A Command that is Both Old and New
1 John 2v7-8
27th March 2020
We've been studying the three tests that John presents in Chapter 2, verses 5-11 of whether we are truly Christians. They are: the test of obedience, the test of imitation, and the test of love. We've studied the first two already and next week we'll study the third, but before John presents the third test, he pauses to say:
1 John 2:7-8
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have
had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.
Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because
the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
In verse 1 of this chapter, John called the members of his churches "my dear children". Now he calls them "dear friends". See with the affection with which a pastor should care for the people in his church. Beware pastors who don't love their flock, who think they're too important or too busy for the people they serve.
I was trained as a mathematician, so when John writes, "I am not writing you a new command" and almost immediately afterwards writes "Yet I am writing you a new command" I find it difficult to process. But it's not actually a contradiction. What he means is this: This command is ancient. It's not some new idea I've just dreamt up. It's not a new teaching. (Beware new teaching). It's part of the Christian message Jesus gave us. I'm not telling you something you don't know. God's love is the heart of the Gospel, and our response must also be to love. But this command is a fresh today as it ever was. It's as relevant now as it was when Jesus walked the earth. This command is old and it's new. It's ancient and it's totally up-to-date.
Christians and non-Christians in Britain today would do well to understand that ancient wisdom is not only historically interesting; it's still fresh and relevant today. A wise saying is always wise. A foolish saying is always foolish. The new is not necessarily better than the old. We needn't - and shouldn't - reinvent morality in every generation. Our forefathers were not fools or idiots. They can teach us a lot about how to live. The command to love is as old as the hills, and it's as new as this morning.
The command… which you have had since the beginning... the message you have heard is that God is love, and Christians too must love. We must love God with all we are, we must love others in the same way that we love ourselves, and we must love other Christians sacrificially, as Jesus loves us. This will never change. It's the original message, and it's just as true today as it was 2,000 years ago.
And John assures us that its truth is seen in him [Christ] and you. This message of love is not only seen in Jesus: it's also seen in us! It's seen in His church. It's seen in His followers. It's seen in you, if you are truly born again, if you truly know Him.
I hope we'd like it to been seen in us more clearly, and more often. To the degree that we respond to the Gospel message with both faith and repentance, and love our neighbours as ourselves, and love each other that way Christ loves us, the light of the love of God, and of Gospel of Christ shines in us. People will say "See how they love each other". They will know that God's people are different from the people in this world.
Be assured, the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. It shines in you. But how much it shines depends on how you respond to Biblical teaching.