A lot of Christians' love to believe that Christ made up some new commandments for them and the old ones have gone away through a new covenant that was meant for the real Israel. All to often you see Christians running to this verse and saying they are in the new covenant, Unfortunately for you the new covenant is for Israel and Judah and the bible tells you this. You need to know that you as a gentile/ heathen are grafted into our tree, we were never grafted into your tree. Do you even understand what it means to be grafted in? You must come to the understanding that if you make a covenant with the most High, that covenant no matter what will always revolve around the 10 Commandments and the Covenants He made with us, and the commandments are forever. Nothing you can do or say will change what The Most High said about this, or what Christ even said. John 14:10 "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."
Christ was doing the work of the prophets because it is
FOR EVER
Deuteronomy 4:39-40
39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Sovereign he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. 40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Sovereign thy God giveth thee,
FOREVER.
In 1 John 2:3-6, the apostle gives a test by which you can know that you truly know Yasha Christ, namely, if you walk in obedience to His word. In 1 John 2:6, he states, “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Then, in 1 John 2:7-11, John goes on to apply this test of obedience more specifically to the area of love. If Jesus’ life and especially His death epitomized love, then those who claim to follow Him are obligated to live in love.
In the Upper Room, on the night He was betrayed, Christ demonstrated His great love for the disciples by taking a towel and a basin of water and washing the disciples’ feet. After that unforgettable object lesson, He drove the point home in John 13:14-15, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” He was not instituting a ceremonial foot-washing service, where everyone comes with clean feet to be washed! He was saying something much more difficult to practice, that we who follow Christ must set aside our rights and serve one another.
In that same chapter John 13:34-35, Christ said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Obviously, those words of Christ were behind John’s words about the old, new commandment. It may be that the heretics against whom John was writing claimed to have some “new” truths. Using an obvious play on words, John counters them by saying that we don’t need new truth, but rather the old truth that his readers learned early in their experience. On the other hand, if you want “new” truth, John says that the old commandment is the new commandment, which Christ gave to us. In short,
Rebuking one another is an essential mark of a true Servant of Christ.
Having said that, I must quickly add that that we must define “love” biblically, not culturally. Culturally, if you mention the word “love,” people think of “niceness,” let's give our neighbor a sandwich. They picture a loving person as always being nice and sweet towards everyone. He never confronts or rebukes sin or error. He never gets angry about evil or says anything that might upset someone. But if you are at all familiar with the four gospels, you will immediately see that by this cultural definition, Christ was not a loving man! Yasha loved the Jew-ish religious leaders when He said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” Matthew 23:15. He loved Peter when He said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan” Matthew 16:23. He loved the multitude when He said to them, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?” Matthew 17:17. The apostle Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, whose first fruit is love, when he said to Elymas, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Sovereign?” Then, he struck him blind (see Acts 13:9-11).
I’m not saying that we should go around blasting people like a bunch of rudimentary children, while claiming that we’re loving them! I’m only pointing out that our definition of love, in a practical sense, must encompass all that the Bible says about love, not what our worldly culture says love is. John makes two points in our text:
To love The Most High AHAYA, Is to OBEY The Most Highs commandments (1 John 2:7-8) and to love thy neighbors as you would love yourself. This kind of love cannot be found by offering someone a sandwich, but rather rebuking them in their sin/ transgression of the law just like it says in Leviticus.
This is the Precept for the verse Christ was elevating, THE ROYAL LAW.
Leviticus 19:17-18
17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Sovereign.
In these two verses, John makes four points:
Yasha Christ COMMAND TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER IS BOTH AN OLD AND A NEW ELEVATED COMMANDMENT.
John never specifically identifies the old, ELEVATED commandment in these verses, and he only mentions love once in this entire section (1 John 2:10). But his reference to the Royal commandment makes it obvious that he is referring to Christ command to love one another. This commandment was old in two senses. First, it was old in that Moses taught it in the Law, Leviticus 19:18“… you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Christ identified this as the second greatest commandment, after the FIRST elevated command to love God with all your life's being Matthew 22:37-40. So in that sense, this command had been with AHAYA’s people for 1,400 years. But the main sense in which this was an old commandment is that these believers had heard it from the very earliest days of their Hebrew experience (1 John 2:7): “… which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.” John uses the phrase, “from the beginning,” in the same way in 1 John 3:11, “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (also, 2 John 5).
