1 John 2:9-11 concludes John’s series of hypothetical “the one who…” statements by demonstrating how Jesus’s command to love one another reveals whether a person is walking in the Light. The one who hates his brother remains in darkness, walks blindly, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. In contrast, the one who loves his brother abides in the Light and lives without stumbling, demonstrating that genuine fellowship with God is evidenced through love.
1 John 2:9-11 teaches that professing to be in the Light is exposed as false when accompanied by hatred toward a brother, while genuine love demonstrates abiding in the Light and freedom from spiritual blindness and stumbling.
In this letter, the apostle John is writing to believers who already have the Gift of Eternal Life.
They believe in the Son of God. (John 5:13)
Their sins have been forgiven. (1 John 2:12)
They have the Holy Spirit. (1 John 2:20)
They have belonging in God’s eternal family. (1 John 3:2).
The message John is proclaiming to these believers concerns experiencing the fullness of eternal life (1 John 1:2).
John is writing to them so that they may more fully experience the joy of knowing God, partnering with Him, and abiding and serving in the community of those who follow Him in love (1 John 1:3-4). John is writing so that they may experience the fullness of all that eternal life in Jesus offers them now, in this present life. Near the end of his letter, John writes:
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)
In many respects, John’s message is a repeat or a commentary of Jesus’s teachings to His disciples (John 13-17) just before He was betrayed and crucified. It was these teachings, including Jesus’s commandment to love one another (John 13:34, 15:12, 17) that John is referring to in this letter when he says what you have heard from the beginning (1 John 1:1, 2:7-8).
Earlier in this chapter (1 John 2), John introduced three major concepts or themes of his letter—all of which pertain to experiencing the fullness of eternal life.
These three concepts are:
Ginōskō (G1097)
Ginoskō means intimately knowing God. Jesus defined eternal life as “ginoskō-ing God” (John 17:3).
John wrote: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).
Agapaō /Agapé (G25/G26)
Agapaō and Agapé are respectively the Greek verb and noun that are most often translated as “love” in 1 John and the New Testament. These words describe a love of choice. God’s love is the affection and good will He has for us and that we are to have for other people. John use agapé later in this chapter to exhort believers not to “agapé”—choose to seek and commit to—the things in the world, including its lusts (1 John 2:15-16). Godly agape-love in action is serving and seeking other people’s best interest. Jesus commanded that we love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34, 15:12, 17).
John wrote: “whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected” (1 John 2:5). God’s command is to love Him and love others. Keeping God’s word means to love others. It is through loving others that God’s love is completed in us.
Menō (G3306)
Menō means to abide with God and make His teachings and presence our home. Jesus commanded His disciples to abide in Him (John 15:4-5), His love (John 15:9-10), and to let the Father (John 14:23) and Spirit (John 14:16-17) abide in them.
John wrote: “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
Starting in 1 John 2:4, John makes a series of hypothetical statements that begin with the expression “The one who…”. All of these hypothetical statements describe believers who say or do various things. The statements also describe the ways our words and actions affect our intimacy with God and our experience of eternal life.
While all three concepts of know-love-abide were introduced in 1 John 2:4-6, the first two hypothetical statements emphasized knowing God.
The first hypothetical statement was:
“The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:4)
The second hypothetical statement was:
“By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” (1 John 2:5b-6)
Both hypotheticals connected knowing Jesus with keeping His commands and living by faith as He lived by faith.
Now in 1 John 2:9-11, John completes his series of “the one who…” hypothetical statements. While the first two hypotheticals focused on knowing God, these final three hypotheticals explain how loving fellow believers is necessary to abide in the Light and experience the fullness of eternal life.
THE THIRD: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now (v 9).
As with the other hypotheticals, the one who says refers to a believer.
In the context of 1 John, the term his brother does not refer to a biological brother. Rather, it refers to a fellow believer who is a brother in Christ. So, in this scenario, the one who says and his brother have both been born into God’s forever family by virtue of their belief in Jesus as the Son of God (John 1:12). This follows suit with the familial language John has used thus far, such as addressing his readers as “my little children” (1 John 2:1). Both the one who says and his brother are believers who have received the Gift of Eternal Life.
If either one of these two figures were not believers who were part of God’s family, then they would not be brothers.
Before we continue, it is worth noting two things:
The fact that these two figures are brothers in Christ indicates that in verse 9, among other places in this epistle, John is describing tragic scenarios where a believer can hate his brother, walk in the darkness, break fellowship with God, and miss experiencing the joy of eternal life.
John did not write these tragic scenarios to describe unbelievers. This means as believers we ought not make the mistake of thinking that these tragic scenarios and their negative consequences cannot apply to us simply because we have received the Gift of Eternal Life. John is warning us precisely because believers can, and do, stumble into and suffer these things.
Unbelievers need to receive the Gift of Eternal Life by believing in Jesus (John 1:12, 3:14-15, Romans 3:24,Ephesians 2:8-9).
Believers (already and forever) have the Gift of Eternal Life and therefore need to walk in the Light by faith so they can inherit the Prize of Eternal Life. This Prize has a future fulfillment, but also includes knowing God, having fellowship with Him, and having their joy made full in this life.
