The Epistles of John, Part 8: In With the Old, In With the New

When we last left John he was playing the role of professor, administering a test of salvation for his class of students.  Having gotten that very important step completed, and with the assumption that all of his pupils, being genuine disciples of Christ, have passed, John now turns his attention to further refining some of the instruction he gave us in chapter one.  Specifically, he wants to ensure that we are crystal clear on what it means to walk in darkness.  He provides this clarification by introducing a new theme into his letter; that of love.  It will emerge from this point onward as the heartbeat of his narrative.  And love is itself an extension of John’s original message: that God is light.  If God’s goodness is the foundation of the building being constructed by the Apostle, then God’s love forms the walls and roof.

John begins this section appropriately enough.  The first word of 1^st John 2:7 is “agapetos”.  The best literal translation into English is beloved.  It is a term of very intimate and affectionate endearment.  Remember that we have already seen John refer to us with a great deal of care and tenderness, as “my little children” back in verse 1 of this chapter.  Here he builds upon that idea by referring to us with a term that frankly I would expect to be reserved for a marital relationship.

Unfortunately not all English Bible translations translate this word very well.  In particular, the King James uses “brethren” and the New International uses “dear friends”.  I really don’t like either of those renderings.  Brethren has a clinical or austere sound to my ears.  It is entirely inappropriate to convey the sense of the word John chose to use.  Dear friends is a little better, carrying with it a connotation of warmth and affection.  But I still don’t think it does “agapetos” justice.  Thankfully, the New American Standard and the English Standard do use beloved in their rendering of the verse.  I really think that is the only way to adequately convey John’s feeling here.

Perhaps some may argue that precisely because “agapetos” is such an intimate term of endearment typically used between spouses that it is inappropriate to translate it as beloved.  Instead they might prefer to use one of the other definitions of the word, such as esteemed, dear, or favorite.  But beloved is the most regular contextual usage of the term in the New Testament.  For example, in Romans 1:7 the Apostle Paul writes: to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Should we instead translate beloved in that verse as friends?  Is that really how God views His adopted children, as friends?  How about brethren?  To call someone a brother certainly carries a strong level of attachment with it.  But do these competing terms compare to the deep and abiding affection implicit in the word beloved?  I don’t believe they do.

Therefore, we ought not to attempt to stratify what we think John meant to match our expectations.  Rather, we should simply take him quite literally at his word and see where it leads.  In this case it leads to a re-affirmation of the intensity of John’s affection for his children in the faith.  He loves us with a genuine and pure regard that more than likely we typically don’t apply to our brothers and sisters in Christ today.  We could learn a lot from John’s unashamed outpouring of affection.

And what is it that the elder Apostle wants to teach his students?  Verse 7 continues: I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.  A couple of questions need to be answered in order to understand this verse.  First, what is the commandment John is talking about?  And second, what does he mean by “the beginning”; the beginning of what? 

The answer to both questions can be found by turning to the next chapter of 1^st John.  Chapter 3 and verse 11 states: For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  That is certainly clear enough.  The commandment is to love, or agape, each other.  And as we learned in the previous exploration of biblical love, this means to sacrifice our own comfort, time, resources, etc. on behalf of someone else. 

The verbal construct for love that John uses in this verse will help to gain perspective on the action of love that he is endorsing.  There are three elements to this.  First, we are to individually be performing this activity of love.  But we are all accountable to see it done on that individual basis.  Second, we are to be doing this right now.  It is insufficient to have loved at some point in the past.  We must be performing this action in the present.  And third, this is an extremely desirable thing for us to do.  We might even say it is the most desirable course of action a Christian should be pursuing.

All of this builds to paint a very revealing portrait of an agape love that is personal rather than impersonal, active rather than passive, and supremely desirable rather than optionally whimsical.  Not only that but we are going to be held accountable for seeing this done.  There is no room in the Christian’s life for a lack of love.  God gives no excuses for a failure to love.  He takes this so seriously that He threatened to remove the Ephesian church’s lampstand from its place if they didn’t go back to the loving ways they had started with (Rev. 2:4-5).

So this is the commandment John is talking about, to sacrificially love in the manner just described.  But what does he mean by the phrase “the beginning”?  I think there are two possible answers.  He could be referring to the beginning of recorded history, in Genesis chapter 1.  The parallel is certainly interesting: “In the beginning God created…”  On the other hand, John could be talking about the ministry of Christ and/or the day of Pentecost when he says “the beginning”.  In this context he would be pointing to the beginning of the church.

