The author of the letter 1 John offers us a test — a test of whether “we are in Him,” who is Christ the Lord. If we “claim to be dwelling in Him” then we “bind [ourselves] to live as Christ Himself lived.” And, in living as Christ lived, we will follow what the author refers to as “no new command. It is the old command you always had before you; the old command is the message which you heard at the beginning. And yet again it is a new command that I am giving you — new in the sense that the darkness is passing and the real light already shines. Christ has made this true.”
“Only the man who loves his brother dwells in the light; there is nothing to make him stumble.” (1 John 2: 10-11)
The darkness which is passing is hatred — hatred of God, of self, of neighbor, of brother and sister, of strangers, of the world God has created. If we hate, then we necessarily dwell in darkness. “The one who hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in the dark and has no idea where he is going, because the darkness has made him blind.” (1 John 2:11)
The darkness which is passing is blinding — hatred of God, of self, of neighbor, of brother and sister, of strangers, of the world God has created makes us sightless, wandering about directionless and literally lost.
“Do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it.” (1 John 2:18) Instead, set your hearts on “the real light [which] alr
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