And like 1 John 2:4 (which was the first scenario), this third scenario in verse 9 describes a hypocritical believer who says one thing but is living a different reality. This scenario describes a believer who says that he has a close relationship with God (he is in the Light), and yet he hates is brother and is actually in the darkness.
The expression in the Light refers to living in open, obedient fellowship with God, who Himself is Light (1 John 1:5). Light also represents God’s presence as His truth and goodness illuminate reality and foster life.
To be in the Light therefore means to share in fellowship with God by living according to His truth (1 John 1:7) and to walk according to Jesus’s commandment to love one another (John 13:34, 15:12, 17, 1 John 2:3-8) by faith.
Because he hates his brother, the one who says that he is in the Light, is actually in the darkness.
The opposite of the Light is the darkness. The Light casts out the darkness (John 1:5).
The darkness symbolizes the sin and wickedness of the world. The darkness opposes God. The darkness hates God. It hates the truth. It hates God’s ways that bring life and goodness (John 3:20).
God is Light (1 John 1:5) and He is also love (1 John 4:8).
The opposite of love is hate.
The Greek word that is translated as hates in this verse is the verb μισέω (G3404 — pronounced: “mis-e-ō”). “Miseō” means to hate or detest something or someone.
As love means to serve people and seek their best interest, so hate means to exploit and mistreat them for one’s own personal gain. The world teaches that the way to get ahead is through exploitation and manipulation. Biblically, this is hatred. Hatred overlooks people and their needs. Hatred selfishly takes advantage of others, manipulating or coercing them to do what you want them to for you. A hateful person envies those who have more power or talent or resources than themselves.
In a memorable moment, Jesus gently corrected James and John’s earthly ambitions and described the world’s system which is full of exploitation and extraction.
“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.’” (Matthew 20:25)
Jesus then told them not be like the world, before telling them where to redirect their ambitions.
“It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” (Matthew 20:26-27)
Jesus then explained to His disciples that this was why He came (Matthew 20:28).
At the end of His time with His disciples, Jesus gave His disciples an unforgettable example of what serving others looks like, when He washed their feet (John 13:3-20). He then gave His disciples His new commandment:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34)
Jesus told His disciples that their love for one another would be the distinguishing characteristic for “all men to know that you are My disciples” (John 13:35).
Serving others is love in action. It is the opposite of exploiting people. Serving people in love is the opposite of hatred. Hatred tears people down. Love builds people up. God loves us and wants our best for us. That is why Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He had loved them.
When believers keep His commandment to love one another as He loves us, they know God, abide in the Light, and experience the incredible joy of living in fellowship both with God and other followers of Jesus (1 John 1:3-4, 7, 2:3, 5-6).
But when a believer adopts the world’s perspective or acts like the world by attempting to get ahead according to its system, heis not keeping Jesus’s commandment to love his brother (1 John 2:15b-16). A believer who selfishly overlooks the needs of his brother attempts to exploit his brother, envies his brother, hates his brother.
And no matter what this believer says or falsely claims about himself being in the Light, he is a hypocrite and is in the darkness until now.
The expression that is translated until now at the end of verse 9 is an interesting one. It means “up to this very moment” or “right now” or “even now.” The expression until now emphasizes the present, ongoing reality of a believer who hates his brother.
The inclusion of until now at the end of verse 9 reinforces the fact that even believers can remain in the darkness even after they have received the Gift of Eternal Life. And they will be in the darkness no matter what they say if they persist in the practice of hating their brother in Christ.
Not only are we not abiding (“menō”) in the Light if we hate/exploit/take advantage of our brother, but John also teaches later in his epistle that if we hate our brother then we neither know (“ginōskō”) God (1 John 4:8), nor do we love (“agapaō”) God (1 John 4:20). This connects back to 1 John 2:3 which says that to know God is to walk in fellowship with Him by following His commandments.
Being in the Light is not a matter of intellect, or religious actions, or Bible study, or offering prayers or sacrifices to God. We have seen that being in the Light is not even a matter of believing in Jesus for the Gift of Eternal Life (1 John 1:8). Paul says if we have all spiritual gifts, know all knowledge, understand all mysteries, have faith to perform miracles, and offer sacrifices even unto our death, if we have not love, all these abilities and sacrifices profit us nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Being in the Light is a matter of putting our faith in action by loving one another as Christ first loved us:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6)
One of the biggest barriers believers face to experiencing eternal life and walking close to God in the Light is hatred toward their brothers or sisters in Christ. Hatred—using, exploiting, lording over others—is a sin. Self-rationalizing our hatred against another person by focusing on their actions or character instead of our response to them does not change the fact that hating our brother is a sin. Hating our brother or sister in Christ always inhibits our fellowship with God and His family.
Similar to how Jesus told Nicodemus that the Father did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17), John’s explanation here in verse 9 that the believer who hates his brother is in darkness until now is not stated as a condemnation. John is writing this to make believers aware of the reality of hatred and its consequences. And because we can confess our sins and be restored to the Light by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9), John is inviting believers who may be in darkness because they hate their brother to join Christ in the Light and to restore fellowship with Him.
John’s intent in writing these things is the same as Jesus’s intent when He first explained them to His disciples: “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling” (John 16:1).