Chapter 3 and verse 12 will help us here: not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother.  And for what reason did he slay him?  Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.  John is using this example because what Cain did to Abel is diametrically opposed to the quality of love being endorsed.  Cain’s motive for murder was the furthest thing possible from agape because agape inherently puts others first.  And Cain was clearly putting himself and his disgruntled feelings before Abel.  Furthermore, the reference to these brothers makes it clear that John is talking about the start of recorded history and the first family of humans to exist when he speaks of the beginning.

The point is that this mandate to love sacrificially has always existed.  It was part of the original human blueprint.  Love was baked into Adam’s mold when he was formed out of dust because the mold was based on God’s own character which defines love.  And this connects us very neatly back to chapter 1 of 1^st John.  John heard, saw, looked at, and touched the reality of who God is in the person of Jesus Christ.  This truth has been existent from the very beginning.  The message of this truth, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, is the heartbeat of John’s letter to us.

Even more to the point, the love and the light of God is the heartbeat of the entirety of sacred Scripture.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the Mosaic Law.  Does the Law of Israel not seem like your idea of a model of how to love one another?  Does it instead strike you as harsh, unforgiving, bloody, and violent?  If so, then consider the following.

The Ten Commandments serve as sort of the Jewish equivalent of our American Constitution’s Bill of Rights.  They are the foundational guiding principles upon which the whole rest of the Law is framed.  And Jesus taught that the two greatest instructions out of this list of ten were: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22: 37-40).  He said that upon these two commandments everything else depends, both the remainder of the Law itself as well as the Prophets.  In other words, Christ taught that every single instruction, prophecy, warning, judgment, restriction, and blessing proclaimed throughout the Hebrew Scriptures are all founded upon this principle of love, without exception.

Paul backed his master up in Romans 13:9-10: For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  To state it another way; we don’t have to focus on avoiding adultery, staying away from murder, refraining from theft, fleeing from jealousy, or anything else for that matter.  If we simply boil the commands of God down to one simple principle, to love everyone sacrificially, beginning with God Himself and then propagating to our fellow humans, then we will automatically end up obeying every other commandment as well.

This principle of God’s law being a law of love is exactly what James is getting at in James 4:11-12: Do not speak against one another, brethren.  He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.  There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

The word that is used once in the first sentence of verse 11, and twice in the second sentence, is usually translated as speak evil, speak against, or slander.  It’s a word that conveys the idea of not just talking about someone, but doing so with malicious intent.  This is the critical point to understand here.  Whether what is said is true or untrue, the motivational factor behind the one speaking it is evil.  It is hatred.  It is envy.  It is selfishness.  It is pride.

The type of slanderous behavior described by James is quite the opposite of love.  It is the very definition of hatred.  And as such it blatantly violates and contradicts God’s law of love.  Not only that, but consider the implication of a person who conducts himself in this manner.  What is he communicating through his actions about his opinion of God’s law?  He is telling us without words that he thinks such a law is beneath him.  It is not worthy of his time or attention.  A law of love is foolishness and stupidity to this person.

And so, by speaking evil against others and in so doing speaking evil against the law, the sinner is setting himself up as one who is superior to and in lordship over the very law that God instituted as a reflection of His own character.  This is why James makes the point in verse 12 that there is only one lawgiver and judge.  He is clearly contrasting the overweening arrogance of a person who acts as if he is outside God’s law with the reality that God is the only one who is truly in charge.  Furthermore, although such a person may act in this fashion, their actions are not reflective of reality.  In other words, they are really not outside the law at all.  And as such are subject to the only One who is able to save and destroy.  Eventually, in the due course of time and at God’s whim, their evil actions will be their own undoing.

Bringing it back to 1^st John after that lengthy detour, it is plainly evident that our imperative is to love and that we have been under this mandate since Creation.  But having established that John does something interesting in verse 8: On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.  This commandment, to love, while being set in stone from the very beginning, is now simultaneously new and fresh and exciting and hopeful.  Love, already a powerful testament to the character of God, has had new life breathed into it through one monumental fact.  God was incarnated as a man in the form of an only begotten Son and He was sacrificed on a cross in the ultimate act of love the world has ever known or ever will know.

