CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1 John 2:8. New commandment.—St. John seems to refer to his demand of love to the brethren, as the satisfactory sign of heart-obedience, son-like obedience to the Father. And this was new in the sense that no previous religious or ethical system had made such a demand. The common law of humanity is, “Serve yourself first, and then serve others, if you can.” The Divine law of humanity is, “Serve others first, and serve yourselves only when you are quite free of all brotherly obligations.” Darkness is past.—Which hid from men the Fatherhood of God, and prevented them from realising their brotherhood. True light.—It is the light of Christ’s ideal sonship and brotherliness.
1 John 2:9. Hateth.—This is a word which has changed its meaning since the A.V. was made. The Bible word means, “love less”; “put second”; “show indifference to.” The Christian hates self when he puts self second. The worldly man hates his brother when he puts him after self.
1 John 2:10. None occasion of stumbling.—I.e. the self-seeking principle is constantly putting men in peril of doing wrong and unjust things to their brethren. The love which “seeketh not her own” never urges any man to do anything that is unkind or unworthy. “Love to the brethren is a proof of uninterrupted abiding in the light, and of a blameless course in the way of righteousness.” St. John evidently had to deal with teachers who urged that love to Christ was enough to secure all the Christian blessings. He counteracts such mischievous teachings, by thus firmly asserting that love to Christ is absolutely inseparable from love to the brethren; there cannot possibly be the one without the other.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 John 2:7-11
A New, yet Old, Commandment.—The new life in Christ will always find expression in two forms—in righteousness, and in charity. Or, to state the same thing in concrete form, in the obedience of sonship to God, and in the service of brotherhood to men. The apostle has been dealing with the first of these; he now turns to the second, beginning a new section by the direct address “Brethren,” or more precisely, “Beloved.” There are senses in which the love of the brethren is the oldest of old commandments. And there are senses in which the old commandment has been given anew; a fresh glow, and force, and meaning have been put upon it, and it comes to us like a new commandment, when we receive it from the lips of our Divine Lord and Master. Think of it as old, or think of it as new, still it stands as the second great commandment for humanity, and it is, in fact, included and involved in the first. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” It is remarkable that counsels respecting the law of brotherly love should take such a prominent place in St. John’s epistles. The Churches of his day must have been failing in this duty. The spirit of self-seeking and rivalry must have been spoiling the Christian relations. It was not the wisest thing for the apostle to attempt dealing directly with cases of contention and misunderstanding. It is seldom possible to get such matters put straight by any interference from without. But it is always possible, and it is often effective, to deal with such matters by reaffirming and reimpressing general principles, and this course the apostle takes. There is a Divine atmosphere, in which alone the quickened and regenerate soul can breathe and thrive. It is the light, which is the atmosphere of God. And there is an earthly atmosphere, in which alone the quickened and regenerate soul can breathe and thrive. It is love—the love of the brethren, the spirit in a man towards the brethren which leads him to put the interest of his brethren before his own. Nothing but love will inspire that.
I. Love of the brethren is an old commandment.—“An old commandment, which ye had from the beginning.” It is as old as humanity. This was evidently in the apostle’s mind, for we find him presently referring to the first human brother, Cain, who failed in keeping this commandment in his day. When God made man, He designed for him fatherhood; and since this involved sonship, it also involved brotherhood. The Divine idea of society was brotherhood in the inspiration of family love, which would lead each brother to care for his brother, as much and as truly as he cared for himself. What would society have been if the Divine idea had never been disturbed, if the Cain spirit had never been introduced? What would society be to-day, if, everywhere, every man was as interested in the welfare of his brother-man as in his own? “Brotherly love is an original human instinct. Christian ethics are as old as humanity.” The “milk of human kindness” feeds every child at the breast of the great nature-mother. No man, the world over, needs to be told of this old commandment. It is recognised as the first of human laws in every clime and every age. If the appeal be limited to the Jews, as having received a special revelation from God, we can see another sense in which brotherly love is an old commandment. For Moses distinctly enjoined this rule for the guidance of all social relations, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18), and the law was never for one moment disputed; the only contention that arose was over the precise meaning to be attached to the term “neighbour.” It may, however, be, as some have thought, that St. John’s expression “from the beginning” has exclusive reference to the beginning of the Christian experience of those to whom he wrote. It was one of the first things they were taught; and it had been taught them as an essential feature of the Christian life. There can be no “sonship” without “brotherhood.”
II. Love of the brethren is a new commandment.—Two things make it a new commandment for Christian disciples.
1. It was announced afresh, on His own authority, by their Divine Lord and Master. It was a main point of His teaching. It never had been taught so clearly, or so forcibly; it never had been set in such a primary place, as moral duty. There was no conceivable possibility of any man’s being a disciple of Christ, if he failed to keep this commandment of the Lord. Jesus Himself called it a new commandment, because He put such freshness of meaning into it, when He commended it to His disciples, and because He put such new power of obedience into it, when He quickened souls with His Divine life (John 15:12).
2. It was embodied afresh in our Lord’s example. Taking upon Himself human sonship, He took on Himself human brotherhood; and He loved His brethren up to the very limits of self-sacrifice for their true welfare. The law of brotherly love is true for Christ, since He walked in the light. It will be true for us precisely in the measure in which we walk with Him in the light. The thing “is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.”