The one who hates his brother needs to see the reality of his being in darkness, confess his sin, and begin to walk in the Light by loving one another as Jesus loves us.
THE FOURTH: “THE ONE WHO…” STATEMENT
The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him (v 10).
This hypothetical statement in verse 10 contrasts verse 9 in several ways.
1 John 1:9 described a hypocritical believer who says false things about his fellowship with God, hates his brother, and is in the darkness. In direct contrast, verse 10 describes a believer who loveshis brother and consequently abidesin the Light and is without any unresolved offense.
The initial contrast is that one believer hates his brother (v 9) and the other believer loves his brother (v 10). This is the triggering difference. It is from this distinction that the other contrasts flow.
Whether we love our brother or we hate him is our own choice. This choice is among the three things we can control. The three things we can control are:
Who we trust.
What perspective we will adopt.
What we will do—our actions.
Love and hate are opposite actions we can choose.
Love is the choice to treat your neighbor as you treat yourself and to look out for their interests and not only your own (Matthew 7:12,Philippians 2:3-5).
Hate is the choice to value your personal desires more than you value other people and interests that serve them, including your brother.
We can love our brother, even if our brother hates us. Because Jesus first loved us, hate does not have to beget more hate: “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We can choose to respond to hate with love. And even though we may be hated by our brother, we can still abide in the Light and experience fellowship with Jesus if we choose to forgive and love those who hate us.
John elaborates on this thought more fully later in this letter when he writes:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
And:
“God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16)
1 John 2:10 teaches that if we choose to obey Jesus’s commandment to love our brother, then we abide in the Light.
In verse 9, John explains that if we choose to ignore Jesus’s commandment to love our brother, then we will default to the darkness of the world’s system and hate our brother, and we will not abide in the Light—we will be in the darkness.
We will either love or hate our brother. John does not describe a third option. Every interaction is either an overflow of Christ’s perfect love in us or it is derived from the darkness of the world and its lusts,
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:15b-16)
If we are striving to know God and please Him by faith through keeping Jesus’s commandment to love one another and to seek to serve their interests, then we will be in the Light as He is in the Light and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us of all sin (1 John 1:7).
Jesus’s cleansing of believers of all unrighteousness even as they walk in the Light (1 John 1:7) includes any and all impure motives that they had, but were unaware that they had, as they were serving people. This is why John says there isno cause for stumbling in a believer who loves his brother and abides in the Light. There is no cause for stumbling inthe one who is in the Light, because the blood of Jesus is cleansing him from all the sin he has or does in ignorance (1 John 1:7).
The one who hates his brother is not in the Light because hatred of our brother is a stumbling block and barrier to our fellowship with God, while the one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him (v 10).
After describing the believer who loves his brother and abides in the Light, John returns to describing the believer who hates his brother.
THE FIFTH: “THE ONE WHO…” STATEMENT
But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes (v 11).
This hypothetical statement is similar to the third hypothetical statement, which said: The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now (v 9).
In both hypotheticals, the believer hates his brother and is in the darkness; the main difference is that in verse 9 the believer claims to be in the Light. In verse 11, the believer does not explicitly make this claim. 1 John 2:11 says that the believer who hates his brother simply walks in the darkness regardless of whether they claim to be in the Light or not.
We learn four truths about the believer who hates his brother in verse 11.
Heisin the darkness.
Hewalks in the darkness.
Hedoes not know where he is going.
Thedarkness has blinded his eyes.
We will discuss the meaning of each truth.
1. The one who hates his brother is in the darkness.
The first truth is a repeat of what John said in verse 9 when he wrote: the one who… hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
This means that the one (the believer—remember, John is writing about believers) who hates his brother is not abiding (“menō”) with God in the Light. This believer does not experience fellowship with Jesus or with those who follow His commandment to love one another. He does, therefore, not know (“ginōskō”) God. He is therefore not experiencing the fullness of eternal life that is available to Him through Jesus.
As was explained in our commentary of verse 9, the fact that he is in the darkness does not mean that this believer does not have the Gift of Eternal Life. The Gift of Eternal Life is granted on the basis of faith in Jesus and is not at all contingent upon a person’s works and/or ongoing choices (Romans 3:24,Ephesians 2:8-9). And the Gift of Eternal Life cannot be lost or taken away (John 10:28-29,Romans 8:32-39, 11:29). This is because believers are in Christ, and for Him to deny us would be for Him to deny Himself, which He will not do (2 Timothy 2:13).
The other three truths describe specific aspects of what it means to be in the darkness.
2. The one who hates his brother walk in the darkness.
This statement describes the state of being for the believer who hates his brother. The darkness is a metaphor for the sinful and false perspective of the world. This believer’s perspective and behavior is in alignment with what the world wrongly says is good. Consequently, this believer’s perspective and behavior is not in alignment with the Light and what God says is good. He is blind to what is right and good.
Paul uses similar imagery when describing the world’s/Gentiles’ perspective and behavior when he exhorts the Ephesians believers to “walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:17-18a). He then says that those who walk in darkness are “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18b). In other words, Paul is telling believers to not live like unbelievers.
