<p>2:8- see on 1 Jn. 3:18.</p><p><em>But now, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you. Because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines</em>- John is repeating the &quot;new commandment&quot;, which was &quot;new&quot; in that it was to love <em>as the Lord loved us unto death</em>. I suggested on :7 that the idea of an old commandment becoming new suggested that there was a &quot;newness&quot; to this commandment; it keeps coming new. And so John can write of giving the new commandment which had in fact already been given in that it was imperative in the example of the Lord Jesus. Living by that new commandment was &quot;the truth&quot; which was in the Lord and comes to be &quot;the truth&quot; in us; it is the final &quot;truth&quot; by which a believer lives. All attempts to read &quot;the truth&quot; here as referring to some set of doctrinal, intellectually-apprehended truths has totally missed the point, putting head over heart to a point where the approach is not at all 'true'. It is true &quot;in&quot; us in that the spirit of truth, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, dwells within us.</p><p>The allusion to the prologue of John 1 invites us to interpret &quot;the darkness&quot; as that of the Jewish world. And that was &quot;passing away&quot; as AD70 approached. The true light was that of the personality and personal spirit of the Lord Jesus. That was shining, and the darkness had not overcome it, and was in fact now passing away. :17 has the same reference when we read of &quot;the world&quot; passing away; the Jewish world is in view, as often in John's Gospel and letters.</p>