At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
8 Again, a new commandment Interpreters do not appear to me to have attained the meaning of the Apostle. He says new, because God, as it were, renews it by daily suggesting it, so that the faithful may practice it through their whole life, for nothing more excellent can be sought for by them. The elements which children learn give place in time to what is higher and more solid.
The precept of love is old, yes, but it admits new enforcements and motives suited to each age. In innocence men would love as one blood; in sin and recovery, as partners in hope; in the covenant people, as heirs of the Messiah; and now in the gospel church, with obligations renewed by Christ Himself.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 John 2:7-11
Again, a new commandment I write unto you,.... Which is the same with the former, considered in different respects. The command of brotherly love is a new one; that is, it is an excellent one, as a new name is an excellent name, and a new song is an excellent one; it is renewed by Christ under the Gospel dispensation; it is newly explained by...