The world’s perspective is that you should only love those who love you first. (Matthew 5:46-47)
The world’s perspective is that selfishly exploiting people for your personal gain is a good thing, so long as you maintain a façade of respectability. (Matthew 20:25)
The world’s perspective is that you should envy those with power, even when they abuse their power to exploit others.
James writes that bitter jealousy and selfish ambition is “not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic” (James 3:14-15). Then he says: “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16).
Neither selfish transactional relationships, exploitation, or envy are exercises of loving our brother. They are, rather, all ways we can hate our brother. The world teaches to hate. Jesus teaches to love. And the one who hates his brother and walks in darkness is conformed to the pattern of this world and is not transformed into Christ’s likeness by the renewing of his perspective (Romans 12:2).
3. The one who hates his brother does not know where he is going.
This truth describes how the one who hates his brother does not understand reality and/or the true consequences of his actions. If he understood the truth, he would follow Jesus’s commandment to love and serve his brother and would not hate him.
The fact that such a one does not know where he is going means that he does not know what he is really doing to himself.
John writes in Chapter 3 that “he who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14b). A believer who hates his brother misses the present experience of eternal life and lives like a slave to sin and death. John goes on to echo Jesus’s teachings from the Sermon on the Mount about hating your brother in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22) as he explains what it means to be abiding in death and missing out on the fullness of eternal life because of hate:
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15)
To the degree that a believer who hates his brother has any influence, he is like the Pharisees whom Jesus described as “blind guides of the blind” (Matthew 15:14a). Jesus said: “And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14b).
In addition to mistreating other people, the believer who hateshis brother also suffers the following consequences:
He is not living in reality. (1 John 1:6, 2:4)
He is self-excluded from the fellowship and community that he could share with his brother and sisters in Christ. (1 John 1:4, 1:7)
He squanders his precious opportunity to know God by faith in this life. (1 Peter 1:7,1 John 2:3)
He is self-exiled from the fellowship and intimacy he could be sharing with God. (Matthew 11:28-30,John 14:23)
He forfeits the present experience of joy and eternal life in this life. (John 15:10-11,1 John 1:4)
He is missing the kingdom and his seat at the kingdom banquet. (Matthew 7:21, 8:11-12)
He is on a road to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14)
He is throwing away his reward of inheritance at the judgment seat of Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15,2 Corinthians 5:9-10,Colossians 3:23)
He is disobeying God and storing up shame and wrath for himself at the judgment seat of Christ. (Mark 8:38,Romans 2:5-8,Hebrews 10:26-31)
The believer who hates his brother does not know or believe he is going to suffer these consequences, otherwise he would repent and love his brother instead of hating his brother.
The believer who hates his brother also does not know that he is going to end up like the evil servant in Jesus’s parable:
“But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:48-50)
Such a believer does not know that his bitterness against his brotheris going to make him sorrowful like Esau (Hebrews 12:15-16),
“For you know that even afterwards, when he [Essau] desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:17)
4. The darkness has blinded the eyes of the one who hates his brother.
This truth explains why the believer who hates his brother does not know where he is going. He is ignorant of where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
The world’s perspective has blinded the eyes of believers who hate their brother. The more he hates his brother, the harder it is for him to see reality and the Light of God’s goodness.
Hatred blinds believers to God’s path for their lives.
The darkness of the world has blinded the hateful believer’s eyes so that he thinks that hating his brother is a good thing and he is blinded to the present and future destructive reality of what he is doing to himself when hehates.
Jesus taught His disciples the importance of perspective in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus used the eye as a symbol for perspective and light as a symbol of truth,
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22)
Jesus’s expression “if your eye is clear” (Matthew 6:22) was a metaphor for “if your perspective is accurate.” And if your perspective is accurate then “your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6:22). In other words, your life will be full of truth.
“But,” Jesus warned, “if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:23a). If our perspective is off, then we won’t see truth and our lives will be filled with deceptions.
Jesus added: “If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23b). In this case “the light” represents what we mistakenly think is true or real. But this light is not true or real. It is actually false. If we think darkness is light, lies are true, and evil is good, “how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23b).
The world’s perspective teaches that hatred (exploitation, manipulation, envy) is the path to life, and that serving another’s needs ahead of your own in love is foolishness. But the world is wrong. And its perspective of hatred, if we adopt it, will blind our eyes to reality and to what God declares to be right and good. We will become like the world and call what is good, “evil,” and what is evil, “good.” We will call what is true, “false,” and what is false, “true.”
And we will not know where we are going, nor will we experience fellowship with God intimately by faith in this life, because “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5),
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24a)
One of the most potent and important ways we can love our brother is mercy and forgiveness. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the importance of mercy and forgiveness in His Sermon on the Mount. And the reason He emphasized this was because of “The Mercy Principle.”
The Mercy Principle is the principle that God treats us the way we treat others.
If we are merciful and loving to others, God will be merciful to us. If we are harsh with others, God will be harsh with us. If shut out our brothers and sisters in Christ from our fellowship, then God will not allow us to enjoy fellowship with Him. Just in the Sermon on the Mount alone, here is what Jesus taught about Mercy:
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
“But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
The center of the Lord’s prayer is a petition for God to treat us the way we treat those who have offended us (Matthew 6:12). Immediately after Jesus concludes His prayer, He follows this up with positive and negative statements to drive the Mercy Principle home,
“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
Jesus also warns that we should not judge lest we be judged (Matthew 7:1-2). And He affirms that we should treat others the way we want to be treated (Matthew 7:12).
