A New Commandment (1 John 2:7-11)

“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. 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 2:7-8 NKJV)

Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments in response to the question brought by a scribe as two parts—love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39, Luke 10:27, Mark 12:30-31) This is the old commandment which all Christian believers heard from the beginning of conversion. The Ten Commandments spell out how we can love God and love one another, because love fulfills the law.

What is then the new commandment? John recorded it in his gospel when Jesus Christ gave the disciples at the Last Supper. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34 NKJV) The old and the new are the same except the phrase, ‘as I have loved you.’ The manner the Lord Jesus Christ has loved us was that He laid down His life for all who has been lost. His love was truthfully and faithfully demonstrated on the cross of Calvary, so that the world can never miss to see it.

Why did Jesus Christ give a new commandment? It is because we cannot keep the old commandment. If we say that we can keep the law, then we must keep the whole law. The more we try to keep it, the more we get powerless and overburdened. Since we cannot keep it, we have been condemned and doomed for the judgment. All has sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). As a matter fact, the old commandments were not given to keep with all our means and strength, but to reveal how degraded and corrupt we are.

“Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.” (Romans 7:13 NKJV)

What is then the new commandment? John answers, “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.” Jesus Christ manifested the perfect life which God intended man to live before the creation of the world. The truth and reality of human mystery has been seen in Jesus Christ and in us. He is the truth, the way, and the life.

In Him, the wholeness and perfectness which is acceptable to the immortal God has been fully displayed, which anyone can see only through faith. Jesus Christ has been brightly shining the light of the unsearchable riches of glory in the Father. In Him, there is no darkness at all, so those who walk in the light.

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (1 John 1:5-6 NKJV)

The mystery of how to keep the law perfectly and completely has been revealed in Jesus Christ. How did he love the enemies of God, just like us? He laid down His life for sinners who were ignorantly and unwittingly at war against God. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NKJV)

He is the good shepherd of all who follows Him. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:13). “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11 NKJV) Now, Jesus Chris the Lord commands us to do the same thing to our brothers and sisters.

“He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 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 2:9-11 NKJV)

We cannot love our brothers and sisters until we die of sin, the old self in Adam, just like Christ Jesus died on the cross with the blood. The cross of Jesus Christ stands forever. When we are drawn nearer to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and identify ourselves with the death of Christ, just right on the corner, there comes the resurrection of life through faith. The resurrection life is filled within us again, so that we can love one another.

It is not us who love one another, but Christ in us who does all things. That’s the new commandment. We live an imparted life of Christ Jesus forever because we are set free from the old nature by the Spirit. Therefore, we continually live in the Spirit with the full submission and sacrifice of our body. Let the Lord Jesus Christ abide in you!