1 John 2:7-11: a reflection

7Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines. 9He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now. 10He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. 11But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

John makes a claim that cuts through a lot of religious talk: you can say you are in the light all you want, but if you hate your brother, you are actually still in the darkness. And the reverse: whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

Notice how John refuses to separate love of God from love of the person in front of you. It is possible to feel spiritual, to say the right things, to believe yourself to be walking in the light, while carrying real contempt for a brother or sister. John says that contempt is the tell. How you treat the person you are tempted to despise reveals your true condition more honestly than any claim you make about your faith.

And he adds something sobering about what hatred does: the one who hates walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Resentment does not just stain us; it disorients us, so that we lose our way without realizing it. So let the test be concrete today. Not how spiritual you feel, but whether you are loving the actual brother or sister God has put near you. That, John says, is where the light shows.

Lord, keep me from claiming your light while carrying contempt in my heart. Show me the brother or sister I am tempted to despise, and teach me to love them, so that I truly walk in the light.