We are to walk as Christ walked. A major part of that walk or that life style is how we relate to other people. From the time of Adam till the coming of the Messiah, God gave various methods to man by which he wanted them to worship him. These were not the ultimate arrangement to which God was slowly bringing man. Those early methods were revealed bit by bit. Scripture says they were revealed “by divers portions” (Hebrews 1:1 ASV). Those were tentative and preparatory arrangements for worship, not intended to be in place throughout all time or to be practiced simultaneously in every part of the whole world.
In sharp contrast, Jesus Christ revealed God’s ultimate divine system in its entirety. That is why, Christ’s Apostle John, in this his first letter, wrote to the followers of the Messiah and told them in chapter two, verse seven, “I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.” (1 John 2:7) When the revelation which came through Jesus the Messiah was proclaimed for the very first time, the listeners were told that, “to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.” (Acts 2:39 ASV). Thus, this revelation would never need any additions or any amendments to adapt or amend it for the benefit of generations of people born centuries after it was first preached.
Once we have received this revelation we never need “a new command.” Thus the “old commandment which [we] have had since the beginning” is complete and it is adequate. Obviously then, any religious system which alters, modifies, changes, adds to or takes away from the revelation which has come for all time to the whole human race through Jesus Christ to his Apostles, and from them to us, is wrong. Such an amended system does not have God’s approval upon it. Only those who accept and obey the old “command” – that is the command which came from the beginning of the age of the Messiah, which we who have discovered the way of salvation through Jesus Christ have had since the beginning, will have God’s approval.
Christ’s Apostle John wrote “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.” (1 John 2:7) Yet, in the very next verse he tells us, “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.” (1 John 2:8, NIV) Here where John mentions “a new command” he is quoting the words of Jesus which he uttered when he gave a radically new commandment for those who wish to please God. When Jesus gave that special commandment he said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34)
When Jesus used the expression, ‘new commandment’ he was contrasting it with the commands which had previously been given in the law of Moses. At the time John wrote, the ‘new commandment’ was part of that complete revelation of God’s will to man which is called ‘the old commandment’ which is mentioned in verse 7. The law of Moses did have a command to love others. It said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Leviticus 19:18.) Thus, while the old covenant obligated one to love his neighbor, the standard for that love was the love one had for himself. In sharp contrast, Jesus gave a new commandment. He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34) According to the command which Jesus gave, we are to love as he loved. When we use the love of Christ as the standard, then love has reached the ultimate level. We know it is the ultimate level of love because, “for the [benefit of a] good man some one would even dare to die.” (Romans 5:7) But Jesus went far beyond this, for “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
The Apostle John tells us, the new command to love, “is true in him and in you”. This explains another sense in which the commandment was new. First, it was new “in him” because he revealed it and demonstrated love at this high level for the first time in all human history. Secondly, it is new “in you” that is in and among the followers of Christ. Those who followed Christ were the first social group to practice brotherly love on the level which Jesus had demonstrated and commanded. Though it was true in them, it was a practice they had carried out from the very beginning of the church. Thus, at the time John wrote, it was not a novel practice among the followers of Christ. Thus, John tells us in verse 7, he was not writing a ‘new commandment.’
John next told those to whom he wrote, “the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth.” (1 John 2:8 ASV) Because of the practice of brotherly love at the high level which Jesus commanded was going on among his followers, the Apostle John could say that the darkness is passing away and the “true light already shineth.” He means it was shining in them, among them and around them. Those who follow Christ welcome the light. They do not oppose it or resist it.
The ‘darkness’ probably refers to all the lies which promote hatred. The light is probably the truth which promotes brotherly love. The truth tells us that men are God’s creation, they are dear to him, that the real enemy is Satan, not someone who may have hurt us. The demonstration of brotherly love which The followers of Christ were giving was due in part to the excellence of the revelation of the will of God, “the true light.” The followers of Christ live in the sunlight age of revelation. In earlier ages God revealed the truth as fast as man would receive it. Many times God had to patiently give revelation slowly because of man’s stubbornness. The true light was shining but all the darkness had not yet been dispelled. Unfortunately, that is often still true. But the light will, ultimately, be triumphant.