But, John says (1 John 2:8), the commandment is also new, in that Christ had issued it as the new ELEVATED commandment John 13:34. John Stott (The Epistles of John [Eerdmans], p. 93) suggests four ways that this old commandment became new when Christ issued it. First, it was new in its emphasis, in that Yashaya brought it together with the command to love AHAYA as the summation of the entire Law. Second, it was new in its quality, in that His own self-sacrifice on the cross became the standard. Third, it was new in its extent, in that in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ extended the definition of neighbor to go beyond race or religion. Anyone in need of hearing the commandments who crosses our path is our neighbor. He said that we should love even our enemies, Yes even our enemies must hear the word. Finally, it was new in the disciples’ continuing apprehension of it. The love of Christ hung on the tree is inexhaustible. We can never plumb its depths. And so as we grow in our understanding of His great love,
we will grow in our apprehension of how we must love one another.
So Christ command is both old and new.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF YOUR CHRISTIAN WALK, YOU SHOULD LEARN HOW TO ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN LOVING RELATIONSHIPS.
John tells his readers that they have had this commandment “from the beginning,” and then identifies it as “the word which you have heard” (1 John 2:7). It was part and parcel with the gospel that they had believed at the outset of their Hebrew experience. When we hear and respond to the good news that Christ died for sinners (LAW BREAKERS) that genuinely turn away from their wicked ways and follow the ten commandments and what laws apply to us today. REPENT, GET BAPTISED, and GO REBUKE/LOVE your neighbor, at that point the love of AHAYA is “poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us by Christ in John 14:15-31”.
Many of you came into the christian faith from backgrounds where you did not experience any of the laws or commandments. Your parents abused you verbally or physically, Maybe you were in a series of abusive relationships with the opposite sex. You’ve had no models of how to love other people. It is urgent, once you trust in Christ as your Savior, to learn from AHAYA’s Word and from more mature believers how to rebuke in love others in a practical, daily manner. You will need to unlearn many bad ways of relating to others that you brought with you from the past. You will need to relearn how to think and speak and act in loving ways, especially toward those who wrong you. If you do not learn to love others, you will fester with anger and bitterness, and your relationship with Christ will suffer.
It all begins with how you think about others. Instead of thinking first about yourself, your feelings, your rights, and your needs, you must learn to think first about others without all those feelings.
How can I show YOU, this difficult person the love of Christ through scripture if you don't listen?
John14:15
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments
What about this?
John 14:21
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, HE IT IS THAT LOVETH ME: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
1 John 2 1:4
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
You know how hard it is to tell a christian that they must follow the laws and commandments?
I do this and will incumber any hate you can throw at me to save your soul from total damnation for ETERNITY!
I do this out of love for YOU the disobedient law breakers. So,
How can I rebuke this person in love?
Rather than thinking angry thoughts about how he wronged you and how you’ll get even, you begin to think about how Christ wants you to think about the one who mistreated you. You look for opportunities to return good instead of evil, Then love extends to your speech. You put off abusive speech that tears down the other person, and you put on speech that builds him up. You stop lying or stretching the truth to your own advantage and begin speaking the truth (Commandments) in love, You cease from gossip and slander, you see theses things are violations of the law pertaining to how to treat people. Then, in your behavior you begin to practice the commandments and you study the law and rebuke evil deeds. You look for opportunities to serve others, beginning in your home by teaching your children the commandments. You become “zealous for good deeds”. Again, this is not advanced, graduate level bible education. This is suckling on the teat of scripture, the meat and manna are so much better. But, maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t have the strength to do what you’re saying.”
Your new Covenant with Christ is central to practicing biblical love towards others by rebuking them in their sin.
John says that this old, new commandment “is true in Him and in you” 1 John 2:8. It is true in Him because Yasha Christ is the greatest example of love in the history of the world. He left the splendor and perfect holiness of heaven, where He enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father. He came to this sick and twisted sin-stained world, not as the conquering King, but as a lowly servant. He was obedient to death on the tree at the hands of sinful men that He could have obliterated, if He had given the command. He did it all to save those who transgress the law of who deserved His wrath.
This new commandment is supremely true in Him, Christ rebuked everyone who was against The Most High.
But John also says that it is true in you. If you ask, “How so?” the answer is, “Because you are now in Him.” It is true in Him fundamentally and true in you derivatively because of your obedience to Him. Paul often describes our new walk as being “in Christ.” John uses the term, “abiding” in Him. The glorious truth of the entire gospel is that we are joint-heirs with Christ of all His riches! Understanding that obedience to the Father and Christ is central to practicing biblical love.
GROWING IN LOVE FOR OTHERS IS A LIFELONG PROCESS.
John adds (1 John 2:8), “… because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.” Primarily, John is referring to the dawning of the gospel through Christ. His coming inaugurated a new era.
But in a secondary sense, what John says here applies to every person who has trusted in Christ. Paul put it (2 Corinthians 4:6), “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (See also, Colossians 1:12, 13.) Or, as Peter put it (1 Peter 2:9), God saved us “so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” So becoming a true servant is a radical change from darkness to light, where The Most High removes the mud from your eyes to see something of the glory of Yasha Christ. Yet at the same time, there is a process involved that takes time. The darkness does not dissipate instantly, but rather it is gradually dispelled as the true Light of Christ and The Most Highs word shines more and more into your heart as we begin to follow the commandments. When it comes to the practicalities of learning to live in the fact that love is rebuking people in their sin, it is a lifelong process.
You never arrive at the place where you can say, “I love everyone perfectly now! Let’s move on!” Paul put it this way (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10), “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, …” Or, as he prayed for the Philippians, “that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment” (Philippians 1:9).
So, don’t be like the husband who grudgingly accompanied his wife to the marriage counselor. She complained to the counselor that he never told her that he loved her. The counselor asked, “Is this true?” The man gruffly responded, “I told her that 25 years ago when we got married, and it hasn’t changed!” You’ve got to work at growing in love on a daily basis for the rest of your life. To love one another is to obey our Sovereigns commandment.
Love is inseparable from the light, just as hatred is inseparable from the darkness (1 John 2:9-11).
The phrase, “The one who says,” tips us off that John again has the heretics in mind. They claimed to be enlightened, and yet, apparently, they were arrogant and self-centered. They did not love others in a sacrificial way. They were using people to build a following for themselves, rather than building people to follow Christ. So John gets out his black and white paint again, and without mixing them into shades of gray, he shows that these false teachers were not true believers. They do not love; they hate. They are not in the light; they are in the darkness until now.
1 John 2:9
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now
But we should not only use John’s words to identify false teachers. We should also apply them honestly to our own lives. Sadly, there are many that profess to know Christ, but in their marriages and towards their children they do not practice biblical love. Many evangelical churches are torn apart by conflict because certain powerful members did not get their own way. Rather than acting in love, they viciously attack those who don’t agree with them. So John shows that love is inseparable from the light, just as hatred invariably is bound up with darkness. He does not allow for any middle ground, where you can be sort of loving, but sort of cantankerous, too! He makes three points:
YOUR PROFESSION OF BEING IN THE LIGHT IS EXPOSED AS FALSE IF YOU HATE YOUR BROTHER.
You may be thinking, “Hate is a pretty strong word! While I may not love that difficult person, I wouldn’t say that I hate him.” But John doesn’t let us go there! You either love the other person, which requires sacrificing yourself for that person’s highest good, as Christ did for us on the cross (John 13:34) or, you hate him.
