Verse 7: Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.
Starting with 2:7 and continuing through 5:3, John begins to outline the major theme of his epistle: love. At the outset, John clarifies to his readers that he is not writing a new commandment as if he has some newly “advanced revelation.”1 Instead it is an old commandment “which you have had from the beginning.” Kenneth Wuest correctly asserts that “the beginning here is the beginning of the Christian experience of the readers.”2 So what ‘old’ commandment is he referring to, that they have had from the beginning?
John states that it is “the word which you have heard.” The term ‘word’ needs amplification. In this context it means “an account which one gives by word of mouth.”3 This is referring to a specific point Our Lord made just prior to His death to His disciples during the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-16).
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34; cf. John 15:12)
Notice that Our Lord stated that it is a ‘new’ commandment even though earlier during His earthly ministry He had restated the command from the Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19b; 22:39). Jesus regarded this as ‘new’ because He was emphasizing reciprocal love for all fellow believers.
Therefore, this commandment regarding love is “the word” that they have heard and were so taught from the beginning of their Christian life when they believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
What is This Thing Called Love?
Thanks to the secular humanism of the 21st Century, the concept of love has been distorted to mean anything other than what God intended for mankind to enjoy. Note these dictionary citations:
1. A strong feeling of affection and concern toward another person, as that arising from kinship or close friendship.
2. A strong feeling of affection and concern for another person accompanied by sexual attraction.
3. A feeling of devotion or adoration toward God or a god.4
What each have in common is the word ‘feeling.’ What modern man believes today is that love is an emotion and without the emotions and feelings there is no real love. Romantic love (between a man and a woman) is redefined as sexual attraction and further degraded to mutual love between two consenting adults, regardless of their gender. Additionally, having only one English word to describe the human emotion of love makes familial love, affection for friends or appreciation of art and music difficult to explain.
However, the New Testament Greek contains 2 words for love: agapao (ἀγαπάω) and phileo (φιλέω). Agapao is defined by Dr. Zodhiates as “to esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something or someone...to regard with favor, goodwill, benevolence.”5 And that it differs from phileo “indicating feelings, warm affection, the kind of love expressed by a kiss.”6
Dr. Zodhiates goes on to explain that agapao is the word used in the New Testament to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35) and never phileo. For this reason:
We are thus commanded to love (agapao) our enemies, to do what is necessary to turn them to Christ, but never to befriend them (phileo) by adopting their interests and becoming friends on their level.7
We are commanded to love our neighbors, love our enemies and love one another. Chester McCalley emphasizes that “True love is the mental attitude that demands that we do what is best for another no matter what the cost to us.”8 This is an apparent impossibility for it would require that we enter into a personal relationship with everyone. Plus, not everyone in our periphery may even be personally likeable because of behavioral differences. However, the following provides a Biblical solution to this challenge.
Impersonal Love For All Mankind
The first thing to consider is that agapao love is not based upon emotions or feelings, but instead it is a mental attitude that regards everyone with goodwill, kindness and compassion. Our love should be selfless, never because it makes us feel good. We should never wish evil upon our enemies, being mindful that each human being bears the image of the Creator. So how are we to fulfill this “royal law” as described by James (James 2:8)?
Since it is virtually impossible to personally love everyone, Colonel R.B. Thieme, Jr. developed a principle that enables believers to demonstrate impersonal love for all mankind:
Unlike personal love, which emphasizes the attractiveness of the object of love, impersonal love emphasizes the capacity and integrity of the one who loves. Whereas personal love is an intense and subjective attitude toward a few, impersonal love is a relaxed and objective mental attitude toward everyone—friend or enemy, worthy or unworthy, pleasant or obnoxious. Impersonal love solves problems in personal relationships. The believer with impersonal love is able to accept all people as they are, without demands for reciprocation, without reaction or retaliation, without incurring mental attitude sins. Whether encountering love and admiration or hatred and reproach, this unconditional attitude is stable and enduring. (Colossians 3:12–14; 1 Peter 3:8–9) 9
It is instructive for us to note the passages Thieme cites:
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. (Colossians 3:12–14)
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:8–9)
The Challenge
Can we say that we have this type of love for all mankind? Do we love fellow believers by encouraging them to advance in their spiritual lives? Are we faithfully demonstrating impersonal love to our neighbors and enemies that would encourage them to believe in Jesus Christ?
Agapao is the kind of love that the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to exhibit and which John is about to develop and expand upon in this epistle.
[1] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 57.
[2] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 13.118.
[3] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.10.
[4] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=love [Retrieved 22 May 2024]
[5] Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers G25.
[6] Zodhiates, G25.
[7] Zodhiates, G25.
[8] McCalley, Chester. http://wordoftruthkc.org/sites/default/files/file/I%20Corinthians%20Commentary.pdf, p. 96. [Retrieved August 14, 2024]
[9] Thieme, R.B., Jr. (2022). Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary, Houston, TX: R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, p. 136.
© 2024 David M. Rossi
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