Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, November 28th, 2024
the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

1 John 1:6

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blindness;   Confession;   Darkness;   Fellowship;   Holiness;   Hypocrisy;   Wicked (People);   Thompson Chain Reference - Dark Way;   Light-Darkness;   Walking;   Way;   The Topic Concordance - Blindness;   Confession;   Darkness;   Disobedience;   Fellowship;   Lying/lies;   Truth;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Blindness, Spiritual;   Lying;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Confession;   Fellowship;   Light;   Sin;   Walk;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Demon;   Fellowship;   God;   Light;   Truth;   Walk;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Fellowship;   Resurrection of Christ;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Fellowship;   Forgiveness of Sin;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Darkness;   Fellowship;   Gospel;   Truth;   Walk;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Communion;   Evil;   John, Epistles of;   Truth;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Brotherly Love;   Communion (2);   Fellowship;   Fellowship (2);   Light and Darkness;   Numbers;   Perseverance;   Regeneration;   Righteous, Righteousness;   Walk (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Fellowship,;   17 To Walk;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Forgiveness;   Smith Bible Dictionary - John, the First Epistle General of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Ephesians, Epistle to the;   Johannine Theology, the;   John, the Epistles of;   Love;   Sanctification;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for December 30;   Every Day Light - Devotion for November 11;  

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
So if we say that we share in life with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars, who don't follow the truth.
Revised Standard Version
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth;
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
yf we saye that we have fellishippe with him and yet walke in darknes we lye and do not the truth:
Hebrew Names Version
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the truth.
New American Standard Bible
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
New Century Version
So if we say we have fellowship with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars and do not follow the truth.
Update Bible Version
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't do the truth:
Webster's Bible Translation
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
World English Bible
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the truth.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
Weymouth's New Testament
If, while we are living in darkness, we profess to have fellowship with Him, we speak falsely and are not adhering to the truth.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If we seien, that we han felawschip with hym, and we wandren in derknessis, we lien, and don not treuthe.
English Revised Version
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Berean Standard Bible
If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Contemporary English Version
If we say that we share in life with God and keep on living in the dark, we are lying and are not living by the truth.
Amplified Bible
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness [of sin], we lie and do not practice the truth;
American Standard Version
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Bible in Basic English
If we say we are joined to him, and are walking still in the dark, our words are false and our acts are untrue:
Complete Jewish Bible
If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth.
Darby Translation
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth.
International Standard Version
If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in the darkness, we are lying and the truth is not in us.2 Corinthians 6:14; 1 John 2:4;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
And if we say that we have communion with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and in the truth do not proceed;
Murdock Translation
And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and we walk in the darkness, we are liars, and walk not in the truth.
King James Version (1611)
If we say that we haue felowship with him, and walke in darkenesse, we lie, and doe not the trueth.
New Life Bible
If we say we are joined together with Him but live in darkness, we are telling a lie. We are not living the truth.
New Revised Standard
If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true;
English Standard Version
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Geneva Bible (1587)
If wee say that wee haue fellowship with him, and walke in darkenesse, we lie, and doe not truely:
George Lamsa Translation
If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet live in darkness, we lie, and do not follow the truth:
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If we say - We have, fellowship, with him! and, in darkness, are walking, we are dealing falsely, and not doing the truth;
Douay-Rheims Bible
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
If we saye that we haue felowship with hym, and walke in darkenesse, we lye, and do not the trueth.
Good News Translation
If, then, we say that we have fellowship with him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions.
Christian Standard Bible®
If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.
King James Version
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Lexham English Bible
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Literal Translation
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.
Young's Literal Translation
if we may say -- `we have fellowship with Him,' and in the darkness may walk -- we lie, and do not the truth;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf we saye that we haue fellishippe with him, and yet walke in darknes, we lye, and do not the trueth.
Mace New Testament (1729)
if we say that we have communion with him, and walk in darkness, we lye, and do not act sincerely:
THE MESSAGE
If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
New English Translation
If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.
New King James Version
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Simplified Cowboy Version
So then, if we say we ride in his crew, but we ride in darkness, then we are counterfeits in word and deed.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

