7
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.
8
Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[a] is still in the darkness.
10
Anyone who loves their brother and sister[b] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.
11
But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
[a].
The Greek word for "brother or sister" ("adelphos" ) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in verse 11; and in 3:15, 17; 4:20; 5:16.
[b].
The Greek word for "brother and sister" ("adelphos" ) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in 3:10; 4:20, 21.