“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. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:7-8).
Here, then, is something to ponder. The beloved apostle states matter of factly that he is not writing a new command but an old one. This is a message they “have had since the beginning.” Then, the apostle goes on to say that “yet” he is “writing a new command.” What’s the deal?
He explains: the truth of this new command “is seen in him.” What’s new about the new command, which is the old one, is that it can also now be seen. It’s seen “in him.” That is, what is both old and new is seen in Jesus. But not just in Jesus, also “in you,” in Jesus’ people. What is this old command from the beginning that is now a new command seen in Jesus and His people?
It is the command to love (Deut. 6:5; John 13:34). Love, that most ancient and eternal of attributes, which never fails and never ceases, is yet always new. And where do we see the love of God clearest? Is it not in Jesus, God’s Son? For it is in Jesus that we see all the newness of love expanded, a love proclaimed by the apostles and by the faithful preacher in the gospel, the message we possess from the beginning of our spiritual lives.
Jesus makes this old thing new in the lives of His people. John Stott tells us how:
The idea of love in general was not new, but Jesus Christ invested it in several ways with a richer and deeper meaning. First, it was new in the emphasis he gave it, bring the love commands of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 together and declaring that the whole teaching of the Law and the Prophets hung upon them. Secondly, it was new in the quality he gave it. A disciple was to love others not just as he loved himself but in the same measure as Christ had loved him, with selfless self-sacrifice even unto death. Thirdly, it was new in the extent he gave it, showing in the parable of the Good Samaritan that the ‘neighbour’ we must love is anyone who needs compassion and help, irrespective of race and rank, and includes our ‘enemy’ )cf. Mt. 5:44). It was also, fourthly, to continue new by our fresh apprehension of it, ‘for though doctrinal Christianity is always old, experimental Christianity is always new’ (Candlish). In these ways it was ‘a new command,’ and will always remain new. It is new teaching for the new age which has dawned, new… because ‘the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.’ (Stott, The Letters of John, italics added)
All of this newness is in Jesus–an in us! We see it in His life and sacrifice, and we see it in the church, His body. Oh what love is seen in the lives of His people! What mystery and wonder! Embrace and enjoy the Savior’s love today! Plumb the oldness and explore the newness for the joy of your soul!
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