So now John gets back to the issue of fellowship and darkness. John is helping his readers to uncover more of what it means to live in God's light instead of the darkness. John is saying that when we abide in Christ, there is an effect on our relationships with others. Our fellowship with God is intimately connected with how we view others. Now why is that? Well, who are we abiding in? Christ. And He is the first one who truly loves God and His brothers--us! In Him, God and humanity are brought together. Jesus loves His heavenly Father and He loves us, His sisters and brothers. Jesus sees and knows and loves us--sees us clearly in our sin and darkness and loves us and rescues us to live in His life and light and to be made more and more like Him and like the sisters and brothers we were created to be.
In hating our brother, we fail to recognize that we are the same--both able to live and be redeemed and transformed only by the gracious action of God. To love our brother is to see in him/her the same good news that Jesus can break through the darkness with His light. This doesn't mean that there aren't times when we struggle with great anger and hate toward others. And it doesn't mean that we have to be absolute best buddies with everyone we meet. It goes beyond feelings. To hate our brother is to reject him, to fail to see God's love and commitment to that person, and to fail to hope for them to be filled with God's life just as we hope for that for ourselves. This does mean, though, that when we do hate someone else we have a clue that, at the time, we are no longer walking in the light and able to receive fellowship from God. Only the one who truly loves both God and brother can rescue us. Only Jesus, as we turn over our hate, can dissolve it. Really, the only way to be a sister to others is to recognize that Jesus is first a brother to them. We participate in Christ's brothering of others (and of course in His brothering of us!).
John says in v. 10 that when we abide in the light, "there is no cause for stumbling" but (in v. 11) that when we are in the darkness we do not know where we are going because darkness blinds our eyes. When we hate another, we cannot see that person clearly. When we hate even ourselves we cannot see clearly. And when we proceed to relate to another then out of hate, we proceed blindly. Here is a wonderful reason to turn our troubled relationships over to God. We cannot possibly move forward when we are looking at a distorted picture of reality. I have thought of this as I have listened to the news of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hate blinds. We come to see the "enemy" as a thing, a "cut-out" of a real human being and there is no way forward. We need to recognize who we truly are--broken creatures all in great need of being made able to receive the wonderful life God desires to pour out on us.
And what a great freedom--to turn our relationships over to the one who will never deceive us!
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