III. Love of the brethren is in full consistency with the Christian profession.—That profession is symbolically represented as “light.” It includes everything true, kind, right, pure, gentle, and helpful. Manifestly “love of the brethren” is in the fullest harmony with all these things. And the worldly life ruled wholly by self-interest, by self-seeking considerations, is symbolically represented as “darkness”; and hatred of our brother, in the milder form of neglecting him, or the harsher form of injuring him, is in full harmony with that worldly life of darkness. “The whole history of religious rancour has been a deplorable illustration of this ‘hating our brother.’ Controversy for principles honestly and reasonably held is one thing; prejudice, spite, private censures and condemnations, harsh words, suspicions, jealousies, misunderstandings and misrepresentations, are the chief props of the kingdom of darkness among Christian churches and nations.” (Compare John 13:34; John 15:12 1 Corinthians 13:2; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:7-9). St. John even suggests that keeping up the love of the brethren, by finding for it constantly active expression, is the very best way to keep in the light. Such a man “abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him” (1 John 2:10).
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1 John 2:8. Right Estimate of Christian Times.—“The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” The apostle Paul calls the præ-Christian ages, “The times of this ignorance.” And of Galilee, upon which the light of Christ’s ministry shone, prophecy had declared, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.” We can get a right estimate of Christian times only by contrast with a right estimate of præ-Christian times.
I. Præ-Christian times are represented by the term “darkness.”—And—
1. Darkness implies the absence of light. No sun, or moon, or stars bring any relief. And these represent the revelations of God which alone can relieve the moral darkness of men. It is not advisable to speak in an exaggerated way on this matter, and to deny all Divine interest in heathen and pagan peoples. What may be clearly stated is that God was pleased to leave the world to itself, to its own natural developments, without direct and special Divine intervention and help. But it must be “darkness” for the creature made by God, and dependent on Him, to be wholly left without any sense of His presence. The creature could but be “feeling after Him,” groping for Him, in the dark.
2. Darkness implies foulness. And we could not exaggerate in any statement that we could make concerning the moral degradation of heathen and pagan nations; it would be difficult to exaggerate in stating the mental blindness and moral corruption into which the Jews had fallen in the ages between Malachi and John the Baptist.
II. Christian times are represented by the term “light.”—
1. If the earlier ages were characterised by the absence of revelation, this is characterised by the greatest of all the revelations that have ever come from God: the one that illuminates, explains, and renews every other Revelation 2. If the earlier ages were dark indeed with sensual vices and self-aggrandisements, these ages are light indeed with a higher morality, family purity, personal restraints, gracious relations, and brotherly love.
1 John 2:10. Lore preventing Stumblings.—“He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling [scandal] in him.” This verse is pointedly addressed to the members of the Christian Church, and has in view the fact that there had been stumblings, scandals, and that there was always more or less danger of such things. The tone of the epistle suggests, that St. John had been greatly distressed by the report of such things. He does not choose to refer directly to any particular cases; he prefers to treat the evil as a general one, and to meet it by the assertion of Christian principles directly applicable to the case. The idea in his mind, to which he gives expression here, is something like this: If a man walks in the light, he can see where he is going; he can watch the path of his feet, and there is no occasion whatever for his stumbling. But if he walks in the night and darkness, he must pick his way tremblingly, for there are likely to be, here and there, many occasions of stumbling. St. John’s words recall those of our Divine Lord: “If a man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.” We have seen that the proper atmosphere for the Christian life, if regarded in relation to God, is light, and if regarded in relation to man, is love. Here St. John is thinking of the love. If a man love his brother, he will walk in an illuminated atmosphere, in which he can see his way, and carefully avoid all occasions of offence. But if a man does not love his brother, if he has any enmities cherished against him, he will walk in a darkened atmosphere, in which he will not recognise occasions of offence, and, in this mood of mind, he will not care to avoid them if he does see them. “It must needs be that offences come, but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh.” All family, all church, all society, quarrels come still, as they have always come, out of somebody’s unbrotherly moods. Somebody has been “walking in the darkness” of ill-will.
1 John 2:11; 1 John 2:15. An Important Distinction.—Light is often thrown on the meaning of passages by comparing scripture with scripture. That will reveal apparently striking distinctions and contrasts. The distinctions of inspired language are always carefully made, and they represent spiritual realities. Putting these two passages together, three things appear to view:
1. A distinction between “sinning” and “loving the world.” Sinning is a peril to which the best Christian stands exposed. Loving the world is essentially an un-Christian state. Sinning is an act. Loving the world is a spirit, an inward principle. Sinning is response to outward temptation. Loving the world is a personal choice.
2. A distinction between the effect of “sinning” and of “loving the world” on the religious spirit and life. Sin drives the soul to God. Loving the world draws the soul away from God. Sin makes precious the Father’s Comforter. Loving the world crushes out all love of the Father.
3. Loving the world is set forth as a more perilous thing than sinning. The one may be consistent with a real, sincere, and earnest religious life. The other is absolutely inconsistent with it. And yet, practically, we think but little of this “loving the world.” It is treated as quite a venial sin. It is more to be dreaded than any sinful act we could possibly commit.
1 John 2:11. The Apostle’s Line of Argument.—God is light. Christ is that light revealed. The life of Christ was a life of obedience and a life of love. In order, therefore, to have fellowship through Him with God believers must obey and love. The state of things in which this is possible has already begun. Therefore I write to you a command which is both old and new; walk in the light by imitating the love of Christ. In this manner St. John lays the foundation of Christian ethics.—A. Plummer, D.D.