Combining Jesus’s teaching of the Mercy Principle with John’s teaching about loving or hating our brother, we see that one of the best ways we can come to know God and experience eternal life in this life is by forgiving people. The more we forgive, the more we are loving them, and the more we love them, the more we are obeying Jesus’s commandment.
The more we do these things, the more intimately we come to know God. The more we come to know God, the greater our experience of life (John 17:3). And to top it all off, the more we gain all these things, the greater our joy will grow.
1 John 2:9-11
9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Set to dark mode
1 John 2:9-11 meaning
1 John 2:9-11 teaches that professing to be in the Light is exposed as false when accompanied by hatred toward a brother, while genuine love demonstrates abiding in the Light and freedom from spiritual blindness and stumbling.
In this letter, the apostle John is writing to believers who already have the Gift of Eternal Life.
(John 5:13)
(1 John 2:12)
(1 John 2:20)
(1 John 3:2).
The message John is proclaiming to these believers concerns experiencing the fullness of eternal life (1 John 1:2).
John is writing to them so that they may more fully experience the joy of knowing God, partnering with Him, and abiding and serving in the community of those who follow Him in love (1 John 1:3-4). John is writing so that they may experience the fullness of all that eternal life in Jesus offers them now, in this present life. Near the end of his letter, John writes:
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
(1 John 5:13)
In many respects, John’s message is a repeat or a commentary of Jesus’s teachings to His disciples (John 13-17) just before He was betrayed and crucified. It was these teachings, including Jesus’s commandment to love one another (John 13:34, 15:12, 17) that John is referring to in this letter when he says what you have heard from the beginning (1 John 1:1, 2:7-8).
Earlier in this chapter (1 John 2), John introduced three major concepts or themes of his letter—all of which pertain to experiencing the fullness of eternal life.
These three concepts are:
Ginoskō means intimately knowing God. Jesus defined eternal life as “ginoskō-ing God” (John 17:3).
John wrote: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).
Agapaō and Agapé are respectively the Greek verb and noun that are most often translated as “love” in 1 John and the New Testament. These words describe a love of choice. God’s love is the affection and good will He has for us and that we are to have for other people. John use agapé later in this chapter to exhort believers not to “agapé”—choose to seek and commit to—the things in the world, including its lusts (1 John 2:15-16). Godly agape-love in action is serving and seeking other people’s best interest. Jesus commanded that we love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34, 15:12, 17).
John wrote: “whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected” (1 John 2:5). God’s command is to love Him and love others. Keeping God’s word means to love others. It is through loving others that God’s love is completed in us.
Menō means to abide with God and make His teachings and presence our home. Jesus commanded His disciples to abide in Him (John 15:4-5), His love (John 15:9-10), and to let the Father (John 14:23) and Spirit (John 14:16-17) abide in them.
John wrote: “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
Starting in 1 John 2:4, John makes a series of hypothetical statements that begin with the expression “The one who…”. All of these hypothetical statements describe believers who say or do various things. The statements also describe the ways our words and actions affect our intimacy with God and our experience of eternal life.
While all three concepts of know-love-abide were introduced in 1 John 2:4-6, the first two hypothetical statements emphasized knowing God.
The first hypothetical statement was:
“The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
(1 John 2:4)
The second hypothetical statement was:
“By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
(1 John 2:5b-6)
Both hypotheticals connected knowing Jesus with keeping His commands and living by faith as He lived by faith.
Now in 1 John 2:9-11, John completes his series of “the one who…” hypothetical statements. While the first two hypotheticals focused on knowing God, these final three hypotheticals explain how loving fellow believers is necessary to abide in the Light and experience the fullness of eternal life.
THE THIRD: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now (v 9).
As with the other hypotheticals, the one who says refers to a believer.
In the context of 1 John, the term his brother does not refer to a biological brother. Rather, it refers to a fellow believer who is a brother in Christ. So, in this scenario, the one who says and his brother have both been born into God’s forever family by virtue of their belief in Jesus as the Son of God (John 1:12). This follows suit with the familial language John has used thus far, such as addressing his readers as “my little children” (1 John 2:1). Both the one who says and his brother are believers who have received the Gift of Eternal Life.
If either one of these two figures were not believers who were part of God’s family, then they would not be brothers.
Before we continue, it is worth noting two things:
Unbelievers need to receive the Gift of Eternal Life by believing in Jesus (John 1:12, 3:14-15, Romans 3:24, Ephesians 2:8-9).
Believers (already and forever) have the Gift of Eternal Life and therefore need to walk in the Light by faith so they can inherit the Prize of Eternal Life. This Prize has a future fulfillment, but also includes knowing God, having fellowship with Him, and having their joy made full in this life.
And like 1 John 2:4 (which was the first scenario), this third scenario in verse 9 describes a hypocritical believer who says one thing but is living a different reality. This scenario describes a believer who says that he has a close relationship with God (he is in the Light), and yet he hates is brother and is actually in the darkness.
