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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 John 1:6 - 1:6
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6. An inference from the first principle just laid down. God is light, utterly removed from all darkness: therefore to be in darkness is to be cut off from Him. If God is light, then those who have communion with Him must (1) walk in light, (2) be conscious of sin, (3) confess their sin (1Jn 1:6-10).
ἐὰν εἴπῳμεν. With great gentleness he states the case hypothetically, and with great delicacy he includes himself in the hypothesis. As in his Gospel, he has in view only professing Christians, and he warns them against three false professions, each introduced in the same way (1Jn 1:6; 1Jn 1:8; 1Jn 1:10). In between these three possible forms of false doctrine is stated by way of antithesis the right course of action and profession (7, 9). The symmetrical arrangement of clauses is very marked throughout. Further on in the Epistle S. John varies the form of expression from ἐὰν εἴπωμεν to ὁ λέγων (1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 2:9) and ἐάν τις εἴπῃ (1Jn 4:20). The conditional particles ἐὰν and εἰ, especially the former, are very frequent in this Epistle.
ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν. Comp. ὁ λαὸς ὁ πορευόμενος ἐν σκότει (Isa 9:1). Darkness is the sphere of the κόσμος, and the κόσμος is in antagonism to God. Περιπατεῖν is the Latin versari and signifies the ordinary course of life. The word in this sense is frequent only in S. Paul and in S. John. Comp. 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 2:11; 2Jn 1:4; 2Jn 1:6; 3Jn 1:3-4; Rev 21:24; Joh 8:12; Eph 5:1; Eph 5:9-15, &c. It expresses not merely action, but habitual action. A life in moral darkness can no more have communion with God, than a life in a coal-pit can have communion with the sun. For ‘what communion hath light with darkness?’ (2Co 6:4). Light can be shut out, but it cannot be shut in. Some Gnostics taught, not merely that to the illuminated all conduct was alike, but that to reach the highest form of illumination men must experience every kind of action, however abominable, in order to work themselves free from the powers that rule the world (Eus. H. E. IV. vii. 9). Ἐν τῷ σκότει should probably be rendered in the darkness: in 1Jn 1:6-7, as in 1Jn 2:8-9; 1Jn 2:11, both ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ have the article, which is not merely generic but emphatic; that which is light indeed is opposed to that which is darkness indeed. In ‘What communion hath light with darkness?’, neither word has the article: τίς κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος; (2Co 6:14).
ψευδόμεθα καὶ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τὴν ἀλ. As in 1Jn 1:5, the affirmation is enforced by denying its opposite. But here the negative clause carries us further than the positive one: it includes conduct as well as speech. In Joh 3:21 ποιεῖν τ. ἀλήθειαν is opposed to φαῦλα πράσσειν, to do what has true moral worth as opposed to practising what is morally good-for-nothing. Ethical rather than intellectual truth is here meant by ἀλήθεια. With ποιεῖν τὴν ἀλ. should be contrasted ποιεῖν ψεῦδος (Rev 21:27; Rev 22:15). In LXX. ποιεῖν ἐλεημοσύνην (or ἔλεος) καὶ ἀλήθ. occurs (Gen 47:29; 2Sa 2:6; &c.); but there the ἔλεος renders ποιεῖν less startling. In Neh 9:33 the very phrase occurs; ἀλήθειαν ἐποίησας. S. Paul comes near to it when he opposes ἀλήθεια to ἀδικία (1Co 13:6); shewing that with him also truth is not confined to speech. In this Epistle we find many striking harmonies in thought and language between S. John and S. Paul, quite fatal to the view that there is a fundamental difference in teaching between the two. See on 1Jn 2:16.
Note the exact correspondence between the two halves of the verse: ψευδόμεθα balances εἴπωμεν (speech); ποιοῦμεν balances περιπατῶμεν (action). Profession without conduct is a lie: Nequaquam ergo sola fidei confessio sufficit ad salutem, cui bonorum operum attestatio deest (Bede).