What does this verse mean...

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows what 1 John 2:7-8 is talking about. These verse do not make sense to me and seem to contradict each other. The sword study does not seem to address these verses, but I would like to have a good understanding of what they mean in case there is a question on them. If you understand what these verses mean please share with me. Thanks you! :)

you know, I was pretty confused by those verses too, but it makes more sense in different versions (I use KJV, which do you use?)…

Here it is in ESV:

1 John 2:7-8 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

I think that the last part of verse 8 is really key to this. While the commandment's been around from the beginning of time, no one has been able to keep it perfectly after the fall. Since the fall, everyone has been born in the darkness, unable to obey the commandment. But once someone is saved, the commandment is new in the sense that they can actually keep it now. It is now true in us because of Christ, and that's what makes it new.

That's my interpretation, at any rate, and I seem to be backed up by Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary: "The command to love one another had been in force from the beginning of the world; but it might be called a new command as given to Christians. It was new in them, as their situation was new in respect of its motives, rules, and obligations."

Thank you very much. That makes sense.