THE FIRST CLAIM

Exegesis of 1 John 1:6

1:6a] Ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετ̓ αὐτοῦ “If [for example] we claim 'that we [including myself] have fellowship with Him."

I. The Alleged Claim

We start verse six with the conditional conjunction EAN [Ἐὰν - #1437] meaning IF. When the subjunctive mood follows, this conjunction signals the introduction of a third-class condition. In a conditional sentence, there are two parts. The IF clause is called the protasis which means standing before. It makes a statement, lays down a premise, or states a condition. This is followed by the THEN clause called the apodosis which means giving back. It says whenever the condition of the protasis exists, he can expect the condition of the apodosis to be fulfilled. Wallace says, “The subjunctive mood in conditional propositions depicts a future condition, what is likely to occur in the future, or what could occur in the future, and often used in hypotheticals.” ¹

The three claims that are made in this context, verses 6, 8, 10, are hypothetical. They are assumed true for the sake of argument. They are statements that have been made about living the Christian Way of Life by confused believers, false teachers, and their followers. If this were the indicative mood these claims would be actual quotes from individuals, so John's focus is to debate the merits of what has been taught by certain false teachers and to instruct the people how or how not to walk with God.

This is followed by the aorist active subjunctive first-person plural of EIPON [εἴπωμεν - #2036] meaning TO GIVE EXPRESSION, TO CLAIM, TO ALLEGE, TO MAINTAIN. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist. It presents a timeless, general fact. A gnomic aorist is translated with the present tense. Generally, the aorist would be translated by the English past tense, but here, because it is gnomic, we render it in the present tense, “IF WE CLAIM.” ² When anyone during the Church Age makes this claim, the truth in the apodosis is fulfilled, "[then] We are lying and are not practicing the truth."

In the active voice, the subject (the one making this claim) produces the action of the verb (they speak falsely). The active voice indicates that a personal choice is being made, and therefore, the one making this claim must take responsibility for it. They are walking in darkness ³ because what they thought was true is false. The active voice implies, you have deceived yourself and have lost touch with reality. Furthermore, the fact that they are walking in darkness and do not realize it is no excuse. They are responsible for their ignorance. Whatsoever you think and say, you own. The principle of self-deception is embedded in this passage. The subjunctive mood in this construction [with a gnomic aorist] indicates that this absurd claim will be professed by Christians in the future. John uses a debaters technique where you take a person's claim, which is false, and present it as true so that you may refute it.

Understanding the first person plural ⁴ is very important to the interpretation for John includes himself in the illustration. So, a born-again believer is making this claim. In this Epistle, spiritual claims are being made by believers who are "walking in darkness." “WE” means any member of the family of God. No one is exempt from the strategies of Satan which seek to lure them away from their communion with the Lord. He could have used the second person plural "If you say" and even the third person plural "If they say," but he did not. He includes himself in this case study. I cannot state this more forcefully. He is addressing believers, not unbelievers! Could there be unbelievers in the audience? It is likely based upon our experience. I was in a church congregation for months before one Sunday Night I trusted in Jesus Christ as my Savior. This does not change the fact that from John's viewpoint he is addressing his message to believers.

Furthermore, John's viewpoint is the Holy Spirit's viewpoint! Sadly, some in their interpretation have missed this point and have gone astray from the truths that are being presented. I am not exaggerating when I say that if you miss the salient points of John's teaching in this section, you are likely teaching false doctrine and are fulfilling the conditions of the apodosis "we are lying [to ourselves] and are not practicing the truth."

Next, we have the conjunction HOTI [ὅτι - #3754] introducing indirect discourse. It presents the content of this claim, so we translate it THAT. ⁵ Following this is the present active indicative first person plural of the verb ECHO [ἔχομεν - #2192] meaning TO HAVE, TO HOLD, TO HAVE AND HOLD, TO POSSESS. It is a transitive verb which requires an object to complete the thought. The word that completes the verbal idea is the accusative singular direct object of KOINONIA [κοινωνίαν - #2842] translated FELLOWSHIP, PARTNERSHIP, COMMUNION, A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP, so IF [for example] WE [I include myself] SAY THAT WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP.

