1 John 2:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since the commandment of love for neighbors was given both to Jews and to Gentiles, the Apostle says that, along with the old commandment about love for one’s neighbor which you heard, he also writes to you a new commandment. It is true both in Him Who made you God’s own through communion with Him, and in you who have entered into communion with Him. For He says: “I have come as light into the world” (Jn 12:46). And the true Light, according to His word, is already shining, and in the light there is no darkness. Therefore let the true light of love shine in a true and sincere disposition toward the brethren. And let the darkness of hatred pass away, that is, disappear. The Apostle Paul also gives this meaning to the word “passes away” when he says: “For the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31).

John says, "He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now." Therefore light is present in us according to our prior choice and desire, not according to essence. It is present in creatures in this way, if one who hates his brother is in darkness.

But the One Who is of the same nature is Light by essence, for He has this dignity not as the fruit of prior choice. Therefore He Who so surpasses creatures is not one of the same kind as they are.

“He who says that he is in the light” — now he will explain everything he has said. “He who says that he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.” Alas, brothers, how long must we still say to you: “Love your enemies” (Mt 5:44)? See what is still worse: that you should also not hate your brothers. If you love only your brothers, you will not yet be perfect. But if you hate your brothers, what will you be then? Where will you end? Let each man look into his own heart. Let him not keep anger against his brother because of some harsh word or a dispute over land, lest he himself become earth. For everyone who hates his brother does not dare say that he walks in the light. What then? Let him not dare say that he walks in Christ.

“He who says” that he “is in the light,” it is said. “In the light” means in the truth. And “hates his brother,” it is said. By “brother” he of course means not only one who is near, but also the Lord. For unbelievers and those who do not keep His commandments hate Him. Therefore the Apostle adds: “He who loves his brother abides in the light,” it is said, “and there is no stumbling in him.” Then he speaks of the progress and growth of souls that had until that time been in the flesh. He calls those “little children” whose sins are forgiven for His name’s sake, for many believe only by name. But he calls the perfect “fathers.” These are those who have known the Beginningless One and have understood by reason that this is the Son, of Whom the Apostle said above: the Beginningless One.

Such a one is in darkness until now, that is, until the time of repentance for evil deeds, or until the acquisition of love.

How can the one who says that he belongs to Christ and hates his brother belong to Christ, if he hates his brother for whom Christ died?

Or otherwise: the one who says that he is from God and hates Christ is not from God, but from the devil. Christ became our brother by becoming man, according to the saying, "I will declare Your name to My brethren" (Heb 2:12).

If such a man were from God, he would love the One sent by God, Who called him brother by grace.

The Lord commanded us to love our enemies. Therefore, if anyone says that he is a Christian but hates his brother, he is still in sin. And it is good that the Evangelist added the word “still” here. For certainly all men are born in the darkness of vice, and all remain in darkness until the grace of Christ’s baptism enlightens them. Yet even if a man who has hatred for his brother approaches the fountain of life that raises the dead, and receives the precious blood that redeems, he still abides in darkness, though he thinks the Lord has enlightened him. He has not yet been cleansed from sinful darkness, since he has not filled his being with love.

“He who says that he is in the light,” that is, that he has been enlightened by the Gospel teaching, that he lives as a Christian and has communion with Christ (1 Jn 1:7; 2:4-5), yet hates his brother, whether a Christian or any neighbor, is still in darkness. For all men are neighbors and brothers to one another. Such a man still abides in ignorance of saving truth and in error. He does not understand the Spirit of Christ, Who is love. “God is love,” teaches the Theologian, “and he who abides in love abides in God” (1 Jn 4:16). “He who does not love has not known God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).

Yet with all this one must be watchful and attentive to oneself. If someone regards himself as sanctified by grace and cleansed from sinful defilement, while he has not yet cut off the hardness of his heart, he still nourishes sinful self-love within himself.

If he is a stranger to love for his neighbors, then he has not yet put off what is old. He has not restrained the uprisings of the flesh, which is ready to tear out eye for eye and tooth for tooth (Ex 21:24).

He has not yet come out of sinful darkness, and has not yet been illumined by the light of Christ.

Love is the light that enlightens all things. The absence of love for one’s neighbor, or hatred of him, is darkness that darkens all things. On this rests the whole argument of the teaching. Hatred of one’s neighbor thereby bears witness that the one who hates abides in darkness. But whoever abides in love for his neighbor thereby bears witness that he is in the light. In other words, one who hates his neighbor is not a Christian, even if he counts himself such. In him the Christian principle of spiritual life is inactive, and he is in darkness. The one who loves his neighbor bears witness by this love that the true principle of life in grace is active in him. He is truly a Christian and is in the light. The Apostle speaks in opposites and absolutely: either love or hatred.

In the first half of the second chapter, the foundations of all Christianity are drawn from what precedes (1 Jn 2:1-14). First, sinlessness is possible for Christians when Jesus Christ is their Advocate. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). That is, not only for the sins of us who live at the present time, but also for those who lived before His coming into the world. Likewise, it is for those who will live until His second coming to earth and will appropriate to themselves His boundless merits. Second, true knowledge of God is the keeping of His word out of love for Him.

Following the same great discourse of the Lord, the Apostle John calls love a new commandment. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn 15:12, 17), says Jesus Christ. Love was also the fundamental commandment in the Old Testament (see Lev 19:18). Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed this when He was asked about the chief commandment in the Law (see Mt 22:34). St. John Chrysostom says that Jesus Christ made love a new commandment according to the pattern of His own love. Therefore He added: “as I have loved you.” The Apostle also speaks of precisely that love which was proclaimed by Jesus Christ and which they heard from the beginning of the Christian preaching, namely, that we should love one another.