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to the word new , its definition is immediately subjoined, what is the old , and what is the new. The old is that which we had from the besrinnincr : the new is that which is true in Jesus Christ and in us. The difference of time in the words, ye had , and it is , tends to this. In Christ all things are always true, and were so from that beginning ; but in Christ and in us, conjointly, the precept is then truth, when we acknowledge the truth, which is in Him, and have the same flourishing in us. J ohn praises the present state of those to whom he writes, as one even more highly favoured than that very state which they had had at the beginning of their hearing the Gospel, as Rom. xiii. 11, 12 ; whence also the old precept could with pleasantness be proposed to them under a new method. — on) because . This is that precept, the love of a brother, from the light. Hence at the beginning of ver. 9 therefore is to be understood. Comp. ch. i. 5, 6. — Ttapayirai) He does not say napuyu, passes by, but ‘rapuysrcu, is caused to pass , is changed, so that at length it is absorbed. The same word is used, ver. 17, where it is opposed to abiding. Thus Ezra ix. 2, Septuagint, cr apr\yfv\ tr^sp^a to clytov, the holy seed was transferred , or caused to pass to the nations , and was mingled with them. Herodian : ovofia •sa,p<tyfhi a name changed , transferred from another, or to another. — Book I., ch. 16, and V. 7. The present is to be observed, as in shineth. — ro pug rb aXri&ivbv, the true light) Jesus Christ: John i. 9. — ijS'/j) now , with you; but it will shine the more for ever : ver. 28. Comp, until now , ver. 9. — pa/vs/, shineth) On this account it was now less needful for John to bring forward the prophets in his Epistles than it was for Peter ; whose 2d Epistle, i. 19, comp, respecting the day and the morning star. Peter, with his Epistles, stands about midway between the suffering of Christ and the close of the life of John.
9 ’e v r& (purl, in the light) as it were in his own element. Thus in, ver. 11. — adeXpbvj a brother) a believer: 3 John, 3, 5, 10. The very title contains the cause of love.
10. ZxavdctXov sv aurti ovx, sffnv, there is no occasion of stumbling in him) The contrary is in ver. 11, has blinded. But the notion of the one is supplied from the other : in him who loves, there is neither blindness nor an occasion of stumbling : in him who does not love, there is both blindness and an occasion of stumbling. He who hates his brother, is a stumbling-block to himself, and stumbles against himself and everything within and without : he who loves, has a path free from obstacles.
11. 'o & luaZ) i/, but he who hates) A direct opposition. Where
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