This is a perfective present, which indicates that the results of past action are continuing. They have believed a lie and now are living under its deception. Believers in the past have claimed to be spiritual when they are not, and this will be true in the future. This spiritual condition needs a name for it will be encountered throughout the generations of the Church Age. Paul chose the word "carnality" to describe this spiritual blight upon the heart and minds of believers, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. However, beyond carnality is a worse condition, "reversionism." The active voice connotes the subject is producing the action of the verb, which means that our volition is involved, we are making a claim -a false claim. The indicative mood is the reality that there are believers who think they are spiritual who have been so duped by Satan that they are "walking in darkness." Jesus said, "if you light is darkness, how great is that darkness."

Following this, we have a prepositional phrase META plus the genitive of association of the third person plural pronoun AUTOS [μετ̓ αὐτοῦ - #846] meaning WITH HIM. These believers are declaring that they are in personal communion and association with Christ IF WE SAY THAT WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM [Christ]. What are the facts?

II. The Alarming Contradiction

6b] καὶ ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν, "yet we walk in the realm of darkness...".

This segment begins with the adversative use of the conjunction KAI [καὶ - #2532], meaning YET. The adversative is the opposite of the previous statement which is false. What is true? They are not in fellowship with Christ, for they are living in the cosmic system called "darkness." ⁶ The contrast is between what is the fiction and what are the facts; or unreality versus reality, truth versus error. If you think you are walking with God and you are walking in darkness, you are under a strong delusion. The prepositional phrase EN plus the articular locative of the noun SKOTIS [ἐν τῷ σκότει - #4655], IN THE REALM OF DARKNESS. The article indicates previous reference, 1 John 1:5, but it is also a technical word used to represent Satan's kingdom.

Next, we have the present active subjunctive 1st person plural of the verb PERIPATEO [περιπατῶμεν - #4043], meaning TO WALK, TO CONDUCT ONESELF, TO BEHAVE. This is an important word, and it is found a number of times in central passages related to the Christian Way of Life. ⁷

The progressive present signifies an action in progress or a state of persistence. Those who have claimed an intimate walk with the Lord are blinded to the fact that they have been conducting themselves in the realm of darkness and are still in darkness as the Apostle is writing this letter. The present tense indicates the action has been going on for some time. This is an alarming passage. Is it possible for me as a believer to be so blinded by pride and arrogance that I live, move, and have my being in the darkness? John's answer is yes! In the active voice, believers of every generation produce the action of the verb by their negative volition toward doctrine 'we do not practice the [Biblical] TRUTH [the Word of God]." The subjunctive mood is the continuation of the hypothetical.

III. The Admonishing Censure

6c] ψευδόμεθα καὶ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν· "[then] we are lying and are not practicing the truth."

The Apodosis - If you fulfill the condition of the protasis, this will be the result. There are two aspects of these results; one is positive the other negative, two sides of the same spiritual condition. In the first, we are living a lie, and the second we are not living the truth. The apodosis begins with the present middle indicative 1st person plural of PSEUDOMAI [ψευδόμεθα - #5574], which means TO LIE, TO DECEIVE, TO IMPOSE A LIE ON SOMEONE ELSE.

The present tense is a descriptive present which portrays the action as vivid and dramatic. The dramatic nature of this present tense reveals how alarming it is for John to observe professing Christians living in darkness. John is lovingly confronting them. They are liars. “Walking in darkness " is inexcusable, highly unacceptable, and deserving of censure.

The verb is in the middle voice. The difference between the active and middle is one of emphasis. The active voice emphasizes the action of the verb; the middle emphasizes the action of the subject. “It, in some way, relates the action more intimately to the subject. ⁷ If we translate the verb "we are lying” then we have an active voice, but if we bring out the middle voice of this verb in the translation, it becomes "we are lying to ourselves." A very important distinction! It is one thing to be deceived by someone, but self-deception is inexcusable especially when we have the truth -Bible doctrine.

