Jesus gave us a new commandment. His commandment is to love one another.
Simple. It follows directly on the heels of the first and second most important commandments:
Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And love your neighbor as yourself.
So Jesus gave his disciples a “new” commandment: Love one another.
Except it isn’t actually so new. It is old. It is the same as before, just restated.
And yet John continues to remind us of this same commandment, because he has seen the hate that can come from each of us and has recognized how different it is from Jesus’s command. John says:
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
Do you have a Christian brother or sister whom you hate? A person you despise or can’t stand to be around? If so, you are walking in darkness. Simple as that.
Do you need to forgive them? Then it is time to do that.
Do you need to forgive them again? Then yes, it is time to do that again.
Let us not walk in the darkness because of discord or disagreements with one another. No, instead, let us walk in the light because of the love that we have shown for one another.