Biblion Bible Commentary
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Hating a Brother in the Dark
1 John 2:9-11
9 He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now. · WEB
The letter allows no neutral ground between loving and hating a fellow believer, and the effect of hatred is described as damage to sight.
Verse 9 quotes another claim — he who says he is in the light — and sets hatred of a brother beside it. The verdict is that such a person is in the darkness even until now, which implies he never left it. The claim did not fail; it was never true.
The absence of a middle term is the hard feature of this passage. The letter recognizes loving and hating and nothing between, which does not match how most people experience their own indifference. But the letter is written to a congregation that has just been divided by people who left, and toward those who remain, indifference is not available as a neutral position. Withholding love from someone who has stayed is a form of the same abandonment.
Verse 10 gives the positive: whoever loves remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. The phrase can mean he does not stumble or that he causes no one else to. The Greek allows both and the letter does not choose, which is fitting, since love removes both hazards.
Verse 11 then extends the darkness image to its end, and the last clause is the most sobering thing in the chapter. He walks in darkness, does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Hatred is not described as a bad choice but as an injury to the faculty that would recognize it.
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