This love has become our mission in life as Christians.  Jesus, on the very night He was betrayed in John 13:34-35, said “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  The command to love was pre-existent.  But Christ’s own example of it was new.  The apostles had now seen the love of God in the flesh where previously they had only heard about it second hand, so to speak.  The words of Job in Job 42:5-6 come to mind: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.”  In Revelation 21:5 God says “Behold, I am making all things new.”  But based on the testimony of Christ at the last supper and John here in his epistle, He has already made love new.

In fact, it is this new freshness of the love of God displayed through Jesus that enables John to write the following phrase, “that the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining”.  The instant that the Father breathed new life back into His Son’s body and Jesus walked out of the tomb he’d been laid in, a timer started.  A countdown clock began.  There is no force in the universe that can alter the timing of this clock.  No satanic influence or scheme can sway its course.  No genocidal dictators, totalitarian regimes, natural disasters, corrupt politicians, greedy investors, or abusive parents can cause a change in the time table God has set.  And when the clock reaches zero hour the king of all heaven and earth will return in power and lay waste to His enemies.  He will split the enemy from thigh to neck in order to bring salvation to His people.  And the love of God will be poured onto the heads of those who worship Him like the deluge of a waterfall on a hot and steamy day.

In spite of how evil the world may look to us now.  Regardless of the difficulties we face in our everyday lives.  The darkness of sin is already defeated.  It is doomed to destruction.  It is only a matter of time before this truth will come to fruition and set us free from death forever.

But woe to them that love the darkness.  Verses 9 and 11 proclaim their doom: The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.  But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.  In verse 6 of chapter 1 John introduced us to the concept of “walking in darkness”.  At that time I used reverse logic to explain that this meant acting in a manner contrary to the nature of God Himself.  Now we see the plain truth of what that means; it is to hate.  The Greek word “miseo” is used to convey this idea.  It means more than simply to passively despise someone.  The idea is to actively pursue with hatred.

Jesus uses the same word in John 15:18: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”  How did the world display their hatred for the Son of God?  They murdered Him, that’s how.  Hatred and unrighteous anger toward another (Matt. 5:21-22, 43) are born of the same womb and they both result in murder; either physically, spiritually, or both.  So don’t vacillate between right and wrong or rationalize away your feelings of hatred for other people.  It’s sin, pure and simple, and according to John in verse 9 it’s a sign of both being in darkness and being blinded by it.

Blindness is a powerful metaphor for those who understand what sight is.  As I mentioned at the very beginning of this series we instinctively understand the ramifications of being in light or being in darkness.  No parent has to train their children to be afraid of the dark.  There is a primordial terror that wells up from deep within our souls at the prospect of having light and therefore sight taken away.  This is why it was such an instantly relatable concept for John to refer to God in the context of light versus darkness back in chapter 1.

Yet in spite of the horrific prospect of being blinded and fearful, that is not quite what John is describing here.  Notice that he says of the one who hates that he does in fact walk and it is the darkness itself that blinds him.  This is a person who doesn’t even realize there’s anything to be afraid of.  He loves the darkness.  It is like a warm blanket to him.  He luxuriates in the feel of that silky smooth blackness upon his skin.  He is floating in a pool of crude oil and loving it. 

This person is so debased that he has lost all contextual understanding of the danger he is in.  It describes someone who is walking along with upturned eyes gazing at cloud formations, blissfully unaware of the deep canyon right beside them.  Or a swimmer studying coral reef formations on the ocean floor below, oblivious to the great white shark coming up from behind.

In contrast to this terrible picture we have the softly glowing rays of the sun suffusing our skin with light and warmth in verse 10:  The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.  I want to focus on two elements of this verse: abiding in the light and having no cause for stumbling.

The word abiding is the Greek “meno”.  It means to remain, to be held, or to continue to be present.  John uses a form of this word that conveys a sense of an ongoing state or condition.  He is considering the position of this one who loves their brother and from an outside perspective the apostle draws a conclusion as to their situation.  And what a situation it is.  John says the one who practices love is abiding “in the light”.  He has already pointed out that God is metaphorically equivalent to light.  So in this context John isn’t just talking about someone who is doing well or is in a good place.  He is literally saying that they are dwelling with and in God Himself!

John gives a summary of this condition in chapter 4, verses 15 and 16: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.  God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  There is a unity in view here.  It is a harmony of thought and purpose.  We are talking about a melding of shared existence in which the parties being brought together sort of disappear into each other after a time.  In a marriage relationship the two spouses merge their individual persons into one new united nature.  But in this relationship between God and the one who loves, it is us who are swallowed up into the godhead.

