1 John 2:11

St. John recognises no neutral attitude between “love” and “hatred”. Love is active benevolence, and less than this is hatred, just as indifference to the Gospel-call amounts to rejection of it (cf. Matthew 22:5-7). Observe the climax: “in the darkness is, and in the darkness walketh, and knoweth not where he is going”. ἐτύφλωσεν, aor. of the indefinite past, where we would use the perf. (cf. Moulton, Gram, of N. T. Gk., i. pp. 135 ff.). The penalty of living in the darkness is not merely that one does not see, but that one goes, blind. The neglected faculty is atrophied. Cf. the mole, the Crustacca in the subterranean lakes of the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky.

Observe how St. John emphasises and elaborates the old-new commandment “Love thy brother,” reiterating it, putting it negatively and positively.