1John 2:8 - Truth, Light, and the Proverbial Proof of the Pudding

"Again, a new command I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing by and the true light already is shining."

-As John was writing this letter, the command in question had been around for some time, decades in fact.  Nevertheless, it was still new, this new command given to the church by Jesus Himself.  Something which the world had never before seen or heard...  God was doing a new thing in the world, gathering together an assembly of worshippers from every tribe and tongue on planet earth, and they were not only going to be different, a different "heavenly" quality of life, they were going to treat one another differently.  Radically different.  The way they would relate to one another in SPITE of their differences would be the proverbial proof of the pudding.  The way the new command would be implemented in their midst would shine the light of verifying truth on this new divine endeavor.  A world adrift in darkness would behold a great light (Matthew 4.16), lit by His Son, and fanned into a global inferno by the ones thus gathered like moths to a flame.  But not to their doom.  Gathered to glory!

-Darkness abates, it goes away when light begins to shine.  It happens every morning like clockwork (aka sunrise), or whenever you light a candle or turn on a light in a dark place.  And the brighter the light, the more it penetrates and eliminates the darkness.  To that end, John has already established that light is all that which corresponds to truth.  True truth.  And this new command - it is true truth, and it is already shining.  It had been shining in Jesus from the beginning (of His ministry)(He did indeed walk in truth and love well those who had been given to Him - John 13.1), and it had been shining forth in and thru the lives of those who had believed in Jesus from the beginning (of the church).  Dispelling the darkness wherever the gathered ones would let it shine.  So many mentions in Scripture of darkness and the need for light to illuminate and guide (2Samuel 22.29; Job 29.3, Psalm 139.10-12; Proverbs 4.18-19; Isaiah 9.2, 42.6-7, 60.1-3; Matthew 5.16, 13.43; Luke 1.79).  In truth, those who have insight will shine brightly, like the brightness of heaven.  Arise.  Shine.