i. 5 - ii. 28. GOD IS LIGHT.
a. i. 5 - ii. 11. What Walking in the Light involves: the Condition and Conduct of the Believer.
Fellowship with God and with the Brethren (i. 5-7).
Consciousness and confession of sin [committed before forgiveness] (i. 8-10).
Obedience to God by Imitation of Christ (ii. 1-6).
Love of the Brethren (ii.7-11).
7. "Beloved." While enforcing the commandment to love, St. John gives expression to love by this endearing epithet.
"From the beginning." He probably means from the commencement of the Christian faith of the readers. "The new commandment" of love is ever new, because it has new sanctions daily with our increasing knowledge of Christ. It was new when the disciples saw Him on the cross and heard Him pray, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." It was new when they saw Him after His resurrection, and again after the cloud received Him out of their sight. It had an especial newness when the Paraclete on the day of Pentecost came into their hearts, flooding them with love. As we have an ever-increasing ability to apprehend with fresh power the beauty of Christ's character, so the command to love Him and all who bear His image will be new. "While life advances and our spiritual life unfolds the Gospel must be always new." Hence there is no irksomeness, no theadbareness in real, hearty Christian service. To stationary Christians this commandment is always old, but to advancing believers, who have through the inner revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit, more and more perfect vision of Him, love is more and more abundantly shed abroad in their hearts.
8. "Which is true in him and in you." Doubly true as well as new. First, is always a more attractive object; and, second, the normal, progressive disciples have always enlarged capacity for loving the adorable Christ and all who bear His image. "The fact that the commandment is new as well as old is proved true in Christ, so far as His words and works have become more fully known; and 'in you,' so far as the actual experience of life has shown this duty of love in a new light, more comprehensive and constraining." (Westcott.)
"Because the darkness is past." Rather is passing away, is on the wane and the true light is showing its increasing splendor; therefore you are under a stronger obligation to walk in the light by fellowship with God, obedience to His Son, imitation of Christ's example and a progressive love of the brethren. Light symbolizes intelligence and holiness.
"The true light." As opposed to the spurious phosphorescence of Gnostic philosophy and the dim and unsteady light of the Old Testament.
9. "In the light, and hateth." An impossible combination. Saving knowledge is always sympathetic and involves love to God and man. It is a very common mistake to put intellectual knowledge for a spiritual knowledge of Christ. It is easy to substitute an orthodox head for a regenerate heart. It is the business of the faithful pastor to show the disastrous consequences and to secure a genuine transformation. "Where sympathy exists hatred is impossible" (John vii. 7); "where sympathy does not exist hatred is inevitable" (John xv. 18-20). (Bishop Westcott.) Yet hatred of iniquity is a moral duty. The English language is unfortunate in having the verb "hate" signify abhorrence of evil and antipathy to a fellow Christian. The latter is the meaning of John.
"His brother." This is the New Testament idea of brotherhood. (Acts iii. 17, vi. 3, ix. 30; Rom. i. 13.) The title thus limited is used throughout the Epistles. Says Westcott, "There is, as far as it appears, no case where a fellow-man, as man, is called a brother in the Now Testament." We are, according to Augustine, "So to love our enemies as to make them friends; for Christ so loved, who, while hanging on the cross, said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' "
"In darkness even until now." He is not merely false in profession, but is in a state of sin, or darkness the exact opposite to his profession, a spiritual darkness to which there is no sunrise.
10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him 11 But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes
10. "Abideth in the light." He not only is in the light, but he also permanently dwells in this delightful element.
"None occasion of stumbling." Through coldness toward a follow Christian a man may not only be a stumbling block to others, but he may also, as we infer from verse 11, make his own path dark and difficult, for "he knoweth not whither he goes," having lost his assurance which requires love as well as light. Hence "his whole life is a continual error." (Howe.) The darkness of a lack of love, like physical darkness, destroys the organ of spiritual vision. See Is. vi. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 4. The English "blinded," in the sense of blindfolded, is not the exact meaning of the Greek "to make blind," or to produce a state of blindness.
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