Let’s consider the flip side of this position.  We have already seen that those who do not practice this pattern of love are blindly stumbling around in the darkness.  But building upon this concept of abiding that John has introduced and considering chapter 3 and verse 14: We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.  He who does not love abides in death.  Christ is the literal embodiment of life itself (John 14:6).  Therefore, anyone who does not remain in Him must necessarily be given to the condition that is opposite of life; namely, death.

There is a term used in the United States to refer to people who are on death row.  They have already been sentenced to death by the judicial system.  All that remains is to assign a specific date and time.  The prisoner is still alive for the moment but their fate is assured.  When the time comes to proceed with the execution and the condemned walks toward the killing chamber they are known as a “dead man walking”.  In other words, technically they are still alive, they are walking, and they may even be talking.  But the only thing separating this person from death is the ticking of the clock.  That is exactly what is being described by John when he says that the one who does not love “abides in death.”

The other key point to consider from verse 10 is the phrase “no cause for stumbling”.  Stumbling is the Greek: “skandalon”.  It has the idea of a trap that has been set.  It is the triggering device of a mechanism designed to injure or kill the prey that is being hunted.  We can see this same idea in Matthew 16:23.  Peter has just rebuked Jesus for claiming that He is going to die.  Peter’s focus is on the immediate establishment of the Messianic Kingdom.  He is interested in his own time table and plans rather than God’s.  Christ turns to him and retorts: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to Me.”  This is incredibly harsh language.  To apply to someone the moniker of Satan, the one who is chief of all who are opposed to everything that God is.  But the point is well served by the Lord.  In pursuing his own agenda Peter had become no better than the great deceiver and liar himself.

So in 1^st John when John writes that there is no cause for stumbling in us, it obviously means that we will not fall because we do not trip in the first place.  But remember also that the state of not falling is standing.  That of course is obvious but it bears consideration.  Those who do not stumble because they are abiding in God through their demonstration of love are rising up triumphantly and majestically.  They are paragons of confidence and power because of their deep immersion into the fullness of the Lord.  This is not a dark and depressing passage of Scripture.  It is rather a beautiful and sweet depiction of the glorious joy to be had in the Christian life.

What are we to make of all this?  I think there are three crucial elements to consider.  First, we must recognize that this mandate to love sacrificially has far more significance than a being simply a nice attitude to have.  Love is the very atmosphere in which the creation sprang into being by God’s command.  It is the normative condition in which Adam was formed and it was the guiding principle upon which his relationship both with Eve and with God was founded.  Even after the fall into sin, love was the basis of God’s covenantal relationship with Israel and it served as the framework around which their society was intended to be built.  So this pursuit of love has been in place since the very beginning.

And now, we are most favored to be living in an age in which love has fully flowered, so to speak.  The reality of the person and work of Jesus Christ has caused love to blossom into its fullest and most vivid maturity.  He has breathed new life into this twisted and corrupted earth.  And His promised return gives us a confident hope that ought to illuminate every aspect of our lives.  Truly, the love of God is an all-encompassing and pervasive blanket which should serve as a beacon against depression or worry and which should fill us with a joy that drives us to display that love to everyone we come into contact with.

The second point to consider is sort of the inverse of the first.  Unfortunately, in spite of how glorious and uplifting this love is, because we are sinful people there will be times when we don’t feel God’s love and we don’t reflect it to other people.  Not only will we not love but we will be tempted to hate.  In those moments, hours, or days of darkest depravity we must bind the truths of this passage, even this whole epistle, upon our foreheads and implant them deep into our hearts so that we have a defense against the insidious nature of our own flesh.  It is critical that we avoid the hatred described by John.  The call to love can help us in this endeavor, but only if we hold onto this teaching as firmly as possible through memorization, meditation, and re-visitation.

Finally, when we consider the terrible fate awaiting those who do not love, we ought to be filled with genuine sorrow for them.  The person who hates is completely blind yet simultaneously totally oblivious to their condition.  They are walking in deepest night with absolutely no idea where they are going or what they might run into.  And they lack the sense to even be afraid, let alone cautious.  Furthermore, it is death they are abiding in.  The only thing separating them from their horrible fate is the passage of time.  These of all people are to be pitied.  They are to be empathized with, seeing as how we were once in the same boat.  And they should be ministered to in the sincere hope that God would see fit in His gracious mercy to rescue them from their doom.  There is no room in a Christian’s heart for an abrasive response to them that persecute or mistreat us.