Love---The Same But Different

I love apples...well not really but I say that to demonstrate how fond we are of the phrase "I love....." whatever. You can fill in the blank with apples, hamburgers, waterfalls, cars, etc. In fact we use the phrase "I love...." so loosely and freely that I wonder if we haven't lost it's true meaning.



I John 2:7-11 says -- "Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him."



John writes a command about love, but seems to contradict himself in verses 7 and 8. In verse 7 he says he is not writing a new command, but an old one. Yet in verse 8 he says he is writing a new command. Love---The Same But Different. He isn't writing a "new" command in relation to time as "new in time" or "recent". Rather he is writing a "new" command in relation to significance as "new in quality" or "freshness".



Just as these apples are the same (they are all apples), there are also significant differences. They are "the same, but different". They are different in their color, texture, taste, size, etc. John's command to love is the same as the command given in the Old Testament, but different in it's freshness.



Parents care and provide for their children, not because the law says they have to, but because they love them. We don't love our neighbor because the law of God says we have to, but because it is the right thing to do as Christians. There is nothing new about loving others. We just need to place more emphasis on loving others so that there is a new freshness.

Verse 9 is of particular importance. You see, darkness and light are incompatible. Light will always dissapate the darkness....everytime. Just as light and darkness are incompatible, so are love and hate. They cannot co-exist. They are incompatible and love will always dissapate hate.

A Comparison:

Darkness blinds. Light shines.

Hatred blinds. Love shines.

Hate is a stumbling block. Love is a stepping stone.

To love others means to treat them the way God treats them.

We can't love completely until we lay down the hate!

I Corinthians 13:5 -- Love thinketh no evil. In other words, love doesn't keep a record of the wrongs done to us. It's time we erase the tape of all the wrongs others have done to us and forgive and love them.