2:10a

Whoever loves his brother remains in the light: (Focus) John is not just making a statement here; he is also giving an implied command, “Therefore you should love your fellow Christians.” Since this is John’s main point in verses 7–11, it may be necessary in translation to draw attention to it with the natural focus markers of your language, or words such as, “Look,” or “I tell you.”

2:10b

no cause of stumbling in him: (Alternative Interpretations) There are two interpretations as to who might be caused to sin:

(1) The phrase probably means “cause himself to sin.”

(2) Some think it means “cause someone else to sin.” (Good News Translation)

stumbling: (Metaphor) This is a common biblical metaphor for committing sin and ceasing to live according to God’s will. In translation a different metaphor with the same meaning may be used, such as, “go astray from God’s way.” Otherwise the meaning “sin” or “do wrong” may be translated directly. See Display.

in him: (Alternative Interpretations) There are two interpretations of the Greek pronoun here:

(1) It probably means “in him,” referring to the person who lives in the light.

(2) Some think this means “in it,” that is, “in the light.” (Revised Standard Version)

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

2:9a

in the light: (Meaning) This is the same phrase as in 1:7. It refers to living and behaving in a good and pure way as God does.

2:9b

hates: (Multiple Senses) This is the opposite of “loves” in 2:10. It refers to the way one person behaves towards another person, not just to the feelings he has about that person.

brother: (Multiple Senses) This has the sense here of “fellow Christian.”

2:9c

still: (Emphasis) John is emphasizing that such a person is not sinning only in hating his brother. If a person hates his brother, it shows that he has always been in the darkness and has not yet come out of it.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

2:8a

a new commandment: (Meaning) This refers again to the command to love one another. See the note on 2:7a. John is not referring to a second command.

2:8b

which is true in Him and also in you: (Alternative Interpretations) There are different opinions about what the Greek words refer to in this part of the verse:

(1) John is probably saying, “the newness of this new command is truly seen in him and you.” This is the opinion of most commentators, since it is the most natural meaning of the Greek.

(2) Most English versions give the meaning as, “the truth of this new command is seen in him and you.” However, this is not what the Greek appears to mean.

2:8c–d

For: (Logical Connection) 2:8c–d shows in what way the command is new in Christ and in John’s readers. Christ was God’s light coming into the world driving away the darkness by his love, and for the Christians their whole lives and behavior were being changed as they loved one another.

darkness…light: (Metaphor) See the note on 1:5b–c.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

Paragraph 2:7–11

Read 2:7–11 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: These verses show which of God’s commands John particularly wanted his readers to obey, namely the command to love our fellow Christians. If we obey that command we are living according to the truth and purity of God’s nature, which John calls “the light”.

2:7a

Beloved: (Text) King James Version, Living Bible and Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English have “brothers,” which comes from an inferior Greek text.

Beloved: (Meaning) John shows his loving attitude by addressing his readers as “dear ones” or “you whom I love.” The Greek word he uses is closely related to that for “love,” which is his theme in this paragraph. It does not mean “friends” in the sense of companions or partners.

not writing to you a new commandment: (Focus) John’s theme here is that Christians should love one another. This follows from the importance of behaving as Christ behaved (2:6). In 2:7–8 he is showing that God has commanded us to love one another. He says this command is not new to his readers because Jesus gave it many years before (John 13:34). Yet Jesus called it a “new command.” John goes on to say that it is “new” in the sense that Jesus’ life and death showed for the first time what true love is, and it is also “new” in how it affects Christians’ lives.

2:7b

an old one: (Meaning) John means that the command to love was one of the main points of the Christian instruction his readers had received in the past.

from the beginning: (Meaning) This refers to the time when they first became Christians. This is different from the meaning of the same phrase in 1:1.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

2:6a

abide in Him: (Collocation) This has the same meaning as are “in Him” in 2:5. See the note on 2:5c.

2:6b

must walk: (Connotation) John is giving an implied command to his readers. He is saying that since they claim to live in God they ought to behave as Jesus did. In translation it is important that this should be understood as a command and not just as a statement.

walk: (Metaphor) Here, walk is used as a metaphor for the way we live and behave. The point of similarity is that both walking and behavior are actions that continue for some time and are done on purpose. If there is no common metaphor for this in your language, it is best to translate the meaning “should live” directly, as Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible have done.

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

2:5a

His word: (Lexical Problem) This refers to the same thing as “His commandments” in 2:3–4.

2:5b

the love of God: (Alternative Interpretations) The phrase the love of God could be understood in two different ways:

(1) It probably means “that person loves God” (Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Living Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English). (John says the same thing in 5:3 in almost the same words.)

(2) However, some think it means “God loves that person” (New International Version (2011 Revision), The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible).

been truly perfected: (Figure of Speech) John means that such a person loves God completely; his love has the full outcome that it should have.

2:5c

By this: (Logical Connection) The word this is pointing forward to the next verse. John is saying that the thing which shows whether we are “in God” is our behavior or manner of life (2:6 Berean Standard Bible “walk”). In 2:6 he explains why our behavior will show this. It may be necessary in translation to make some of these connections explicit.

in Him: (Collocation) This is John’s way of talking about our personal relationship and union with God. (See John 15:4–7, 17:21, 23). In some languages it sounds like nonsense if one talks about someone being “in” someone else. In such cases the translator needs to find how a very close relationship or association of two things would be referred to. See Good News Translation “in union with God.”

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

2:17a

(Revised Standard Version) And: (Logical Relationship) 2:17 gives a second reason for the appeal in 2:15 not to love the world. It is therefore connected in meaning to 2:15b. It does not follow in meaning from 2:16.

is passing away: (Meaning) John is telling his readers that this world will not last much longer. When Jesus returns to judge the world everything that is evil will be destroyed. The verb is in the present tense here because Jesus is already at work in the world, so the evil is already being destroyed.

its desires: (Meaning) This refers to all the evil ways of the world, such as the wrong attitudes mentioned in 2:16.

2:17b

whoever: (Meaning) As in 2:4, this means “anyone who.” It could also be translated “if anyone,” or “if you.”

does: (Tense) The tense here indicates continuous action, not just doing God’s will once.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

Paragraph 2:3–6

Read 2:3–6 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: Here John begins to give the reason why we should not sin. He says that we should obey God’s commands as Jesus did. If we do that our behavior shows that we know God.

2:3a

to know Him: (Multiple Senses) The word know is here used in the sense of knowing someone personally as you would know your family and friends. This is different from knowing who someone is, or knowing about them.

Him: (Alternative Interpretations) There are two opinions about who the word Him refers to here:

(1) Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English make it clear that this refers to God.

(2) Some commentators think it refers to Jesus.

2:3b

if we keep His commandments: (Emotive Impact) This clause is emphasized in the Greek because John is telling his readers that this is what they should do. This emphasis can be shown in your translation by making if we keep His commandments the main clause of the sentence. For example:

“We should obey his commands because that is what will show us that we really know him.”

keep: (Tense) The tense of the verb here implies continual obedience.

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.