⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message which you have heard. ⁸ Again, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because^[a] the darkness is passing away and the true light already is shining. ⁹ The one who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now.