The expression in the Light refers to living in open, obedient fellowship with God, who Himself is Light (1 John 1:5). Light also represents God’s presence as His truth and goodness illuminate reality and foster life.
To be in the Light therefore means to share in fellowship with God by living according to His truth (1 John 1:7) and to walk according to Jesus’s commandment to love one another (John 13:34, 15:12, 17, 1 John 2:3-8) by faith.
Because he hates his brother, the one who says that he is in the Light, is actually in the darkness.
The opposite of the Light is the darkness. The Light casts out the darkness (John 1:5).
The darkness symbolizes the sin and wickedness of the world. The darkness opposes God. The darkness hates God. It hates the truth. It hates God’s ways that bring life and goodness (John 3:20).
God is Light (1 John 1:5) and He is also love (1 John 4:8).
The opposite of love is hate.
The Greek word that is translated as hates in this verse is the verb μισέω (G3404 — pronounced: “mis-e-ō”). “Miseō” means to hate or detest something or someone.
As love means to serve people and seek their best interest, so hate means to exploit and mistreat them for one’s own personal gain. The world teaches that the way to get ahead is through exploitation and manipulation. Biblically, this is hatred. Hatred overlooks people and their needs. Hatred selfishly takes advantage of others, manipulating or coercing them to do what you want them to for you. A hateful person envies those who have more power or talent or resources than themselves.
In a memorable moment, Jesus gently corrected James and John’s earthly ambitions and described the world’s system which is full of exploitation and extraction.
“But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.’”
(Matthew 20:25)
Jesus then told them not be like the world, before telling them where to redirect their ambitions.
“It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”
(Matthew 20:26-27)
Jesus then explained to His disciples that this was why He came (Matthew 20:28).
At the end of His time with His disciples, Jesus gave His disciples an unforgettable example of what serving others looks like, when He washed their feet (John 13:3-20). He then gave His disciples His new commandment:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
(John 13:34)
Jesus told His disciples that their love for one another would be the distinguishing characteristic for “all men to know that you are My disciples” (John 13:35).
Serving others is love in action. It is the opposite of exploiting people. Serving people in love is the opposite of hatred. Hatred tears people down. Love builds people up. God loves us and wants our best for us. That is why Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He had loved them.
When believers keep His commandment to love one another as He loves us, they know God, abide in the Light, and experience the incredible joy of living in fellowship both with God and other followers of Jesus (1 John 1:3-4, 7, 2:3, 5-6).
But when a believer adopts the world’s perspective or acts like the world by attempting to get ahead according to its system, he is not keeping Jesus’s commandment to love his brother (1 John 2:15b-16). A believer who selfishly overlooks the needs of his brother attempts to exploit his brother, envies his brother, hates his brother.
And no matter what this believer says or falsely claims about himself being in the Light, he is a hypocrite and is in the darkness until now.
The expression that is translated until now at the end of verse 9 is an interesting one. It means “up to this very moment” or “right now” or “even now.” The expression until now emphasizes the present, ongoing reality of a believer who hates his brother.
The inclusion of until now at the end of verse 9 reinforces the fact that even believers can remain in the darkness even after they have received the Gift of Eternal Life. And they will be in the darkness no matter what they say if they persist in the practice of hating their brother in Christ.
Not only are we not abiding (“menō”) in the Light if we hate/exploit/take advantage of our brother, but John also teaches later in his epistle that if we hate our brother then we neither know (“ginōskō”) God (1 John 4:8), nor do we love (“agapaō”) God (1 John 4:20). This connects back to 1 John 2:3 which says that to know God is to walk in fellowship with Him by following His commandments.
Being in the Light is not a matter of intellect, or religious actions, or Bible study, or offering prayers or sacrifices to God. We have seen that being in the Light is not even a matter of believing in Jesus for the Gift of Eternal Life (1 John 1:8). Paul says if we have all spiritual gifts, know all knowledge, understand all mysteries, have faith to perform miracles, and offer sacrifices even unto our death, if we have not love, all these abilities and sacrifices profit us nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Being in the Light is a matter of putting our faith in action by loving one another as Christ first loved us:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”
(Galatians 5:6)
One of the biggest barriers believers face to experiencing eternal life and walking close to God in the Light is hatred toward their brothers or sisters in Christ. Hatred—using, exploiting, lording over others—is a sin. Self-rationalizing our hatred against another person by focusing on their actions or character instead of our response to them does not change the fact that hating our brother is a sin. Hating our brother or sister in Christ always inhibits our fellowship with God and His family.
Similar to how Jesus told Nicodemus that the Father did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17), John’s explanation here in verse 9 that the believer who hates his brother is in darkness until now is not stated as a condemnation. John is writing this to make believers aware of the reality of hatred and its consequences. And because we can confess our sins and be restored to the Light by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9), John is inviting believers who may be in darkness because they hate their brother to join Christ in the Light and to restore fellowship with Him.
John’s intent in writing these things is the same as Jesus’s intent when He first explained them to His disciples: “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling” (John 16:1).
The one who hates his brother needs to see the reality of his being in darkness, confess his sin, and begin to walk in the Light by loving one another as Jesus loves us.
