A new commandment

7 Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing to you, but an old command, which you have had from the beginning. That old command is the message you have already heard. 8 Yet, in a way, it is a new command that I am writing to you – which is shown true in Christ’s life and in yours – for the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 The person who says that they are in the light, and yet hates others, is still in the darkness. 10 The person who loves others is always in the light, and there is nothing within them to cause them to stumble. 11 The person who hates is in the dark. They stumble along in the darkness; they do not know where they are going because the darkness blinds them.