What Is Real Love? A Guide to 1 Johnናሙና

1 John 2:7-11

7 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. 8 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.

9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness. 1 John 2:7-11 NLT

Pray: Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me so graciously. Jesus, thank you for dying for me on the cross. Holy Spirit, thank you for filling me with power. Give me the strength to obey you and love others today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

In yesterday’s reading, John wanted us to know that our love for God is proven to be real when we obey His commands. In today’s reading, John is going to zoom in on a specific command we’ve been given.

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. 1 John 2:7 NLT

John begins by telling us that the commandment he is writing isn’t a new one. It’s actually a command that has been around from the beginning. What is that command? To love one another.

When Jesus was asked what the most important command in the entire Jewish Bible was, He answered, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 NLT

These weren’t new ideas Jesus made up on the spot. The first command, to love God with all that we are, was a quote from Deuteronomy. The second command, to love our neighbor as ourselves, comes from Leviticus.

Another time when Jesus was asked this same question, He added this to His answer, “The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:40 NLT

Translation: Every single command in the Bible was written to help us become the kind of people who can love God with every part of who we are and love others the way we love ourselves.

In that sense, the command John is writing about isn’t new at all. But, in another sense, it is new. Here’s what he writes next:

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 2:8 NLT

When Jesus stepped foot onto the stage of history, He showed us what it really looks like to love one another. Jesus was the perfect embodiment of love. From the time He took His first breath in that dark and dingy stable, all the way until He took His last breath on that rugged wooden cross, everything He did was shaped by the love of His Father and fueled by His love for people.

On a night John would never forget, Jesus taught this command more clearly and vividly than anyone would have imagined.

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. John 13:1 NLT

While eating dinner with his twelve followers, Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his robes, and wraps a towel around his waist. Then, Jesus, their teacher and their leader, God in human form, did a job that was reserved for servants and slaves—He washed the dirty and dusty feet of His disciples.

Why? Because Jesus wanted His students to understand what love looks like in action. It’s not about using our power and privilege to get ahead. It’s about taking the position and posture of a servant to lift others up.Jesus was showing us real love is humble.

You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am.And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. John 13:13-15 NLT

Jesus washed the feet of all twelve of His disciples knowing that one would betray Him, one would deny Him, and all would abandon Him. Because Jesus wanted to show us real love is unconditional.

Later on that evening, Jesus would establish a new covenant with His followers that would be symbolized through the breaking of bread and the pouring of wine. With this covenant would come a new command:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. John 13:34 NLT

A few hours later, Jesus would be arrested for crimes He didn’t commit and condemned to a death that He didn’t deserve. He would go willingly. He knew that His death would serve a greater purpose, because His death would bring us life. And for Him, that was worth the suffering. Through His crucifixion, Jesus showed us that real love is sacrificial.

Every moment of His ministry, Jesus showed us what it means to love God and love each other. He took what was old, and made it new.

In verse 9, John continues: If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer,that person is still living in darkness.1 John 2:9 NLT

John is saying again that words not backed up by actions are cheap. And this is something we all know to be true. We’ve all experienced the disappointment that comes from someone we care about going back on their word. We’ve felt the frustration that comes from being blasted day in and day out by products that never deliver on what they promise.

Just because you say you’re living in the light of God’s love, doesn’t make it so. Unless our words and actions are in alignment, we’re just faking it. How do we live with integrity as people of God then?

Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 1 John 2:10 NLT

We obey a command that is old, and is also new. We love one another. When we do, we are living in the light and we aren’t causing harm to others. It’s simple, but it isn’t easy. Why? Because most of us have lived in the darkness for so long that we don’t even know how to live in the light.

But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness. 1 John 2:11 NLT

John continues to riff on the metaphor of light and darkness. Living in the light symbolizes being in a relationship with God and filled by His love. Living in the darkness symbolizes being separated from God and trapped by sin. Sin, the disease of self-centeredness that tempts us to disobey God and hurt others, blinds us to the image of God in others and ourselves. Sin will often try to get us to see ourselves as greater and others as less. Instead of seeing people as human beings made in the image of God, with dignity, value, and purpose, sin wants us to see them as objects to be used for our own benefit.

But Jesus shows us a better way. He came to lead us out of the darkness and into the light.

Application: Commit to love someone humbly, unconditionally, and sacrificially today. It could be big or it could be small. Ask God to show you who it should be and how to do it. When He does (because He will) respond in obedience.