Episode Details

Welcome back to the Hope Bible School verse-by-verse Bible study of 1 John. This is Jeff M Newman. Get a new lesson every other week on Mondays at 12:00 PM Eastern.

In Lesson 30, we are going to study 1 John 2:7. You are going to learn how to effectively minister to others by understanding and acknowledging the depth of God's love for them.

By recognizing how much God loves each person, you can convey that love to them when you are with them. Remind them of God's unconditional love and the value He places on them as His beloved children. Then, encourage them to love others.

Let’s read our verse.

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old one, which you have had from the beginning. This commandment is the message you have heard.

Let's start by focusing on the first word of the verse: Beloved

Beloved (27. agapétos) means loved by God or personally experiencing God’s agape or divine love.” (HELPS Word-studies).

John is reminding those who are reading this letter that they are divinely loved by God. John uses this term multiple times in his letters.

By using the term "beloved," he speaks to his readers in a loving manner, reminding them that they are loved by God.

In Matthew 3:16-17, we read that God the Father used the term "beloved" in reference to Jesus, immediately after Jesus was baptized.

Matthew 3:16-17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”

When you are ministering to others, it is important to remind them that they are beloved by God.

Now let’s focus on the next part of the verse: I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old one…

Writing (1125. graphó) means express in written characters.

New (2537. kainos) means fresh or “not found exactly like this before.”

Commandment (1785. entolé) is an injunction, order, or command.

But an old one (3820. palaios) means not new or recent, or had been in existence for a long time.

John is not writing about a brand new or fresh commandment.

He is not introducing something that had not already been discussed before.

Even though this verse doesn't explicitly mention which commandment he is referring to, we can infer from the context of 1 John 2 that John is talking about the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself."

This commandment has its roots in the early books of the Bible and has been passed down through generations.

Let's examine some verses from both the Old and New Testaments that relate to this commandment.

We first time we see the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself in Leviticus 19:18.

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