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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
- KJV Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
- NKJV Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
- NASB Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.
- NLT Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The command to love is not new but the old commandment they had from the beginning. It is the long-standing heart of God's word.
Overview
John reassures readers he is not introducing novelty; the call to love has been theirs from the start of their Christian instruction (and is rooted in the Old Testament). By calling it 'old,' he grounds it in the established gospel message. This sets up the paradox of the next verse, where the same command is also 'new.'
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Jn 3:11This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
- Lev 19:18Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
- Mark 12:29–34Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
- 2 Jn 1:5–6And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
- Rom 13:8–10Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
- Gal 5:13–14For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
- Matt 22:37–40Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
- 1 Jn 3:23And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded us.
- Lev 19:34You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
- Deut 6:5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
- 1 Jn 2:24As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father.
- Jas 2:8–12If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
- Matt 5:43You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’
- Acts 17:19So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 2:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.