Writing to a rebellious church situation, Paul contrasts the new way in Christ with the old life before he met Christ (Titus 3:1-3): Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
He goes on to talk of how God’s kindness and love transformed us through salvation. The point is, no matter how pagan or unloving your background, if you continue in a lifestyle of hate rather than a lifestyle of love, your profession of faith is suspect.
IF YOU LOVE YOUR BROTHER, YOU ABIDE IN THE LIGHT AND HAVE NO CAUSE FOR STUMBLING IN YOU.
Whether “light” should be capitalized to represent Christ or whether it refers to the truth of AHAYA’s Word, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter in that if you abide in Christ, you also abide in His Word, which sheds His light into your heart. To abide in the light means to live with your life exposed and open to God’s Word. You allow the Word to shine into the dark recesses of your mind, exposing and rooting out what is evil. John says that loving your brother is inseparable from abiding in the light.
If you love your brother and abide in the light, “there is no cause for stumbling” in you. This may mean that you do not cause others to stumble in their walk with The Most High as well because, out of love for them, you rebuke them to do that which builds them in Christ which is following the Commandments. Or, it may mean that the person who walks in the light will not stumble himself, because the light illumines his path (John 11:9-10).
In both senses, rebuking in love preserves you from sin. Failure to rebuke often leads you into other sins. For example, lust and sexual immorality are serious sins, but both are rooted in a lack of rebuke for others. To lust after a woman is to desire to use her to gratify your desires. It is a failure of rebuke. Or, take the sins of greed, stealing, and murder. They all stem from a failure to rebuke others. Invariably, those who commit these sins love themselves quite well! None of us need to work on loving ourselves, as the “Christian” psychologists repeatedly emphasize. The task is, to rebuke others in their sin
IF YOU HATE YOUR BROTHER, YOU ARE STILL IN THE DARKNESS, YOU WALK IN THE DARKNESS, AND YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING BECAUSE YOU’RE SPIRITUALLY BLIND.
I’m not making up these points, I’m merely summarizing each of these verses. The plain meaning of verse 11 is that if you live for yourself with no regard for others, no self-sacrifice or willingness to be inconvenienced to meet others’ needs, then you are not saved. John is not talking about occasional lapses into selfishness. We all fail in that at times. Rather, he’s talking about a lifestyle (“walks”). The person who lives for himself and is indifferent towards others (which is what hatred means) “does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (2:11). He is spiritually blind, groping through life without the light of God’s Word to guide him in God’s ways.
I often speak with people who profess to know Christ, but their relationships are marked by anger, abusive speech, bitterness, and self-centeredness, with words like "I'm Good", "I'm Saved By Grace". Invariably, they don’t have a clue as to why they keep experiencing broken relationships. While I do not know their hearts (only AHAYA does), their lives do not give evidence that they have experienced the love of God through Christ. Rather, they seem to be in spiritual darkness, blindly colliding from one broken relationship to the next. They do not practice biblical love, which is an essential mark of every true Servant.
Again, none of us loves perfectly. When we fail, we need to repent and ask forgiveness of the one we wronged. It is a lifelong process of being conformed to the image of Yashaya Christ. But those who have met Him will be growing in love for others. Also, note that love for others is a commandment, not a warm, gushy feeling. That should give you hope, because God’s commandments are not burdensome 1 John 5:3 and God’s Spirit gives us the grace (Conviction) and power to obey His commands, which are for our good. Biblical love is a self-sacrificing, caring commitment that shows itself in seeking the highest good of the one loved.
You can obey the commandment to love others!
So if you’re thinking, “But I don’t love my mate any more,” or, “I just don’t like that difficult person,” the Bible is clear: Get to work obeying God’s commandment to love him or her. It’s not optional for the follower of Christ.
IT IS ESSENTIAL!
I will leave you with one last scripture from John, There is NO new commandments.
1 John 2
7 Brethren, I write NO NEW COMMANDMENTS unto you, but AN OLD COMMANDMENT which ye had FROM THE BEGINNING. THE OLD COMMANDMENT is THE WORD which ye have heard FROMTHE BEGINNING.
8 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.
This is from the book of James The Elevated/ Royal Law
James 2:8
If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