THE FOURTH: “THE ONE WHO…” STATEMENT
The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him (v 10).
This hypothetical statement in verse 10 contrasts verse 9 in several ways.
1 John 1:9 described a hypocritical believer who says false things about his fellowship with God, hates his brother, and is in the darkness. In direct contrast, verse 10 describes a believer who loves his brother and consequently abides in the Light and is without any unresolved offense.
The initial contrast is that one believer hates his brother (v 9) and the other believer loves his brother (v 10). This is the triggering difference. It is from this distinction that the other contrasts flow.
Whether we love our brother or we hate him is our own choice. This choice is among the three things we can control. The three things we can control are:
Love and hate are opposite actions we can choose.
Love is the choice to treat your neighbor as you treat yourself and to look out for their interests and not only your own (Matthew 7:12, Philippians 2:3-5).
Hate is the choice to value your personal desires more than you value other people and interests that serve them, including your brother.
We can love our brother, even if our brother hates us. Because Jesus first loved us, hate does not have to beget more hate: “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We can choose to respond to hate with love. And even though we may be hated by our brother, we can still abide in the Light and experience fellowship with Jesus if we choose to forgive and love those who hate us.
John elaborates on this thought more fully later in this letter when he writes:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
(1 John 4:7-8)
And:
“God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
(1 John 4:16)
1 John 2:10 teaches that if we choose to obey Jesus’s commandment to love our brother, then we abide in the Light.
In verse 9, John explains that if we choose to ignore Jesus’s commandment to love our brother, then we will default to the darkness of the world’s system and hate our brother, and we will not abide in the Light—we will be in the darkness.
We will either love or hate our brother. John does not describe a third option. Every interaction is either an overflow of Christ’s perfect love in us or it is derived from the darkness of the world and its lusts,
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
(1 John 2:15b-16)
If we are striving to know God and please Him by faith through keeping Jesus’s commandment to love one another and to seek to serve their interests, then we will be in the Light as He is in the Light and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us of all sin (1 John 1:7).
Jesus’s cleansing of believers of all unrighteousness even as they walk in the Light (1 John 1:7) includes any and all impure motives that they had, but were unaware that they had, as they were serving people. This is why John says there is no cause for stumbling in a believer who loves his brother and abides in the Light. There is no cause for stumbling in the one who is in the Light, because the blood of Jesus is cleansing him from all the sin he has or does in ignorance (1 John 1:7).
The one who hates his brother is not in the Light because hatred of our brother is a stumbling block and barrier to our fellowship with God, while the one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him (v 10).
After describing the believer who loves his brother and abides in the Light, John returns to describing the believer who hates his brother.
THE FIFTH: “THE ONE WHO…” STATEMENT
But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes (v 11).
This hypothetical statement is similar to the third hypothetical statement, which said: The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now (v 9).
In both hypotheticals, the believer hates his brother and is in the darkness; the main difference is that in verse 9 the believer claims to be in the Light. In verse 11, the believer does not explicitly make this claim. 1 John 2:11 says that the believer who hates his brother simply walks in the darkness regardless of whether they claim to be in the Light or not.
We learn four truths about the believer who hates his brother in verse 11.
We will discuss the meaning of each truth.
1. The one who hates his brother is in the darkness.
The first truth is a repeat of what John said in verse 9 when he wrote: the one who… hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
This means that the one (the believer—remember, John is writing about believers) who hates his brother is not abiding (“menō”) with God in the Light. This believer does not experience fellowship with Jesus or with those who follow His commandment to love one another. He does, therefore, not know (“ginōskō”) God. He is therefore not experiencing the fullness of eternal life that is available to Him through Jesus.
As was explained in our commentary of verse 9, the fact that he is in the darkness does not mean that this believer does not have the Gift of Eternal Life. The Gift of Eternal Life is granted on the basis of faith in Jesus and is not at all contingent upon a person’s works and/or ongoing choices (Romans 3:24, Ephesians 2:8-9). And the Gift of Eternal Life cannot be lost or taken away (John 10:28-29, Romans 8:32-39, 11:29). This is because believers are in Christ, and for Him to deny us would be for Him to deny Himself, which He will not do (2 Timothy 2:13).
The other three truths describe specific aspects of what it means to be in the darkness.
2. The one who hates his brother walk in the darkness.
This statement describes the state of being for the believer who hates his brother. The darkness is a metaphor for the sinful and false perspective of the world. This believer’s perspective and behavior is in alignment with what the world wrongly says is good. Consequently, this believer’s perspective and behavior is not in alignment with the Light and what God says is good. He is blind to what is right and good.
Paul uses similar imagery when describing the world’s/Gentiles’ perspective and behavior when he exhorts the Ephesians believers to “walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:17-18a). He then says that those who walk in darkness are “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18b). In other words, Paul is telling believers to not live like unbelievers.
(Matthew 5:46-47)
(Matthew 20:25)
James writes that bitter jealousy and selfish ambition is “not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic” (James 3:14-15). Then he says: “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16).
