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.
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.
Love your brothers and sisters. It’s an old and new command. How old? As old as Genesis when God intended for us to have family and siblings. How new? As new as 2000+ years ago when He Jesus gave the new command to the disciples. 2000+ yeas? It’s actually pretty old, huh? It doesn’t matter whether it’s old or new, it’s an universal command of Jesus. It’s also the golden law!
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
Once again John gave us another test about whether we truly walk in the light and have fellowship with God. You are in the light if you love your brothers and sisters. You are in the dark if you hates them. Now, close your eyes and put your hand over your heart and ask yourself if you are truly living out Jesus’s command. Is there anything you can change or do better?
It’s a new command also because we are to live like Jesus. Therefore, we love like Jesus. How did Jesus show His love? How about you spend a few minutes picturing those scenes in your mind…..One of the most prominent ones is of course the story of Jesus washing disciples’ feet. Gently, lovingly, patiently, humbly, thoroughly, and unconditionally, Jesus washed their feet. John said we the followers are to do the same.
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:6
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