1 John 2:7, commentary and pictures

John writes no new commandment but an old commandment had from the beginning, and the old commandment is the word heard from the beginning. The old word is God's holy moral law, the Ten Commandments spoken in awful grandeur at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20, established when the foundations of the earth were laid and given in Eden with binding claims on all mankind. To know Him is to keep His commandments and His word, and to claim to know Him while not keeping them makes a person a liar with no truth in him. With the old commandment comes Christ's express command to love the brethren, so that he who loves his brother abides in the light with no occasion of stumbling in him, while he who hates his brother is in darkness even until now. The same word is also new and true in Him and in believers because darkness is past and the true light now shines, and it is to be vindicated now by raising the standard of truth and living with vigorous piety.

Meaning of Old Word

No new commandment is written, but an old commandment possessed from the beginning, and that old commandment is the word heard from the beginning. It is no new requirement but the enduring commandment-keeping test, that to know Him is to keep His commandments and His word. To claim to know Him while not keeping them makes a person a liar with no truth in him, while keeping His word perfects the love of God in the keeper and proves abiding in Him. Abiding in Him requires walking even as He walked, full of pity, tenderness, and compassion, and keeping it is the test and proof of love for God whose principles of righteousness must be maintained. His love, compassion, and tenderness are offered to all who will be obedient.

The same old word stands joined to a new commandment true in Him and in believers because darkness is past and the true light now shines. In its immediate context the commandment is expressed through love for the brother, for loving keeps a person abiding in the light with no occasion of stumbling, while hating leaves a person in darkness even until now and walking in blinded darkness. The verse is given so that believers sin not by keeping His commandments, yet if any sin there is an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, with forgiveness of sins for His name's sake. Letting what was heard from the beginning abide keeps believers continuing in the Son and in the Father, receiving the promise of eternal life, and having confidence and not shame at His coming. The truth received from Christ is therefore to be cherished in its simplicity rather than replaced by new or strange human teachings.

Written years after the resurrection, the verse leaves no room for doubt, mist, or confusion about which commandment is meant. It means the law of God has had no change made in it from the beginning. It is the same law that existed before the fall of Satan, the same law the angelic family obeys in the heavenly courts now as when the foundation of the earth was laid. It was made when the foundations of the earth were laid, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, away back in the world's history before any people were distinguished as Jews. Carried by John as mouthpiece for God, it comes echoing down the lines from age to age to the present time, so its identity is God's commandments, and love is demonstrated by all who keep them.

The word heard stays old even when it sounds new. Long-revealed truths such as the glorious appearing of the Lord, when placed before hearers with a freshness and power they have never known, fall upon their ears as a new revelation and as things strange to them, yet they are old truths. The second chapter of First John holds plain truths meaning much for those living in the last days and is to be read and studied. Fellowship with the Father and the Son requires walking in the light and in knowledge of the truth, being a partaker of the divine nature, keeping singleness of purpose because time to work is short, not crowding the mind with many things but holding the true understanding of what Christ presents in His teachings and the requirements of the plain Thus saith the Lord, obtaining now a genuine experience of more value than recognized, and walking humbly with God in individual accountability to Him. This is joined to the warning about leaving first love and remembering, repenting, and doing the first works, showing that presentation of beautiful theories will not suffice unless the love of Christ is in the heart, since loss of this love results in loss of all things.

Identity and History of Law

The old commandment is God's word, His holy moral law, the Ten Commandments spoken at Mount Sinai amid smoke, flame, thunder, and earthquake, spoken in awful grandeur in Exodus 20. It is no new teaching but the enduring moral code given by God, remaining in force and not a new requirement. Its purpose is expressed in loving God with all heart, soul, strength, and mind, and loving neighbor as self.

The law was established when the foundations of the earth were laid, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, before any people were distinguished as Jews. It existed before the fall of Satan, and is the same law the angelic family obeys in the heavenly courts now as when the foundation of the earth was laid. It was given in Eden with binding claims upon all mankind, reiterated at Sinai, carried by John as mouthpiece for God, and proclaimed and echoed down the lines from age to age to the present time, so its identity is clear.

The law has had no change made in it from the beginning. It endures throughout eternity and was not abolished by Christ giving His life, whose death proves the law immutable.

The old commandment readable in Exodus includes the Sabbath commandment rooted in Genesis. God made the world in six literal days, rested on the seventh day and was refreshed, and appointed, sanctified, blessed, and made holy the Sabbath day as sacred and a day of rest. The call to remember rests on God making heaven and earth in six days and resting the seventh, so the Sabbath is a memorial of creation. It testifies to all who ask why it is kept that the God of heaven made the world, carries the mind back to God's six-day work, gives light that keeps from infidelity, and stands with the triumphant rejoicing song of the whole angelic host as evidence that God made the world in six days.

The law is a law of love from beginning to end: love means walking according to God's commandments. The command to love one another as Christ loved is the same high standard taught in the Old Testament, including Leviticus 19, and in the New Testament.

Obedience applies to all God's commandments, including the Sabbath commandment. The old commandment includes the law of love shown by loving fellow believers even when they differ; neglecting one commandment makes apparent obedience to another worthless before God.

Knowing God by Obedience

To know Him is to keep His commandments and His word, and this keeping is the test by which believers know that they know Him as loyal subjects of Christ. Keeping His word perfects the love of God in the keeper and proves abiding in Him, and abiding in Him requires walking even as Christ walked, full of pity, tenderness, and compassion. To claim to know Him while not keeping His commandments makes a person a liar with no truth in him, and to claim to know or love God while refusing His commandments is delusion rather than genuine holiness. The commandment is no new requirement but the old commandment held from the beginning, which is the word heard from the beginning.

