Something Old, Something New

John tells us that we can know God by keeping His commands, be perfected in God's love by keeping His word, and abide in God by walking in the same manner as He walked. Now he continues this line of reasoning by describing exactly what is the command that we are to keep. In 1 John 2:7-8, he says, "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. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining."
In the next few verses, we can see that the command is specifically to love our brothers. My question is, how is this both an old and new command? In Leviticus 19:17, 18, God gives this command, "You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD." Jesus reiterated this command during His earthly ministry. We find in Matthew 22:36-40 an account of a lawyer testing Jesus, "'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'" In Mark's account of the same event (12:32), the lawyer agrees with Jesus' assessment of the Law, showing that this was a commandment that was old, from the foundation of the nation of Israel.
How is this also a new commandment if the Jews have had it since the foundation of their nation? While Jesus agreed with the lawyer on the basic premise that loving God and your neighbor were the foundations of the Law, Jesus' understanding of the extent of that love was much different than that of the lawyer. In Luke's gospel, a similar account is given in which the lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus then asks the lawyer what the law says, to which the lawyer replies, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus basically said, "Yep, you answered your own question." The lawyer wanted to justify his question and asked, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus' response was in the form of the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man who was a sworn enemy of the Jewish people was the only person to act in a loving or neighborly way to the Jewish man beaten and half dead on the road. This concept of love was entirely new and foreign to the relgious establishment in Jesus' day. Jesus explained the new extent of the old command in Matthew 5:43-48, "'You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles to the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.'"
The old command is that we are to love our neighbors. The command is made new in Jesus' extension of our understanding of how to apply that command. No longer are we justified in loving only those who return our love. We must love even those who are our enemies, just as the Samaritan showed love to the Jew. In this way we are perfected in love, just as the Father in heaven has perfect love. This is important to keep in mind as John continues his discourse on love and the nature of the Christian, because we will see him again bring up the idea that we can be perfected in God's love.