Neither selfish transactional relationships, exploitation, or envy are exercises of loving our brother. They are, rather, all ways we can hate our brother. The world teaches to hate. Jesus teaches to love. And the one who hates his brother and walks in darkness is conformed to the pattern of this world and is not transformed into Christ’s likeness by the renewing of his perspective (Romans 12:2).
3. The one who hates his brother does not know where he is going.
This truth describes how the one who hates his brother does not understand reality and/or the true consequences of his actions. If he understood the truth, he would follow Jesus’s commandment to love and serve his brother and would not hate him.
The fact that such a one does not know where he is going means that he does not know what he is really doing to himself.
John writes in Chapter 3 that “he who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14b). A believer who hates his brother misses the present experience of eternal life and lives like a slave to sin and death. John goes on to echo Jesus’s teachings from the Sermon on the Mount about hating your brother in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22) as he explains what it means to be abiding in death and missing out on the fullness of eternal life because of hate:
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
(1 John 3:15)
To the degree that a believer who hates his brother has any influence, he is like the Pharisees whom Jesus described as “blind guides of the blind” (Matthew 15:14a). Jesus said: “And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14b).
In addition to mistreating other people, the believer who hates his brother also suffers the following consequences:
(1 John 1:6, 2:4)
(1 John 1:4, 1:7)
(1 Peter 1:7, 1 John 2:3)
(Matthew 11:28-30, John 14:23)
(John 15:10-11, 1 John 1:4)
(Matthew 7:21, 8:11-12)
(Matthew 7:13-14)
(1 Corinthians 3:11-15, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, Colossians 3:23)
(Mark 8:38, Romans 2:5-8, Hebrews 10:26-31)
The believer who hates his brother does not know or believe he is going to suffer these consequences, otherwise he would repent and love his brother instead of hating his brother.
The believer who hates his brother also does not know that he is going to end up like the evil servant in Jesus’s parable:
“But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
(Matthew 24:48-50)
Such a believer does not know that his bitterness against his brother is going to make him sorrowful like Esau (Hebrews 12:15-16),
“For you know that even afterwards, when he [Essau] desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”
(Hebrews 12:17)
4. The darkness has blinded the eyes of the one who hates his brother.
This truth explains why the believer who hates his brother does not know where he is going. He is ignorant of where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
The world’s perspective has blinded the eyes of believers who hate their brother. The more he hates his brother, the harder it is for him to see reality and the Light of God’s goodness.
Hatred blinds believers to God’s path for their lives.
The darkness of the world has blinded the hateful believer’s eyes so that he thinks that hating his brother is a good thing and he is blinded to the present and future destructive reality of what he is doing to himself when he hates.
Jesus taught His disciples the importance of perspective in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus used the eye as a symbol for perspective and light as a symbol of truth,
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.”
(Matthew 6:22)
Jesus’s expression “if your eye is clear” (Matthew 6:22) was a metaphor for “if your perspective is accurate.” And if your perspective is accurate then “your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6:22). In other words, your life will be full of truth.
“But,” Jesus warned, “if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:23a). If our perspective is off, then we won’t see truth and our lives will be filled with deceptions.
Jesus added: “If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23b). In this case “the light” represents what we mistakenly think is true or real. But this light is not true or real. It is actually false. If we think darkness is light, lies are true, and evil is good, “how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23b).
The world’s perspective teaches that hatred (exploitation, manipulation, envy) is the path to life, and that serving another’s needs ahead of your own in love is foolishness. But the world is wrong. And its perspective of hatred, if we adopt it, will blind our eyes to reality and to what God declares to be right and good. We will become like the world and call what is good, “evil,” and what is evil, “good.” We will call what is true, “false,” and what is false, “true.”
And we will not know where we are going, nor will we experience fellowship with God intimately by faith in this life, because “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5),
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”
(Matthew 6:24a)
One of the most potent and important ways we can love our brother is mercy and forgiveness. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the importance of mercy and forgiveness in His Sermon on the Mount. And the reason He emphasized this was because of “The Mercy Principle.”
The Mercy Principle is the principle that God treats us the way we treat others.
If we are merciful and loving to others, God will be merciful to us. If we are harsh with others, God will be harsh with us. If shut out our brothers and sisters in Christ from our fellowship, then God will not allow us to enjoy fellowship with Him. Just in the Sermon on the Mount alone, here is what Jesus taught about Mercy:
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
(Matthew 5:7)
“But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
(Matthew 5:44)
The center of the Lord’s prayer is a petition for God to treat us the way we treat those who have offended us (Matthew 6:12). Immediately after Jesus concludes His prayer, He follows this up with positive and negative statements to drive the Mercy Principle home,
“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
(Matthew 6:14-15)
Jesus also warns that we should not judge lest we be judged (Matthew 7:1-2). And He affirms that we should treat others the way we want to be treated (Matthew 7:12).
Combining Jesus’s teaching of the Mercy Principle with John’s teaching about loving or hating our brother, we see that one of the best ways we can come to know God and experience eternal life in this life is by forgiving people. The more we forgive, the more we are loving them, and the more we love them, the more we are obeying Jesus’s commandment.
The more we do these things, the more intimately we come to know God. The more we come to know God, the greater our experience of life (John 17:3). And to top it all off, the more we gain all these things, the greater our joy will grow.