A New Old Commandment

1 John   •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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At first glance this passage seems to contradict itself. Is it an old commandment or a new commandment, John?! How can a commandment be both old and new at the same time? What does it mean to love one's brother?

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*7 ⸀Ἀγαπητοί,* οὐκ ἐντολὴν καινὴν γράφω ὑμῖν ἀλλʼ ἐντολὴν παλαιὰν ἣν εἴχετε ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς· ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ παλαιά ἐστιν ὁ λόγος ὃν ἠκούσατε⸆. 8 πάλιν ἐντολὴν καινὴν γράφω ὑμῖν ὅ ἐστιν ⸂ἀληθὲς ἐν αὐτῷ⸃ καὶ ἐν ⸀ὑμῖν, ὅτι ἡ ⸁σκοτία παράγεται καὶ τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν ἤδη φαίνει.* 9 ὁ λέγων ἐν τῷ φωτὶ εἶναι καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μισῶν ⸆ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ἐστὶν ἕως ἄρτι.* 10 ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ μένει,* καὶ σκάνδαλον ⸉ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν⸊· 11 ὁ δὲ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ⸀ἐστὶν καὶ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ περιπατεῖ καὶ οὐκ οἶδεν ποῦ ὑπάγει,* ὅτι ἡ σκοτία ἐτύφλωσεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ.

7 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. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister q is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 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.

Opening Remarks

So far in our study of 1st John we’ve journeyed with the apostle through a consideration of the nature of Jesus Christ and His incarnation. We have held onto his coat tails as he hurries along into contemplating the perfection of God in His purity and holiness. We’ve learned something of the errant beliefs of that group of false teachers whom John is concerned about, through the apostle’s hypothetical ‘if/then’ statements. That these false teachers said that they had relationship with God, that they were walking in the light and even that some believed themselves to be sinless. The apostles aim is to warn those still faithful to the gospel against these individuals and to encourage them that it is they who are walking in the light and it is the secessionists who are in darkness. Ultimately this whole letter is a letter of encouragement. Written by a man who clearly had the heart of a father towards these Christians, he very much loved them and was eager that they should remain faithful to Christ.
Last time around we considered what it is to love God. That it is to obey his commandments. Not that by obeying these commandments that we love Him, but that our obedience flows from our love of Him.
“The essence of obedience lies in the hearty love which prompts the deed rather than in the deed itself” - CH Spurgeon
This week we move on to a passage which presents us with no little difficulty. At first glance it appears to contain a direct contradiction, and furthermore there are several turns of phrase used by the apostle which require a little bit of elucidation in order for us to grasp what is being said here.
The 20th century Bible Scholar Robert Law believed that the epistle of 1st John presents us with three cardinal tests as to whether we truly know God or not. The 1st is a theological test; do we believe that Jesus is God’s son, that He came in the flesh and that He Himself is God along with the Father. The 2nd test is moral; so you say that you’re a Christian, that you know God. Do you obey is commandments? Is there a love of God’s word in your life? Do you love Him? And the 3rd test, which we read about today is what Law called the social test. If we truly know God then it will be borne out by our love towards fellow believers. There will be a real, active love towards others in our church fellowship.
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Beloved...

As we get ready to properly dive into todays passage let it not escape our notice the manner in which the apostle addresses these believers; beloved. Perhaps if you have a NKJV it will say brothers, that was the rendering in the textus receptus, the 16th century version of the Greek New Testament. However the majority reading here is not adelphoi but agapetoi. Beloved ones. John wasn’t a career pastor. He wasn’t a man acting out of a sense of duty or obligation all the while resenting the fact that He was having to sort this whole mess out. He loved these people. He couldn’t help but write this letter, it was all He could do. Just as the apostle Paul constantly made mention of his desire to be with those he was writing to, you get the same sense in John’s words. Here is a man who truly cares about these people, he desperately wants to be with them to bring them encouragement and protect them from those who were bringing false teaching. As a man who has been called into pastoral ministry it’s a thought that provokes me and prods at my conscience all the time. Are you, the people of God for whom Jesus died My Beloved? This is the test of every minister; are those in the church his beloved or are they just bums on seats, human resources there to boost their ego and the church bank account? That accusation could not be levelled at the apostles, who rather than getting rich off the back of the church, risked and even gave their own lives for their sake.

