 8:12). His word borne by His disciples to the world is the light of salvation (Acts 13:47; 26:16-18). All who in obedient faith receive this word see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Christians, who “were once darkness,” are now “light in the Lord” and should “walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8), because “we are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). We were “called ... out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). That city which is the object of our hope and the goal of our pilgrimage “has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23, New American Standard Bible). “There shall be no night” in that beautiful, eternal home. “They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

Even as John wrote, the darkness of ignorance and sin was passing away, and the true light was already shining as the gospel was being spread to the whole world (Colossians 1:5-6,23). Our task is to take the light of the gospel to a world lost in darkness in our generation.

Verse 9: “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.”

Once again the apostle compares one’s claim to his life (1:6,8,10; 2:4,6) and in so doing establishes the second characteristic of walking in the light. Not only is walking in the light proven by a righteous life (1:5 - 2:6), but it is also demonstrated by love (2:7-17).

With John there is no middle ground. I either love my brother, or I hate him. To fail to love him is to hate him.

The test of brotherly love is no less important than that of righteousness or truth (doctrinal soundness). I cannot be wrong with my brother and right with God.

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24).

“Strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances” (2 Corinthians 12:20, NASB) will cause us to be lost just as much so as heresy or false worship. Divisiveness isn’t just a matter of “personality conflict”; it is sin. The one who so abuses his brother may boldly claim “he is in the light,” but in reality he “is in darkness until now.”

Verse 10: “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”

This passage establishes a negative standard, what we do not do, by which we measure our love of the brethren. Similarly, but more broadly, Paul observed, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). John looks only at the spiritual application of doing no harm to others.

The entire phrase “cause of stumbling”is from one Greek word, “skandalon,” from which we get the English word “scandal.” Thayer thus defines it:

1 a) prop. the movable stick or tricker (‘trigger’) of a trap, a trap-stick.... a trap, snare.... any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall, .... b) any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin (577).

Americans characteristically “demand our rights.” Christians must be willing to give up our rights to keep a weak brother from sinning by following our example in the exercise of a liberty that violates his conscience (1 Corinthians chapter 8). Even in something as unimportant as food, we must “beware lest somehow this liberty of” ours “become a stumbling block to those who are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9).

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:31-33).

Verse 11: “But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

John uses “hate” as the opposite of “love.” If love is active good will (1 John 3:16-18), hate is active ill will. But since John acknowledges no middle ground, the absence of love is also hate. To be unconcerned about my brother is to hate him.

The one who so lives is in the realm of darkness rather than light, he lives in that realm, and he betrays spiritual ignorance like that of a man trying to walk on a very dark night where there is not even the light of the moon or stars. The darkness, sin and ignorance, in which he walks makes him unable to find his way (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

Works Cited

Thayer, J.H., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.