LOVE AND LIGHT

Loving and Hatred for our fellow believers:

 

1 John 2:7 & 8

7 “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. 

8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”

 

There was a command that was made  which was given to Moses for the people of God to follow (Exodus 20:1-17).

Per the above passage in verse 7, this command has been with us since the beginning and is termed by John as the “old command”. This command is said to be the messages which we have heard over the course of time and which we have been taught. 

But John came not to give us a new command but to rewrite the “old command” into a “new command”, just as the Lord Jesus Christ came not to abolish the “old covenant”, but to fulfill it into a “new covenant” (Matthew 5:17).

 

According to John, the “new command” has a truth and its truth can be seen in the Lord Jesus Christ himself and in us his children too. 

This truth of the “new command” is the fullness of the command itself. It is the light that can be seen in us and in the Lord Jesus Christ himself which is shining in these last days, clearing away the darkness that has been in the world for ages.

Let’s see what this “new command” is and what the truth of this command is;

 

1 John 2:9-11

9 “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 

10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 

11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”

 

We can see clearly from the above text that the “new command” is that we ought to “love our brothers and sisters and not hate them”. Hence the truth of this command which is the fullness of the command is LOVE. 

According to the above verses, anyone who does not love their brother or sister is not in the light or does not have the light but rather darkness. 

In light there’s nothing that can’t be seen; there’s no stumbling block that can’t be seen when there’s light at a place. One will see the block and skip it saving their foot from hitting the block and also saving them from stumbling. So it is with anyone who has love. They are in light hence there’s no darkness to blind them and to cause them to stumble and vice verse. 

One can do all the things of the “old command”; the Ten Commandments, be filled with power and might and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but once they hate or have no love for a fellow brother or sister, they have started entering darkness and the light is leaving. 

 

Let’s look at something amazing and mysterious here:

The truth of the “new command” from the above writings is the light that can be seen in us and in Jesus Christ which is LOVE. And anyone who loves is in light or has the light in them. 

Meaning LOVE = LIGHT 

And God is LIGHT meaning God is LOVE as seen in: 

 

1 John 1:5‬ ‭‬

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

 

‬and 

 

1 John 4:16

 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

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So whoever has LOVE has/is in LIGHT and in turn has/is in GOD.

But he who has no LOVE, has no/isn’t in LIGHT and has not/isn’t in GOD.

May the LORD help us to LOVE one another and live in His LIGHT and in Him. AMEN 

Shalom ❤️

 

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