I am not writing you a new command but an old one...

A very considerable portion of all new testament epistles consists of addressing false teaching. 1st, 2nd and 3rd John are no exceptions to this. This isn’t a subject that we’re likely to hear about very much in church these days, but it was a major focus of the early church and indeed it was right through the patristic period stretching into the middle ages. It was a subject taken up again by the reformers, Luther, Calvin, Wycliffe et al and then again by the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, John Bunyan and then again by the Victorian preacher Spurgeon and J C Ryle and also by the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones who was widely considered to be the greatest preacher of the 20th century. These men were acqainted with controversy. They were zealous for truth and were unwilling to sacrifice the truth of God’s gospel for anything.
“Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.” - J. C. Ryle
Now that’s awesome! But what is clear is that Mr Ryle didn’t have much dealings with toddlers!
The apostles were used to constantly having to defend the gospel that was entrusted to them at first, against people who wanted to posture themselves as super-apostles for financial and societal gain.
Some believe that these false teachers whom John addresses in these letters had been spreading rumours about him, that it was he who was bringing ‘new commandments’ and that it was them who were in fact preaching the original gospel. That might make some sense of what John means by saying that this commandment wasn’t new but old. One that they had from the beginning when they first received the gospel with faith.
For it’s been the trait of false teaching throughout the centuries; new commandments. False religion is always about new commandments and for that reason it’s easy to spot.

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

For the false teachers John was addressing it was a new understanding of Jesus’s nature, a new understanding of sin and an obsession with appearing hyper spiritual. Today it’s no different; the televangelist has his list of new commandments; Oh yes, God can heal you, but He won’t release that healing unless you sow a $100 seed today. The pin-up pastor has his set of new commandments, ‘God’s doing all He can to help you live your best life now; but if you won’t declare it over your life then He’s powerless. If you won’t pray more, do more, be more, God can’t help you.’ The progressive Christian has their set of new rules; you’re not allowed to define God, you cannot call sin, sin.
True Christianity is always about getting back to the old commandments, to God’s word.

Yet I am writing you a new command...

But John now calls this old commandment ‘new’. How can it possibly be both old and new at the same time?
Sometimes the Bible seems to contradict itself at certain points, as Christians it’s important that we acknowledge this rather than glossing over it. There’s no need to worry that there actually are; as we’ve discussed it’s God’s word. It has one author but many scribes. And at this church we believe that the scriptures are wholly infallible and inerrant. I used to be pretty nervous to research apparent contradictions in the Bible, but the more I did the more I found that they weren’t actually contradictions at all. This is just such an example.
John records the words of Jesus in His gospel;
In John 13:34, Jesus said this to his disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Therefore, what is new about this command is the part about Jesus’ model of love—a newness of quality, emphasis, and extent.
Since it was John’s gospel that these believers were familiar with its emmanently possible that they would have gotten this reference immediately.

And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.

Which is true in Him and in you...

This commandment was fully revealed as true in Christ who laid down his life for His friends. Yet the apostle says that it is also true in them and therefore also in us. Why? Because of this union we have now with Jesus! Anything which is true in Him is either now actually true in us, as in His righteousness which has been reckoned to us, or which is becoming true in us, such as His love for others. How can that be?

Because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining...

This language is poetic but it perhaps doesn’t at first present it’s meaning to us clearly. Calvin believed that this statement was a reference to the process of the darkness of the old man inside us passing away as the light of Christ shines in our hearts. Therefore this new light brings a new application to an old commandment. The more the light of Jesus shines on our lives the more we see how weak and apathetic our love has been towards others, we see that weak love of ours contrasted with God’s great and fierce love of us and the command to love one another takes on an altogether new meaning for us. So the commandment can in that sense be both old and new.