The verse is given so that believers sin not, which means not transgressing the law but keeping His commandments. Yet if any man sin there is an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, with forgiveness of sins for His name's sake. Letting what was heard from the beginning abide keeps believers continuing in the Son and in the Father, receiving the promise of eternal life, and having confidence and not shame at His coming.

God's principles of righteousness must be maintained, obedience to God is the safe path, and His love, compassion, and tenderness are offered to all who will be obedient. Keeping His word shows that His love is being perfected in a person, and keeping it is the test and proof of love for God. Personal religion is shown through a life of goodness, love, and truth and through one's deeds.

Under the Abrahamic covenant, which is the covenant of grace, obedience to the law of God is the condition of salvation. God's little children are to sin not by being obedient to all His commandments, obedience is possible in the name and strength God gives, and His commandments are not grievous but bring happiness in doing them. When one is taken unawares and led into sin he must not give up hope in Christ or say it is no use trying to keep His commandments, for that places him wholly on Satan's ground, fulfills what Satan tempts him to do after tempting him to yield, and runs a perilous risk, since no one with light on what keeping His commandments comprehends will be saved in transgression of them.

Those who love God and keep His commandments have a clear title to the immortal inheritance and everlasting life, with mansions prepared for the faithful, and must therefore rise above worldliness and glorify God in body and spirit. This requires earnest individual work and constant growth in the Lord, putting away selfishness and earthliness that mars the character. It requires learning to yield self to Christ in perfect self-surrender, receiving entire transformation of character necessary to enter the holy city, to live the life that measures with the life of God, and to see the kingdom of God, and obeying the principles of Matthew 7 as a humble learner with a cleansed heart that leads others to Christ.

The old commandment is solid rock, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, on which those in an unsettled condition must place their feet so their faith fails not and they sin not. It is a warning given in love for the soul. True conversion will always manifest itself in the character of the converted one, plainly depicting the characteristics that will mark those who become members of the Lord's family.

Old and New in Christ

The old commandment is no new commandment but the word heard from the beginning, the word received from Christ. That same word is also new and true in Him and in believers, because the darkness is past and the true light now shines. Through communion with God and the high privilege of being one with Christ it gives fresh matter for thought all the time. Keeping His commandments proves knowing Him, keeping His word perfects the love of God in the keeper, and abiding in Him requires walking even as He walked. Letting what was heard from the beginning abide keeps believers continuing in the Son and in the Father, receiving the promise of eternal life with forgiveness of sins for His name's sake, and having confidence and not shame at His coming.

Therefore the truth received from Christ is to be cherished in its simplicity rather than replaced by new or strange human teachings. There is no need to be led astray or to seek something new and strange from human lips, including false science taught as truth. Believers are to be thankful for the Word of God and to hold a science above all human science. He who says he is in the light, as the Jewish church claimed, and hates his brother is in darkness even until now, walking in blinded darkness, while he who loves his brother abides in the light with no occasion of stumbling in him. Rejecting the commandments of God repeats the Jews' cry of Away with Christ, crucify Him, because the law condemns iniquities and crooked practices.

Brotherly Love in Light

The old commandment heard from the beginning is not a new teaching but the word already given, and with the new commandment it is Christ's express command to love and respect the brethren. It leaves no room for doubt that the old commandment from the beginning is God's commandments, and love is demonstrated by all who keep them, keeping them proving a person knows God and perfecting the love of God in him, so that one who abides in Him must walk as Christ walked. He who loves his brother abides in the light with no occasion of stumbling in him, while he who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even until now, walking in blinded darkness.

That hatred shows itself as selfishness in words and works. It stands on the ground where many stand today, of jealousy, suspicion, imagining evil and creating evil by unbelief, and of putting confidence in human agencies and not in God, which brings bitter disappointment.

Loving his brother keeps him abiding in the light with the love of God in his heart and no occasion of stumbling in him, his soul at peace and rest, and his obedience to God's Word proving he has a saving knowledge of the Saviour. Harboring hatred and estrangement toward a brother is contrary to God's word and requires a decisive change of spirit. A teacher who fails to show tender regard for his brethren is unconverted in spirit, word, and deportment, exerts a harmful influence in the church, and should cease laboring until God's converting power molds and polishes him into a clean vessel fit for the Master's use.

Vindication and Final Readiness

The old commandment had from the beginning is to be vindicated now, not set aside for a new commandment to be set forth in its place. In the last days that vindication means raising the standard of truth, living with vigorous piety, and using every influence to spread light and build up the kingdom of God. The present time calls for every particle of influence, every voice, every consecrated capability, and every entrusted means to be exercised on the Lord's side and not on Satan's side in defense of those commandments. Vigorous piety is to increase and make for itself a place on the earth, and the standard of truth is to be elevated in new places and carried into regions beyond. Men are to consecrate themselves wholly and place themselves and their means upon the altar for building up the interests of His kingdom, doing everything that can be done to shed light into the darkened places of the earth.

There is but little time in which to do a great work, and not a moment to lose, because time to work is short and the Lord is coming. Mercy is being withdrawn, yet invitations of mercy are still given; calamities on land and sea warn of what will come, iniquity is filling to fullness, and the world and fallen churches unite in apostasy. The decision to be made is whether to be on the Lord's side in the last battle of the controversy.

The verse gives Christ's instruction to be studied and obeyed in preparation for the Lord's appearing. It calls every soul not to exalt self and disparage others but to criticize self, confess and forsake his own sins, and set his own heart in order. This work is urgent because souls are in peril living in the great day of atonement, yet by confession and repentance they can be cleansed from sin and made ready. That readiness keeps singleness of purpose because time to work is short, not crowding the mind with many things.