The Authentic Christian LifeExemplo

The Old and the New

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.Yet it is also new. —1 John 2:7-8

Have you ever used the expression, “Some things never change”?

Surfing grows and changes with time – new surfboard profiles, fins, maneuvers, and even the culture itself. But the core love of surfing has always been there… and always will be. It’s just the latest expression of that same love for surfing that you and I experience as time goes on.

We can see the same effect when we read 1 John 2:7-11.

Here, John shares a “new” commandment – to love one another – which is actually as old as God Himself!

But it’s also new in that Jesus takes its meaning to a whole new level of love. A love that lays itself down for others.

The first place you can see God’s true light shining from within you is amongst other believers. So when you look at your relationships in your Christian community, is the darkness disappearing or growing?

In fact, John says it’s not possible to say you’ve been illuminated by God’s love and hate another believer. The reality is you’re not in the light, you’re in the dark.

John goes on to say that we can’t love God and love the world. What exactly does that mean?

In this passage, “the world” refers to corrupted worldly values and systems. You and I are perfectly right to love the beauty of God’s world and even the beauty of the cultural world – but we must recognize there is a darker side to it.

This world, with its emphasis on self, materialism, pleasure, is later called “The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). The point is that this stuff just won’t last, and even worse – it will deprive us of true life in Christ.

God wants us to be aligned with the everlasting foundation of His unchanging love and not substitute it for something less. He wants you to connect with the old truth – that He made you, loves you, and wants a life with you.

So don’t let the new and temporary fashions and desires of the world stop you from chasing the older, better thing – life in Christ.

Go deeper:

• When have you been distracted from the unchanging foundation of God’s love? What lured you away and why?
• How are you engaging with the world right now? What’s one way you can begin today to walk away from the temporary love of the world and back to the eternal love of God?