Holy Wit – Bible Study #4 The Old Commandment Made New (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John – 1 John 2:7–11) Scripture Reading (NKJV): 1 John 2:7 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. 1 John 2:8 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. 1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 1 John 2:11 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. 1 John 2:7–11 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A7-11&version=NKJV 1. No New Commandment, Yet Not Merely Old John begins with what sounds like a contradiction: “I write no new commandment,” and then, “Again, a new commandment I write to you.” This is not confusion. It is apostolic precision. The command to love was not newly invented by John, nor even by the church. God had commanded His people to love long before the coming of Christ. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” stood within the Law of Moses. The people of God had never been permitted to separate covenant faithfulness from love toward others. Cold orthodoxy was never the goal. Loveless religion was never obedience. Yet John also says the commandment is new. It is new because it has now been revealed in its fullest form in Jesus Christ. The old commandment has not been replaced; it has been fulfilled, embodied, clarified, and intensified in Him. In Christ, love is no longer merely commanded from outside us. It has been displayed before us in flesh and blood. Leviticus 19:18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A18&version=NKJV John 13:34–35 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NKJV 2. Love Made Visible in Christ Jesus did not simply teach love. He defined it by His life, death, patience, mercy, holiness, and sacrifice. The world uses the word love for nearly everything, until the word becomes soft enough to mean approval, sentiment, attraction, or kindness without truth. Scripture is not so vague. The love revealed in Christ is holy love. It does not excuse sin, flatter pride, or pretend darkness is light. Christ loved sinners without becoming careless about sin. He loved His disciples even when they were slow, fearful, argumentative, and full of misunderstanding. He washed feet. He bore reproach. He laid down His life. This is why Christian love cannot be reduced to being pleasant. A person may have a gentle voice and still be loveless. Another may speak firmly and yet love deeply. Biblical love is not mere temperament. It is the grace-shaped disposition of one who has been loved by Christ and is being conformed to Christ. John 15:12–13 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A12-13&version=NKJV Romans 5:8 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A8&version=NKJV 3. The Darkness Is Passing Away John says the commandment is true “in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” This is a statement about the age inaugurated by Christ. The coming of Jesus has not left the world as it was. The Light has entered. The darkness has been exposed. The kingdom of God has broken into history. John is not saying there is no darkness remaining. He is saying darkness no longer has the final word. The true Light is already shining. Christ has come. The gospel has gone forth. The Spirit has been given. The people of God now live between the victory already secured and the final glory still to come. This matters because Christian love is not merely private moral improvement. It is evidence that the new creation has already begun its work in us. When believers love one another in truth, patience, forgiveness, and sacrificial care, they bear witness that Christ’s light is not theory. It is shining in real people, in real churches, in real conflicts, in real obedience. John 1:4–5 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A4-5&version=NKJV 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A17&version=NKJV 4. Hatred as Darkness John gives no room for sentimental self-deception: “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.” A bitter Christian is a contradiction John refuses to soften. This does not mean Christians never struggle with anger, grief, offense, disappointment, or painful memories. Scripture is honest about human injury. Some wounds are deep. Some betrayals leave scars. Forgiveness may involve a long obedience of returning again and again to the mercy of God. Love does not require pretending evil did not happen. It does not require trusting the untrustworthy or denying the need for justice, boundaries, discipline, or wisdom. But hatred is different. Hatred settles in. Hatred nurses injury as identity. Hatred wants the other person diminished, humiliated, or destroyed. Hatred enjoys the darkness while claiming to belong to the light. John’s concern is not that believers have no emotions. His concern is profession without transformation. The person who claims fellowship with God while clinging to hatred is not merely having a bad day. He is walking in contradiction to the God he claims to know. Matthew 5:21–24 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A21-24&version=NKJV Ephesians 4:31–32 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4%3A31-32&version=NKJV 5. Love as Evidence, Not Purchase John is not teaching that we earn salvation by loving others. Love does not purchase eternal life. Christ alone saves. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Our obedience is never the foundation of our acceptance before God. But love is evidence of life. The root is grace; the fruit is love. Where Christ has given life, love begins to grow. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes painfully. Sometimes after much pruning. But it grows. This is why John speaks so bluntly. He is not interested in religious claims that have no moral evidence. Anyone can say, “I am in the light.” Anyone can use Christian words. Anyone can sing, attend, speak, post, teach, or debate. But John asks whether the claimed light has touched the heart. Love does not make us Christians. But the absence of love exposes a claim to Christianity as hollow. A lamp that gives no light may still be called a lamp, but the name does not overcome the darkness. James 2:14–17 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-17&version=NKJV Galatians 5:6 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+5%3A6&version=NKJV 6. Love and Abiding in the Light John says, “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” Love brings moral clarity. Hatred blinds; love steadies. Hatred distorts our judgment, our speech, our memory, our interpretation of others, and even our sense of God’s nearness. A hateful heart does not see straight. Love, by contrast, walks in the light. This does not mean love makes everything easy. Loving one another often requires patience with weakness, courage in truth-telling, humility in apology, and grace in forgiveness. Love may have to confront. Love may have to wait. Love may have to refuse gossip, suspicion, contempt, and the secret pleasure of seeing another stumble. But love does not stumble around in darkness pretending blindness is discernment. It walks where Christ walks. It moves toward the good of the brother or sister, not merely toward the satisfaction of the wounded self. 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A4-7&version=NKJV Colossians 3:12–14 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A12-14&version=NKJV 7. The Blindness of Bitterness John’s final warning is severe: the one who hates “does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” Hatred does not merely damage relationships. It damages perception. It makes a person spiritually disoriented. This is one of sin’s great deceits. The bitter person often feels unusually clear-sighted. He sees everyone else’s failures. He remembers every slight. He can explain every reason for his resentment. He may even dress his bitterness in the language of principle, discernment, or justice. But John says hatred blinds. The danger is not only that hatred leads a person in the wrong direction. The danger is that hatred makes him confident while doing so. He walks in darkness and calls it wisdom. He stumbles and calls it strength. He refuses mercy and calls it righteousness. The Christian life cannot be lived that way. Christ has loved us too deeply, forgiven us too freely, and brought us too fully into the light for us to make peace with hatred. Titus 3:3–7 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+3%3A3-7&version=NKJV Hebrews 12:14–15 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12%3A14-15&version=NKJV 8. The Church as the Household of Love John’s words are personal, but they are not merely individual. He writes to the church. The command to love one another assumes life together among believers. Christianity is not a solitary arrangement between the individual soul and God while the church remains optional scenery. The local church is one of the places where this commandment becomes visible. Here people of different backgrounds, temperaments, histories, ages, cultures, and weaknesses are called to belong to one another in Christ. That is not always easy. In fact, it is often precisely there that love is tested. It is easy to love the idea of the church. It is harder to love actual Christians. Actual Christians interrupt, misunderstand, disappoint, need help, speak poorly, fail to notice, and sometimes wound. Yet these are the people Christ has purchased with His blood. To love the brethren is to love those whom Christ loves. It is to receive the family God has given, not merely the one we would have selected. 1 Peter 1:22–23 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+1%3A22-23&version=NKJV 1 John 3:14–18 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A14-18&version=NKJV Reflection Questions 1. Why does John describe the commandment to love as both old and new? 2. How does Christ’s own love define Christian love more clearly than human sentiment or cultural politeness? 3. What is the difference between struggling with hurt or anger and settling into hatred? 4. Why is love evidence of salvation but not the basis of salvation? 5. In what ways can bitterness distort spiritual judgment and make darkness feel like clarity? 6. Who in your life is difficult to love, and what would obedience to Christ look like in that relationship? Prayer Points 1. Thank God that the command to love has been fully revealed in Jesus Christ. 2. Ask the Lord to expose any bitterness, resentment, contempt, or hidden hatred in your heart. 3. Pray for grace to love fellow believers in truth, patience, humility, and holiness. 4. Ask God to make your church a visible witness of Christ’s light through its love. 5. Pray for wisdom to distinguish biblical love from mere sentiment, approval, or avoidance of conflict. 6. Thank Christ that He loved us while we were sinners and now teaches us to love as those brought into the light. For further study (NKJV): Leviticus 19:18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A18&version=NKJV John 13:34–35 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NKJV Romans 13:8–10 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+13%3A8-10&version=NKJV 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A1-7&version=NKJV 1 John 3:14–18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A14-18&version=NKJV #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John2