12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.(A)

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Dear friends,(A) I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.(B) This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command;(C) its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing(D) and the true light(E) is already shining.(F)

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[a](G) is still in the darkness.(H) 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister[b] lives in the light,(I) and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.(J) 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister(K) is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.(L) They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.(M)

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Footnotes

  1. 1 John 2:9 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in verse 11; and in 3:15, 17; 4:20; 5:16.
  2. 1 John 2:10 The Greek word for brother and sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in 3:10; 4:20, 21.

More on Love and Hatred

11 For this is the message you heard(A) from the beginning:(B) We should love one another.(C)

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