HAVE YOU EVER had an argument that went around and around, because someone misunderstood something you did, took offense, and nothing you said could convince them otherwise? It’s maddening. They’ve come to see things one way, and refuse to accept any evidence to the contrary.

Now turn it around: have we ever been that person ourselves? We’d prefer not to think so. We’re reasonable people, right? But the truth is that we are all perfectly capable of being blind to the facts without knowing it. We may feel supremely confident that we know what we know — but from a God’s-eye point of view, we may be blind to our blindness.

Part of the challenge is that we jump to conclusions because our brains don’t like uncertainty. They are constantly learning from experience, building models of why things happen the way they do. We may be puzzled about something at first — Why is she mad at me? — and it unsettles us. We feel the need for an explanation.

The problem is that any explanation may do, even one that’s completely wrong, a complete fiction. And sadly, we may defend these fictions vigorously, even when the other person tries to convince us of the truth. And the more we feel the need to defend our point of view, the more we may see anyone who disagrees with us as stupid, lying, deluded, or all of the above.

Hardly what you’d call “walking in the light,” is it? But it happens, more than we might care to admit. We think we have insight, but are just stumbling about in the dark.

IN JOHN’S COMMUNITY, it seems, people have some distorted ideas about the Christian life and are trying to convince others to come to their way of thinking. It’s causing tension among the people, and some are leaving. These folks claim to have a relationship with God and Jesus. Nothing wrong with that. But they may also have been claiming to be without sin, as if somehow in their newly enlightened state sin was no longer possible for them. This isn’t an “agree to disagree” kind of issue; John must offer his pastoral correction.

As we’ve seen, John has spoken repeatedly about light. He declares in this letter that God is light, and in his gospel, portrays Jesus as the light of the world, the true light who came to a world of darkness. Those who follow Jesus, in turn, are to be light themselves, as Jesus himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount. As many of us learned to sing as kids, “This little light of mine / I’m gonna let it shine.”

But all of that may still sound a bit vague. How does a person let their light shine? Evangelize everyone in sight? Give your life for the gospel? Possibly. But that’s not John’s concern here as he writes to a fractured community. Instead — and not surprisingly! — he writes about love:

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 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. (1 John 2:9-11, NIV)

John has already argued that anyone who knows God or knows Jesus will obey their commands. Believers, of course, are commanded to love God and love their neighbor, as Jesus himself taught. But John is probably also thinking of Jesus’ words to the disciples in the Upper Room:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:9-12)

In his letter, therefore, John puts it starkly: Jesus, the true light, the light of the world, commanded us to love one another. I remember; I was there. Anyone who truly knows him must do what he says. So if we hate our brothers and sisters, if we don’t obey his command to love, we can’t claim to be in the light. And sorry, friends: if we’re not in the light, we’re still in the darkness. We’re blindly stumbling around in the dark.

That’s an ironic thing to say to people who think they’re enlightened.

Notice, though, what John doesn’t say. Yes, he said earlier that anyone claiming to be sinless is a liar. Harsh words? Perhaps, but true words, and falling far short of saying, “No, you’re actually horrible, sinful people. Here’s a list of all the things you’re doing that are offensive to God.”

Instead, John calls the recipients of his letter his “beloved.” Is that just meant for part of the community, for the people who are getting it right? Or does it also embrace those who are in need of correction?

Personally, I presume it’s the latter.

The portrait he paints is a pitiable one, of people who don’t know God truly, who don’t know the truth, but don’t know that they don’t know. They stumble through life as if blindfolded, thinking they can see. Within a community characterized by love, they should not be the objects of scorn or derision, but of compassion.

Because after all, as we’ll see, the commandment to love one another is for all believers. It’s not just those who are getting it wrong who need to love their brothers and sisters.