NOTES for Jo1 2:1-17
There is great hope in these words. Although at first glance the text seems very stern, if we read it closely, it turns out that a liar is only someone who does not keep the commandments while claiming to know God. When you understand that you keep some commandments poorly or incompletely, it is important to remember that this means you have not yet come to know God, not that you are lying. It does not mean that if we fail to keep all the commandments, we have fallen away forever; it means only that we do not yet know Him, and that we have a clear instruction about what we must do in order to know God: keep His commandments and His word.
If someone hates, this does not mean that person is lost forever. It means only that they are not now in the light; but if they ask the Lord for the gift of love and strive to love the person they hate today, the Lord’s Light will illuminate them. If we do not succeed in acting as He acted, this does not mean that we are cursed. It means only that today we are not in Him and are far from Him; and if we set out on the path of imitating Christ and strive to follow Him, we will abide in Him.