Yesterday we saw John focus on obedience as the test of our intimacy and knowledge of God. That naturally leads to the question of what must we obey? John is not writing some new command which is readers had never heard but the original one which they heard from the beginning (when they first heard the gospel; cf. 2 John 5). Jesus taught that we are to love others as He loved us (John 13:34). Jesus called this a new commandment and John points out that it is still new in the sense that it has not lost its freshness. That kind of love was first seen in Jesus and should continue to be seen in the life of every believer. The love of Christ ushered in a new age at His incarnation, his birth, and brought with it a light that is eroding the darkness of the world and its hatred. This light will never extinguish and we have the opportunity of carrying forth this light. How do we carry the light? By loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. John’s warning is specifically to believers because only a believer has spiritual brothers and sisters. A Christian who can hate a fellow Christian is not walking in the light of Christ’s love but is still caught up in the darkness of this world and cannot claim to have an intimate knowledge of Christ. If we really know Christ, then we will love our brothers and sisters.

If you measure your love for Christ by your love for your fellow believer does that change how you might have previously evaluated things? Our love for Christ should naturally outflow into love for others. The solution is not to try harder with others but to expose yourself more to the light of God’s word and be changed (1 John 1:8-10).