Read with Me
1 John 2:7-11 (HCSB)
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Listen with Me
The “old command” that John is referring to, the one that they have had since the beginning of their discipleship, is the one that he has just laid out, that all who follow Jesus have to obey His commands and walk in obedience to God just as Jesus Himself did. It is important to understand that John’s insistence on obedience was not a new “legalism”, but simply the original holiness that was expected of all who claimed to be a disciple.
Even Paul, a powerful opponent of the legalism that characterized the Pharisees sect to which he belonged, understood that obedience to Jesus’ commands as a result of one’s commitment to follow Jesus and live in His kingdom was not legalism. In 1 Corinthians 9: 21 Paul clearly stated that even though he was not saved by his obedience to the law, as a Christian he was not free of God’s law but was under Christ’s law.
But John also indicates that he is writing to his readers what he calls a “new command”, one that is already present in their lives, but that had not been clearly delineated up to that point. That command is another of Jesus’ clear commands, which is that His followers are to love each other in the same way that He Himself has loved them.
John clearly states that anyone who claims to follow Jesus, but who hates his or her brother or sister in Christ is self-deceived – they are not saved but are still in the darkness. This is because the love of Jesus cannot coexist with the hatred of one of Jesus’ people. Such a person is not only misguided, but is completely lost, stumbling around in the darkness with no idea of where he is or where he is going.
Of course, the love that John is referring to is not mere human love, which is primarily an emotion, and one that is easily influenced by circumstances and events. It is divine agape love, which is not primarily an emotion, but is instead action intentionally taken for the good of others regardless of feelings. Such love is a decision, and if the Holy Spirit is allowed to work that love in a person’s heart and to direct that person’s action, it can and will be shown to others, even when those others are enemies, or even when they are responsible for persecuting the one showing that agape love.
Pray with Me
Father, such agape love is absolutely impossible in our own strength. But when the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, that love becomes the controlling influence in our lives. Help us to never try to love others with our weak and ineffective human love, but instead to open our hearts entirely to You, so that you can allow Your agape love to flow through us, bathing all those around us, even our enemies, even those who are mistreating us, with Your divine love, just as I myself received that life-transforming love of Jesus when I was an enemy of the cross. Thank you, Lord, for granting us this amazing blessing. Amen.