1 John 2:7-11

v7-8: The command to love one another was not a new command. But in the light of Christ’s saving work, it has “new obligations” attached to it. We are to love one another as Christ has loved us. This is a sign that the light of the gospel has come into our hearts “with life and effectiveness.”

v9-10: “Those who lack such love,” and “who live a life of hatred and enmity toward their Christian brothers and sisters,” show that they are not truly in the light. However, those who are, “will conscientiously take care that [they] neither lead [their] brother or sister into sin nor lead them astray from the way of religious faith.” We are to “value our brothers and sisters highly and to dread everything that will harm their purity and peace.”

v11: If the “Lord Jesus Christ…is the great Master of love,” and the church “is the school of love,” and “his disciples are the disciples of love, and his family must be the family of love,” this means that those who hate their Christian brother or sister are still walking in the darkness. “Hatred is a sign of spiritual darkness.”