The Vision (2.23.24): A New Commandment

Image: Harbor Street, ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 1 John 2:7-11.

Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth (1 John 2:8).

In 1 John 2 the apostle tells his readers that he writes “no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment” (v. 7). Nevertheless, he then proceeds to call it “a new commandment" in v. 8.

What is this old, new commandment? The reference here is likely to the new commandment which Christ gave his disciples in the upper room in John 13:34-35, that they love one another as Christ loved them.

John was reminding his Christian readers of the special love and regard Christians are to have for one another, based on Christ's example. Christ, as the New Lawgiver, gives them this new commandment.

Friends, we are also being exhorted today to take up this new commandment. He has set an example for us. We should serve one another as Christ has served us.

It starts in the home in the way Christians husbands and wives treat one another, and it expands to the way Christian parents interact with all their children, but especially their believing children. How wonderful it is when our children are also our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It extends into our church in the ways in which we listen to, honor, and care for one another within the household of faith.

It extends to the way we treat Christian brethren in our sister congregations here in Virginia and around the world.

It will govern the language we use and the tone of our discourse on social media.

Do our actions reveal that we walk in the light or that we are walking in darkness?

What do you do if anyone, but especially a Christian brother, rubs you the wrong way? Can you plod? Can you continue to abide or remain in Christ? As John said, “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light…” (1 John 2:10).

We have an old, new commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us. And we have assurance of our faith if we obey his commandments (1 John 2:5; cf. John 14:15; 15:14).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle