The First Epistle of John March 6, 2011 Bob Eckel 1 Old/New Commandment - I John 2:7-8 I John 2:7 – NKJV “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.” –Brethren or beloved. –new – in respect to substance or time; which do you think best applies here? Can you relate this at all to the parable of Luke 5:33-38? –which you have had (refers to the commandment) Imperfect active, reaching back to the beginning –What is the old commandment? Beginning of the human race (Gen 3)? The Mosaic Law? The gospel? It relates very much to how we define the beginning. –Either way it is defined here as the word – logos.

The First Epistle of John March 6, 2011 Bob Eckel 2 Old/New Commandment - I John 2:7-8 –In John, logos denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power we have in union with Him. –What is the beginning? Their 1 st knowledge of spiritual things? Their 1 st hearing of the gospel? –Let’s examine more closely at the old commandment that John wrote to them? How about I John 1:5-7? –‘God is light …….but if we walk in the light as He is in the light,…… we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ … cleanseth us from all sin.’ What about the text that immediately precedes this - I John 2:6? –walk as He has walked? Or what immediately follows – I John 2:9,10 –the love of the brethren And in fact Christ Himself called it a new, not old, commandment didn’t He? –John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

The First Epistle of John March 6, 2011 Bob Eckel 3 Old/New Commandment - I John 2:7-8 –1 John 3:11 ‘For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,’ –2 John 1:5 ‘And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.’ »A bit confusing isn’t it? »Is this in any way a contradiction? Overall, this command to love one another appears at least a dozen times in the New Testament. Yet is it really new? –‘Lev 19:18 – ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord’. In all of these sections of I John and the gospel of John the emphasis is on the walk (and identification). –Also see Gal 5:13,14

The First Epistle of John March 6, 2011 Bob Eckel 4 Old/New Commandment - I John 2:7-8 »Rom 6:4 ‘Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ I John 2:8 – NKJV “Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” –Again, is John contradicting himself now by calling it new? Paradox, but true; old in teaching, but new in practice! Yet this commandment, the substance of which is brotherly love, is in one sense new (John 13:34), because it was first taught to them by Jesus Christ. –Thus, now it is old isn’t it? In many ways, this is another example of the ‘black and white’ contrast that John paints throughout his epistles.

The First Epistle of John March 6, 2011 Bob Eckel 5 Old/New Commandment - I John 2:7-8 –What things are true in Him? The walk, the life! –Its truth is shown in the life of Christ in you. In reality the new commandment is the resurrected Christ Himself. –II Cor 3:2.3 – ‘You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.’ –the darkness is passing away What is darkness? Whatever, it is passing away. –present middle indicative »occurring now, we are performing this action on ourselves, and it’s factual. »1 John 2:17 ‘And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.’ –But in terms of our own experience is it complete?

The First Epistle of John March 6, 2011 Bob Eckel 6 Old/New Commandment - I John 2:7-8 The truth of the new commandment is shown because you have come out of the darkness and are walking in the light and therefore are keeping the new commandment. –And by faith not fleshly will! the light is (already) shining –Present active indicative Whether it be old or new, how are you doing here? –Are you disappointed in yourself? Is there any power in your flesh? –Heb 4:9-11 – ‘There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. Keep Looking down!