1 John 2:8

Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true Or, Again, as a new commandment I write unto you a thing which is true. Or, Again, a new commandment write I unto you, namely that which is true. It is difficult to decide between these three renderings; but the third is simpler than the first. Both Tyndale and the Genevan Version have -a thing that is true". If we adopt the rendering of A. V. and R. V., the meaning seems to be, that the newness of the commandment istrue, both in the case of Christ, who promulgated it afresh, and in the case of you, who received it afresh. If we prefer the simpler rendering, the meaning will be, that what has already been shewn to be true by the pattern life of Christ and by the efforts of Christians to imitate it, is now given by S. John as a new commandment. The -Again" introduces a new view: that which from one point of view was an old commandment, from another was a new one. It was old, but not obsolete, ancient but not antiquated: it had been renewed in a fuller sense; it had received a fresh sanction. Thus both those who feared innovations and those who disliked what was stale might feel satisfied.

in Him and in you Note the double preposition, implying that it is true in the case of Christ in a different sense from that in which it is true in the case of Christians. He reissued the commandment and was the living embodiment and example of it; they accepted it and endeavoured to follow it: both illustrated its truth and soundness. See on 1 John 1:3, where -with" is repeated, and on John 20:2, where -to" is repeated. The reading -in us" is certainly to be rejected.

because the darkness is past Rather, is passing away (1 John 2:17): present tense of a process still going on (1 John 2:17). All earlier English Versions are wrong here, from Wiclif onwards, misled by transierunt tenebraein the Vulgate. On -darkness" see on 1 John 1:5. The -because" introduces the reason why he writes as a new commandment what has been proved true by the example of Christ and their own experience. The ideal state of things, to which the perfect fulfilment of this commandment belongs, has already begun: -The darkness is on the wane, the true light is shewing its power; thereforeI bid you to walk as children of light". Comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

the true light now shineth Or, the light, the true (light), is already shining or, giving light:the article is repeated, as in the case of -the life, the eternal (life)" in 1 John 1:2, and -the commandment, the old (commandment)" in 1 John 2:7; and if we have -is passing" rather than -passeth", we should have -is shining" rather than -shineth". Here we have not precisely the same word for -true" as in the previous sentence. In -a thing which is true" (ἀληθές) -true" is opposed to -lying": here -true" (ἀληθινὸν) is opposed to -spurious", and is just the old English -very". In -Very God of very God" in the Nicene Creed, -very" represents the word here rendered -true". -True" in this sense means -genuine", or -that which realises the idea formed of it", and hence -perfect." Christ and the Gospel are -the perfect light" in opposition to the imperfect light of the Law and the Prophets and the false light of Gnostic philosophy. This form of the word -true" is almost peculiar to S. John: it occurs 4 times in this Epistle, 9 times in the Gospel and 10 times in the Apocalypse: elsewhere in the N.T. only 5 times. Christ in the Gospel is called -the perfect Vine" (John 15:1), -the perfect Bread" (John 6:32) and -the perfect Light" (1 John 1:9). It is comparatively unimportant whether we interpret -the perfect light" here to mean Christ, or the light of the truth, or the kingdom of heaven: but John 1:5; John 1:9 will certainly incline us to the first of these interpretations. The contrast with the impersonal darkness does not disprove this here any more than in John 1:5. Darkness is never personal; it is not an effluence from Satan as light is from God or from Christ. It is the result, not of the presence of the evil one, but of the absence of God. Comp. -Ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8).