1 John 2:7-11, The Test of Love

The Second Test—Do You Love?
1 John 2:7-11

Introductory Thoughts

· Related to the Obedience Test—do you obey Christ’s command to love?

John 13:34, 15:12, 2 John 4-6

· He exemplifies the command by addressing them as “beloved” (agapetoi)

1. The Command Paradox: 1 John 2:7-8 "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, …. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you,...”

Is this a new command or an old command? Strange paradox is introduced here.

Answer: It is both new and old.

It is old in three senses:

(1) It is one of the basic teachings of the faith, so for all believers, it is a command they know well “… an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. …”



(2) It was one of the primary teachings of Christ, so it is basic to the faith once delivered

John 13:34 ""A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

John 15:12 ""This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

John 15:17 ""These things I command you, that you love one another."

(3) It is the command upon which the whole OT Law really rested, as the Lord Himself pointed out

(a) Mat 22:35-40 "Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.""
(b) This disproves the idea that God is presented differently in the two Testaments
(c) God, in the Old Testament is just as loving as He is in the New Testament. God in the New Testament is just as wrathful against sin as He was in the Old Testament.
(d) The difference, and the reason that it sometimes feels as if God is closer in the New Testament, is twofold:

(i) First, we Gentiles were far off from God in the Old Testament

Eph 2:11-13 "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh; who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands; 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

(ii) Second, God seemed farther off in the OT because of the OT system of worship, where access to the Holy of Holies was severely restricted.
(iii) Third, God seems closer in the NT because of His self-revelation through the Incarnation.
(iv) But in truth, God is the same, He never changes, the only difference was in our perception of Him.


(4) The other apostles also taught the love principle.

Rom 13:8 "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."

1 Th 4:9 "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;"

1 Pet 1:22 "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,"

(5) John mentions it five times in this letter and once in his second letter.
(6) So, this is an old command, for it has been God’s command to man from the beginning of time.

It is also a New Command—“…8 Again, a new commandment I write to you,…”

(1) It is new in the sense that it replaces the misinterpretation that the doctors of the Law had applied to the Law, gutting it of its true meaning

Mat 23:23 ""Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone."

Mat 15:6-9 "'then he need not honor his father or mother.' Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'""

(2) (from Stott) It is “…New in emphasis…”—Christ quoted from Dt 6:5 and Lev 19:18 and showed how the commands to love God and man were the true basis for all the Law and prophets, but the command is New in the sense of the greater emphasis in the ministry of Christ and His apostles on love.

(3) “…New in the quality He gave it…” “…a disciple was to love others not just as he loved himself, but in the same measure that Christ had loved him, with selfless self-sacrifice even unto death…”

(4) It was new in extent—love goes to all, even to our enemy

(5) It was to continue new, because although the Faith continues the same, the experience of living for Christ should continue fresh.

The New Command for New People—“…8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, …”

(1) It is True in Him, because He is God—He IS love
(2) It is True in true believers because if we are His, and He lives in us, the capacity to love is in us.
(3) Like we saw last week, in the question over how we walk as He walked, the command to love varies between us and Him.

(a) In Him, the capacity to love is full, complete, 100%
(b) In us, it is incomplete, yet growing—but if we have no capacity for love, we are not His!

The New Command is for the New Era—“…which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining."

(1) In a larger sense, a new era for all man—Not a New Age in the pagan, mystical sense, but new era in the sense that the era of Messiah began when Christ came—Heb 1:1-2 "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, ...”

Heb 6:5, 1 Cor 10:11, Gal 1:4, Mat 12:32

(2) And in each person’s life, their new era begins when they are born again into new life.

(3) Darkness Vs. Light

(a) Globally—

(i) The old era before the Messiah, from Eden until Christ came, was an era of darkness.
(ii) The only light was in Israel, and that was often dim at best!
(iii) But with Christ’s coming, the LIGHT the True LIGHT, has come, and He has shone His light so all may see.

(b) Individually

(i) Before Christ, each individual is in darkness in their own life
(ii) When we become one with Him, we pass from darkness into light

(c) And see how it is stated——“…which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining."

(i) Both present tense
(ii) The darkness is passing away—a perfect description of the Christian life, as we progress in holiness
(iii) The True Light is already shining—in our lives, darkness is in the process of passing away, but from the time we are born again, the True Light is already shining.

2. The Test—1 John 2:9-11 "He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 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."

a. The One Saying—

(1) Present participle—continuous action
(2) What is he saying—compare with 2:4, 6—there the Talker said, “I know Him…” and “I abide in Him…”
(3) the fact that the talker did not obey and did not walk in a manner showing that he followed Christ showed that the talker did not have Christ!

b. Back to the talker vs. the walker

(1) “…the one saying…” verse 9
(a) he is saying that he is in the light
(b) but he is NOT in the light, as his actions prove—he is in darkness—i.e., he is lost
(2) He is lost because he is “…the one hating…” verse 11
(3) That is, the one saying he is a Christian and at the same time is “…the one hating…” (participle, present active) his brother, Is in darkness until now—present active!

c. The contrast—“…the one loving…” (present active) his brother
(1) The language
(a) Abides (present active)
(b) in the light
(c) There is (present active) no “skandalon” or cause for stumbling in him.
(2) The true contrast—the talker says, the lover does

3. Interpreting and applying the test

a. Interpretation:
(1) First, what do the verb tenses and the participles in the Greek tell us?
(a) They are active, not passive
(b) Continuous action
(c) Habitual action
(d) Personal action
(e) Action that flows from nature

(2) Second, what is love, and what is it to be loving?
(a) What it is NOT—nice-ness and political correctness
(i) The first characteristic of the one who loves is that he loves the Truth
(ii) Nothing is more unloving than a lie
(iii) Being nice and polite has nothing to do with being loving

(b) What love is—acting and living in a Godly way
(i) regardless of circumstances
(ii) regardless of how they treat you
(iii) regardless of what you might get out of it
(iv) regardless of response
(v) regardless of how it affects you in any other way
(vi) regardless of how you FEEL about it

(vii) Love is doing the right thing for the right motive—flowing from a life that is lived in obedience to God

(viii) And given our old man, whose corpse we drag around with us—love does not preclude an internal struggle to be loving

(3) Examples of being loving
(a) John the Baptist!
(b) Paul
(c) John the apostle
(d) The ultimate and only perfect example—Christ

b. Application—how do YOU fare on the test?