Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 John 2:8

8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him, and in you : because the darkness is past , and the true light now shineth .

Yet also he calls it a new Commandment, as our Saviour did, Iohn 13.34. upon the subjoyned accounts; which thi[illegible: 1 letter]g is true, i. e. evident, or verified, fulfilled, exemplified.

Viz. In that new and high Demonstration he had given of the sincerity and greatness of his own Love, laying down his Life for us, as Iohn 15.13.

Or, us (as some read) i. e. the mind of God herein is by a new and fresh Light most evidently and gloriously signified in, or among you (the Subject being here collective and plural, admits this varied, and very usual sense of the Particle in) in as much as the Darkness is past

i. e. the heathenish Ignoran[illegible: 2 letters] that made the World barbarous; a Darkness in which the furious Lusts, and Passions of Men are wont to rage, turning this Earth into another Hell, Psalm 74.20. is in a great measure vanished; and also the dark unbrage of the Iudaick Dispensation, (some read [non-Latin text not transcribed] for [non-Latin text not transcribed], not Darkness, but Shadow) in which the Love of God to Men was more obscurely represented, is past away and gone;

and the true Light now shineth, the Love and Grace of God towards Sinners, (the Patern and Argument of our mutual Love to one another) shines with true Light, that is evident in Opposition to Darkness, or immediately Substantial, in Opposition to Type or Shadow, as Iohn 1.9, 14, 17. representing the gracious Design of God, and his very Nature, who is Love, ch. 4.8, 16. with so bright and glorious Beams as ought to transform us into his Likeness; and which therefore render the mutual Hatred of one another, the most incongruous thing to us in all the World. Whereupon he adds,

Marginal references: Joh. 13.34.; Rom. 13.12. 1 Thess. 5.5, 8.; Joh. 1.9. & 8.12.