1st John 2:7-8

1 John 2:7-8 “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.”

The commandment is to love others. It’s old because it comes from the law. (Lev.19:18) And it’s new because Jesus interpreted it a new way. (John 13:34-35)
Jesus raised it to a new standard. Jesus didn’t just love His neighbors, He loved sinners and He loved His enemies. The Jews used to believe God wanted to destroy sinners. The rabbis said, “There is joy in heaven when one sinner is obliterated from earth.”

But, Jesus was a friend to the outcast and sinners and He taught us there is joy in heaven when one sinner comes home.

Jesus widened the boundaries of whom we are to love until they included the whole world. Where John writes the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining – remember darkness is identified with hate and light with love. We have been shown the light and it’s even now inside Christians. The world is already going through a process where it’s spreading. It may seem slow and we certainly see a lot of hate in the world, but it is progressing until Christ comes back and the reign of Christ will be a reign on love.