A NEW OLD COMMANDMENT
“Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is
an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love
one another—is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived
the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is
disappearing, and the true light is already shining.”
1 John 2:7-8 NLT
John sounds as though he is speaking in riddles. An old commandment but it’s
new! A new commandment but it’s old! What does he mean?
An old adage says, “The new is in the old concealed. The old is in the new
revealed.” Referring to the truths of Scripture, this implies that there
is a cohesion between the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament contains
many truths that we can only fully understand as they are explained in the New.
This applies to John’s puzzling statement here. The Old Testament law connected
all-embracing love for God and love for people together, almost as two parts of
one commandment. It is impossible to love God’s people if we do not love God
and… loving God inevitably embraces His people as well.
However, this commandment was impossible to obey in the context of the Law
because the Law demanded compliance without the power of the Holy Spirit to
obey.
The New Covenant provides the power to obey. The New Covenant is new, not in
its standards of obedience to God, but as His provision of grace through the
death of Jesus and the restoration of His Spirit to His people at Pentecost.
“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly
God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with
his love.”
Romans 5:5 NLT
“No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and
his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit
as proof that we live in him and he in us…. We love each other because he
loved us first.”
1 John 4:12-13, 19 NLT
Those who were bound to God in the Old Covenant, although they had God’s
word, still lived in the darkness of sin. Only a few of His people understood
His way of faith in His Word that gave them access to His Spirit. David, for
example, trusted in God’s mercy for forgiveness rather than in animal
sacrifices.
“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of
your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my
guilt. Purify me from my sin… Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a
loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take
your Holy Spirit from me…. You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer
one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken
spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”
Psalms 51:1-2, 10-11, 16-17 NLT
David enjoyed the blessing of forgiveness through his repentance and trust
in God.
“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put
out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of
guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!”
Psalms 32:1-2 NLT
How God longed that His people would acknowledge and repent of their sin and
return to faith in Him, but they refused. Time and again He called them back
through His prophets, but they stubbornly continued in their wickedness.
” Now,” says John, “you have a new way to obey an old
commandment because you are no longer in darkness. The full light of God’s work
in Christ and the presence and power of His Spirit are here. Now live in that
light and power as God’s transformed and obedient children.”
So, as God’s children in His dispensation of grace, we have been transformed
inside, motivated and empowered to love God’s people and to show that love by
being generous gracious towards them in every way.
Without the evidence of this transformation working in our lives, we remain in
the darkness of selfishness and unbelief.