What commandment did you have from the beginning?

1 John 2:7 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. From the beginning, John’s readers had a commandment. It was so understood by them that he didn’t need to cite it. From the beginning, God commanded His people to love Him with all of their hearts, souls, and might (Deut. 6:5; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 19:9 just to name a few). So John wasn’t writing a new commandment to them. What he wrote sounded exactly like what Moses wrote in Deut. 11:22, “For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him” then God would bless them and destroy their enemies. In the previous verses, John had told them that if they know God and His Son, they will walk in His ways and hold fast to Him. That’s not a knew idea to them for the old commandment which they have had from the beginning was the same. As we live to love with Jesus, we are loving God and walking in His ways. We are obeying the old commandment to love God with all our hearts, souls, and might. I hope this encourages you as it does me. When I call you to live to love with Jesus, I’m not making up something that is new. It’s how we fulfill the greatest commandment given by God from the beginning.