The last expression is connected by the continuative conjunction KAI [καὶ - #2532] meaning AND. Then the present active indicative 1st person plural of POIEO [ποιοῦμεν - #4160] which means TO DO, TO PRACTICE, TO MANUFACTURE. This is a negative concept for OUK [οὐ - #3756] which means NO, NOT is to be added, "we are NOT practicing." The verb is transitive and therefore requires an object, which is the articular accusative direct object of ALETHEIA [τὴν ἀλήθειαν - #225] meaning THE TRUTH.

The article specifies not something true in general, but the truth taught by Christ, by Paul, by John, by the other apostles. I prefer to translate it “Bible Doctrine – what is believed.” ⁹ The reason is that the teaching of Christ and the apostles have been inscripturated – they have been written down. We are studying the Word of God given through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The descriptive present is used again by presenting the verbal idea vividly and dramatically. The active voice reveals that the subject is producing the action of the verb; they are lying to themselves. They have been deceived. They choose not to act in accordance with the truth and therefore remain in darkness. The Indicative mood indicates that believers can really live in darkness; in fact, they have for many years as unbelievers. What needs to happen after salvation is to learn and practice the truth. The article before truth specifically identifies the truth as that body of doctrine that was delivered by the apostles to the saints. “This use of the article is called "the article par excellence." The article is frequently used to point out a substantive that is, in a sense, “in a class by itself.” It is the only one deserving of the name.” ¹⁰

You here the statement today your truth is not my truth. If the source of that truth is relative, then each person decides what is true, but God Word is THE truth, the only truth that is deserving of that name for it is from God and it absolute and unalterable. I like to call it Bible doctrine. If you are a believer and you are indifferent and apathetic toward the Word of God, you are walking in darkness.

ENDNOTES

¹ Wallace, p.470.

² John is challenging public teaching in the church. One of the purposes of this epistle is to correct doctrinal error. So John switches from simple narrative style, 1:1-4; to debater ’s technique 1:5-2:2. He is no longer telling a story but presenting an argument against false teaching in the church.

³ Walking in Darkness is the way of life the believer chooses when he turns away from God’s plan, will, and purpose for his life and returns to a former belief and a former viewpoint, a former way of living. The believer has not lost his salvation, but he is under the influence of Satan’s cosmic system (1 Timothy. 4: 1). By his own volition, he involves himself in sin and evil and suffers the consequences of self-induced misery and divine discipline (Hebrews 12:4-15).

⁴ Grammar Involved in the First Person Plural Constructions: The Scope of “We”

Dr. Wallace warns, “In many situations in the NT, especially in the epistles, the use of WE is not always clear, [Wallace, p.394].” There are three possibilities:

I. THE EDITORIAL or sometimes called the literary WE occurs When We = I, that is the author is referring only to himself. The use of the first-person plural to refer only to the author is also known as the epistolary plural.

Many texts are debatable; the ambiguity in such instances usually has to do with whether the author includes his associates in the first-person plural or is referring only to himself; not infrequently, such passages are triply ambiguous: Does the author refer to himself alone, himself and his associates, or does he include the audience in the we? [Wallace, p.394]

He also says the use of the epistolary plural, though established in the papyri letters, is neither common in the papyri nor the New Testament letters.

Keys to Identification

1. The normal presupposition is that a given first-person plural is not editorial.

2. When an author shifts unexpectedly from the singular to the plural, there are grounds for suspecting an epistolary plural.

3. The context is thus the primary factor involved in determining whether or not WE is an editorial we.

II. THE EXCLUSIVE WE occurs when We = I and my associates.

The use of the first-person plural to refer to the author and his associates as distinct from the audience is called the exclusive “we.”

Example: The Apostolic witness of 1 John 1:1-5.

1 John 1:1

what WE [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] have heard, what WE [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] have seen with our eyes, what WE [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] have looked at and touched with our hands.

