An Old Command
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times!" It may be an exaggeration (because how many of us have really told someone something a million times), but the frustration behind the statement is real. Those of us who are parents have experienced the exasperation of telling children what they should do over and over and over again. When they become teenagers, we spend a lot of time reminding them that the same switch that turned that light on will also turn it off. Over and over again. If I've told you once...
I don't know if John was frustrated by the time he got to this point in the letter, but he does remind his readers he is not writing them a new command, but an old one (1 John 2:7). The same command Jesus gave the disciples in the Upper Room. The same command, very likely, Pastor John has repeated in sermon after sermon. But because these disciples apparently haven't heard it, it seems like a new command to them. The command is this: "Love one another."
So because they haven't heard it, John chooses to rephrase it in this letter. He writes this: "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them" (2:9-11). You can't hate a brother or sister, one who shares your faith, and be in the light of Christ because Jesus commanded us to love one another. He even said the key indicator of whether or not we actually are his disciples is not found in what we believe doctrinally or whether we go to church six days a week or whether we have every theological idea exactly right. Jesus says, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35, italics mine).
I don't know if John was frustrated by the time he got to this point in the letter, but he does remind his readers he is not writing them a new command, but an old one (1 John 2:7). The same command Jesus gave the disciples in the Upper Room. The same command, very likely, Pastor John has repeated in sermon after sermon. But because these disciples apparently haven't heard it, it seems like a new command to them. The command is this: "Love one another."
So because they haven't heard it, John chooses to rephrase it in this letter. He writes this: "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them" (2:9-11). You can't hate a brother or sister, one who shares your faith, and be in the light of Christ because Jesus commanded us to love one another. He even said the key indicator of whether or not we actually are his disciples is not found in what we believe doctrinally or whether we go to church six days a week or whether we have every theological idea exactly right. Jesus says, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35, italics mine).
There is a story (perhaps a legend) that when John was very old, this message had so overtaken him that, when he stood up to preach, his sermon was very simple, repeated over and over again: "Little children, love one another. Little children, love one another." It's an old command. But it's needed afresh in each generation. Love one another. So simple, so profound and so difficult to do. It's our new command each and every day.
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