Discovery Box1 John 2:7 
Context2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. 1 The old commandment is the word that you have already 2 heard.
1 John 2:11
Context2:11 But the one who hates his fellow Christian 3 is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 4
1 sn See John 13:34-35.
2 tn “Already” is not is the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity.
3 sn The one who hates his fellow Christian. The author’s paradigm for the opponents portrays them as those who show hatred for fellow Christians (Grk “brothers,” but not referring to one’s physical siblings). This charge will be much more fully developed in chap. 3, where the author will compare the opponents to Cain (who is the model for one who hates a brother, since he ultimately murdered his own brother). In 1 John 3:17 the specific charge against the opponents will be failing to give material aid to a brother in need.
4 sn 1 John 2:3-11. The section 2:3-11 contains three claims to intimate knowledge of God, each introduced by the phrase the one who says (participles in the Greek text) in 2:4, 6, and 9. As with the three claims beginning with “if” in the previous section (1:6, 8, 10), these indirectly reflect the claims of the opponents. Each claim is followed by the author’s evaluation and its implications.