1 John 1:2

and the life was manifested, and we [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] and the life was manifested, and WE [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—

1 John 1:3

What we [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] have seen and heard we [exclusive use John and the other Apostles] proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:4

These things we [exclusive use of John and the other Apostles] write, so that our joy may be made complete.

1 John 1:5

This is the message we [exclusive use of John and the other Apostles] have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all.

III. The INCLUSIVE WE occur when We = Author and Audience.

When the first-person plural refers to both the author(s) and his reader(s) is called the inclusive “we.” These three choices are always difficult to determine, debatable, and yet theologically significant in many passages.

1 John 1:6

If we say that we [inclusive use = Author and Audience] have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we [inclusive use = Author and Audience] lie and do not practice the truth;

⁵ When HOTI is used after verbs of perception (verbs of saying, thinking, believing, knowing, seeing, hearing), it is an example of indirect speech. The ὅτι clause contains reported speech or thought and is translated “that.” See Wallace, p.456.

⁶ See Doctrinal Section for a vocabulary study of the word darkness, Click here.

⁷ This verb is found 95 times in the New Testament. It appears in some key passages: Romans 6:4; 13:13; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:10; 4:1; 5:2; Philippians 3:17; Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 John 1:6,7; 2:6; 2 John 3,6; 3 John 3, 4. You can see by these examples that both the Apostle John [13 times] and the Apostle Paul [31 times] made use of the same vocabulary and doctrinal categories. Our Lord Jesus used these words in John 8:12; 11:9,10; 12:35.

⁸ Dana and Mantey, p.157.

⁹ This translation, Bible doctrine, considers the meaning of “truth” as technical and referring to the categorical teaching of the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Apostles, i.e., the Old and New Testaments.

Jude would write:

Jude 3

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for THE faith [what is believed] which was once for all handed down [complete canon of the New Testament] to the saints [believer of the Church Age].

This body of truth came under the systematic study of divinely authorized teachers, starting with the Apostles who gave us the inspired Word of God – the New Testament. Then, after the New Testament Canon was formed, the divinely gifted pastor-teachers [Ephesians 4:11-16] received this truth, and the categorical development of the Bible began [Bible doctrine].

Categories are the classification of the Bible according to the subject matter. By comparing Scripture with Scripture, biblical subjects emerge and are organized into divisions of doctrine to progressively build truth upon truth, advanced doctrine upon basic doctrine.

For instance, each book of the Bible talks about the character of God. As we study what the Word of God says about God, specific categories emerge. We get the word “Trinity” from this study, not from one place, but many places of Scripture. From this inspired truth, we come to understand that God is Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Truth, Love, Justice, Righteousness, Immutable, Eternal, and Sovereign. No single text gives all ten categories of attributes, but the entire body of the Word of God systematically studied explains the nature of our God. This is Bible doctrine.

Dr. Chafer writes:

Systematic Theology may be defined as the collecting, scientifically arranging, comparing, exhibiting, and defending of all facts from any and every source concerning God and His works. It is thetic in that it follows a humanly devised thesis form and presents and verifies truth as truth. ¹¹

“Vocabulary is essential to all thought—you cannot formulate or express thought without words! Vocabulary may be classified as technical or nontechnical. Every occupational, academic, or professional sphere of life--medicine, philosophy, law, engineering, music, art, science, military--requires its own technical vocabulary. Every invention, scientific discovery, or technological advance necessitates the formation of new terminology.” ¹²

This was extremely important in the early church when most did not have a Bible. Systematic theology grew out of this need, and this is reflected in the first creeds of the early church, such as the Apostles Creed. What do we believe? The creeds gave the early church a shortlist of truths that were easy to memorize. Doctrine provides a technical vocabulary, systematized so the believer can advance in the knowledge of the Word of God and fulfill the mandate “to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

¹⁰ Wallace, p.222.

¹¹ Chafer, L. S. (1993). Systematic Theology (Vol. 1, p. 6). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

¹² Following his teacher, R.B.Thieme Jr. defines the concept of Bible Doctrine, R.B. Thieme Jr. Bible Ministries, Reversionism p. 1-3.