1 John 2:7

“Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, &c.] Some understand this of faith, which this apostle calls a commandment, (<620323>1 John 3:23); but it rather intends the commandment of love, especially to the brethren, of which the apostle says the same things as here in his second epistle, (<620205>1 John 2:5,6); and this sense agrees both with what goes before and follows after, and is a considerable branch of the commandments of Christ to be kept, and of walking as he walked; and the word “brethren”, prefixed to this account, may direct to, and strengthen this sense, though the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, “beloved”; and so the Alexandrian copy, and others: and this…”

“Brethren--The oldest manuscripts and versions read instead, "Beloved," appropriate to the subject here, love. no new commandment--namely, love, the main principle of walking as Christ walked (Jo1 2:6), and that commandment, of which one exemplification is presently given, Jo1 2:9-10, the love of brethren. ye had from the beginning--from the time that ye first heard the Gospel word preached.”

“Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you - That is, what I am now enjoining is not new. It is the same doctrine which you have always heard. There has been much difference of opinion as to what is referred to by the word “commandment,” whether it is the injunction in the previous verse to live as Christ lived, or whether it is what he refers to in the following verses, the duty of brotherly love. Perhaps neither of these is exactly the idea of the apostle, but he may mean in this verse to put in a general disclaimer against the charge that what he enjoined was new. In respect to all that he taught, the views of truth which he held the duties which he enjoined, the course of life which…”

“When I speak of keeping his word, I write not a new commandment - I do not speak of any new one. But the old commandment, which ye had - Even from your forefathers. 1 John 2:8”

“2:7-11 The disciples had the old commandment (to love one another) from the very beginning, from Jesus himself (John 13:34-35) and from the Old Testament (Lev 19:18, 33-34).”

“I write: Jo1 3:11; Act 17:19; Jo2 1:5 but: Lev 19:18, Lev 19:34; Deu 6:5; Mat 5:43, Mat 22:37-40; Mar 12:29-34; Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:13, Gal 5:14; Jam 2:8-12 1 John 2:8”