ὁ λέγων ἐν τῷ φωτὶ εἶναι καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μισῶν ⸆ ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ ἐστὶν ἕως ἄρτι.

The one saying.. This clause is familiar. It’s the same phrase John used in Chapter one to represent the voice of the false teachers. Here again, they are claiming to be in the light. To be with God, to be Holy. However it seems that their claim is invalidated by their hatred of their brothers.
Does the apostle mean their physical brothers here, no. Neither is the phrase brothers to be linked with the command of Christ to love ones neighbour or fellow human. To hate ones brother is to hate another Christian.
Now, I find it hard to believe that these false teachers were showing an overt hatred towards these believers. If that were the case then John wouldn’t have to be warning these believers against their teachings. Most commentators think that their hatred of their fellow christians was revealed in two ways; 1. Towards John and those with him. They slandered John and disrespected him. 2. They hated their fellow Christians in the same way that Esau despised his birthright. By not treating them as their value deserved. They hated their brothers and sisters through neglect, through a hyper spiritual lifestyle that was far removed from the real lives of their fellow christians. They weren’t having compassion on their brothers and sisters but were using them.
Jesus used the same verb for ‘hate’ miseo when he says;

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

What Jesus means by hate is that their love and loyalty to Him must be of the sort of quality that it makes every other relationship they have look like hate. Because He is worthy of that kind of love.
I think if these false teachers had read John’s letter they’d have said; no! Of course we love you. We tell you all the time!
Their kind of love was such a bastardisation of 1 Corinthians 13 it was fair to call it hate. The kind of love that is impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, proud, dishonouring, self-seeking, angry, with a long memory of your mistakes, which loves evil and hates the truth. This love is unsafe, filled with paranoia, it is fickle and without hope for the future.
The goal of the false teacher is not to create an environment of love, but to feed his ego and fill his pockets. ~John MacArthur

ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ μένει,* καὶ σκάνδαλον ⸉ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν⸊·

The false teacher is a ‘sayer’, they are ready to say that they love you, they are ready to say that they are in the light but the true Christian is a doer. they are a lover. The greek carries the sense of ‘the one loving their brother abides in the light.’ We know when we’re in the light because we do love, we don’t just talk about it.
So what does this love look like then? How can we be doing it?

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

This love in us looks like putting other’s needs before our own. Taking care of the most needy amoungst us. Risking our own discomfort in order to bring comfort to one another. This is the kind of love that is in you. When the light of Jesus shines in us through the holy spirit this love begins to grow and grow.
Just as when we were hungry He came and fed us the bread from heaven, we were thirst and He gave us living water, when we were strangers and enemies He welcomed us in, when we were naked and ashamed in darkness He clothed us in His righteousness, when we were sick with sin and imprisoned he came to us and set us free.
When we see Him, and how He has loved us, and how He is loving us, how can we hold our love for others back?
when we are loving as a way of life there is no cause for stumbling in us. The devil can’t trip us up! He can’t find any hatred in our heart to work with! There’s nothing for him to latch his claws onto. When we love people for what we can get out of them, or live in unforgiveness towards our fellow believers it’s like you become a moving target for the enemy. The self-centredness and bitterness separates you from your church family and you become vulnerable. Just as the lions in the serengeti pick off the gazzelle that has been isolated from the pack, the enemy is waiting for us to get caught up in offence, bitterness and self centredness.
Because it’s then that we loose our way, we don’t know where we’re going. Just as John says their eyes become blinded by the darkness. We stumble, trying to find our footing but without love we’re easy pickings for the devil.
Turning from the Light. Bede: The person who has turned away from the light of Christ goes ignorantly into hell, blind and unaware of the punishment which awaits him. On 1 John.64

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Chrysostom: He adorns love not only for what it has but also for what it has not. Love both elicits virtue and expels vice, not permitting it to spring up at all.
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John himself once encountered Cerinthus (another notorious heretic) in a public bathhouse in Ephesus. Instead of greeting him, however, John turned and fled, exclaiming to those with him, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is within." (Against Heresies, 3.3.4)
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