1 John 2:7 - Exposition

Beloved; ἀγαπητοί , not ὀδελφοί , is the true reading. Addresses of this kind commonly introduce a fresh division of the subject, main or subordinate. Thus ἀγαπητοί ( 1 John 4:1 , 1 John 4:7 ); τεκνία ( 1 John 2:1 ); παιδία ( 1 John 2:18 ); ἀδελφοί ( 1 John 3:13 ). Sometimes, however, they introduce an earnest conclusion ( 1 John 2:28 ; 1 John 3:21 ; 1 John 5:21 ). In 1 John 4:11 ἀγαπητοί introduces a conclusion which serves as a fresh starting-point. Not a fresh commandment do I write to you, but an old commandment. Where it can be conveniently done, it is worth while distinguishing καινός , "fresh," as opposed to "worn out," "obsolete," from νέος , "new," as opposed to "old, aged." "New wine must be put into fresh skins" ( Mark 2:22 ). Are two commandments meant—one to cultivate brotherly love, the other to walk as Christ walked? Or is there only one, which from different points of view may be regarded as either new or old? Commentators are divided; but the latter seems better. Then what is the commandment which is at once new and old? The whole gospel, or the command to love one another? John 13:34 and John 15:2 will incline us to the latter view. The command was old, for" Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Le John 19:18 ) was part of the Mosaic Law. But the standard was new: "Even as I loved you;" "Even as he also walked;" and the motive was new: because "God so loved us" ( 1 John 4:11 ). Brotherly love, enforced by such an example, and based on such a fact, was a new command as compared with the cold injunction of the Law. From the beginning may have either of two senses: