Have you ever thought about that?
I don't generally think about it. How if I hate someone I am blind... blind by the darkness of my hatred.
I've read about it in books about how someone can hate someone so much that they can't see the good in that other person at all.
And God calls us to NOT do that. He calls us to love each other. He calls us to walk in the light and not in the darkness.
John tells us here that the command to love each other and to love God is not a new one, and yet at the same time it is a new one. The command to do this has been around since the world was created you know. God wanted Adam and Eve to just love each other and love him and they made the choice to turn from him and enter into sin. (I would have done the same thing, just as you would have)... but it's no matter.
In the Old Testament God repeatedly calls the people to love him and tells them how to show that love in action which is to be a reflection of their heart. But now Christ has come so the command is a new one The darkness is fading because God has stepped it up a notch (so to speak).
So we need to be aware that we are to walk in the light (in God's love, and in love) rather than to dwell in darkness (when we live in hatred of our fellow people and of God).
This really makes me think of the Islamic situation.... with Christians being killed for having faith in God. How much those who kill them are dwelling in darkness.
Are we so different when we hate each other?
Let's not be like that eh? Let ME not be like that.
Walk in the light!