Contextual Overview

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If: 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10, 1 John 2:4, 1 John 4:20, Matthew 7:22, James 2:14, James 2:16, James 2:18, Revelation 3:17, Revelation 3:18

fellowship: 1 John 1:3, Psalms 5:4-6, Psalms 94:20, 2 Corinthians 6:14-16

walk: 1 John 2:9-11, Psalms 82:5, Proverbs 2:13, Proverbs 4:18, Proverbs 4:19, John 3:19, John 3:20, John 11:10, John 12:35, John 12:46

we lie: 1 John 1:10, 1 John 4:20, John 8:44, John 8:45, 1 Timothy 4:2

do not: John 3:21

Reciprocal: Ezekiel 36:27 - cause Zechariah 10:12 - walk John 19:34 - came 1 Thessalonians 2:12 - walk 1 John 2:6 - that saith 1 John 2:22 - Who 2 John 1:4 - walking

Cross-References

Genesis 1:5
God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
Genesis 1:6
Then God said, "Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth."
Genesis 1:7
And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.
Genesis 1:8
God called the space "sky." And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.
Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened.
Genesis 1:12
The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:13
And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.
Genesis 1:14
Then God said, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years.
Genesis 1:20
Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind."
Genesis 1:22
Then God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If we say that we have fellowship with him,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "for if we say": that is, if any profess to be partakers of the divine nature, to be like unto God, and to have communion with him, to have the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love:

and walk in darkness; in the darkness of sin, ignorance, and unbelief, or are in a state of unregeneracy and blindness; whose understandings are darkened, and they know not God in Christ, nor have any true sight and sense of themselves, their sin and danger; and are ignorant of Christ and his righteousness, and the way of salvation by him; and are strangers to the Spirit of God, and the work of his grace; and are unacquainted with the truths of the Gospel; and not only so, but go on in darkness more and more; prefer it to the light, love it, and the works of it; have fellowship with them, and choose them; take pleasure in the ways of sin and wickedness, and continue, and walk on in them; if such persons pretend to fellowship with God, they are liars:

we lie; it cannot be, it is a contradiction, the thing is impossible and impracticable; what communion hath light with darkness? or what fellowship can the throne of iniquity, or those in whom sin reigns, have with God? for God is light, and were they partakers of him, or like unto him, or had communion with him, they would consequently be in the light, and not in darkness, and much less walk in it; wherefore they are liars,

and do not the truth: they do not say the truth, nor act according to it; they do not act uprightly or sincerely, but are hypocrites, and pretend to that which they have not; and if they did the truth, they would come to the light, and not walk in darkness; see John 3:21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If we say that we have fellowship uith him - If we reckon ourselves among his friends, or, in other words, if we profess to be like him: for a profession of religion involves the idea of having fellowship with God, (compare the notes at 1 John 1:3), and he who professes that should be like him.

And walk in darkness - Live in sin and error. To “walk in darkness” now commonly denotes to be in doubt about our religious state, in contradistinction from living in the enjoyment of religion. That is not, however, probably the whole idea here. The leading thought is, that if we live in sin, it is a proof that our profession of religion is false. Desirable as it is to have the comforts of religion, yet it is not always true that they who do not are not true Christians, nor is it true by any means that they intend to deceive the world.

We lie - We are false professors; we are deceived if we think that we can have fellowship with God, and yet live in the practice of sin. As God is pure, so must we be, if we would be his friends. This does not mean necessarily that they meant to deceive, but that there was an irreconcilable contradiction between a life of sin and fellowship with God.

And do not the truth - Do not act truly. The profession is a false one. Compare the notes at John 3:22. To do the truth is to act in accordance with truth; and the expression here means that such an one could not be a Christian. And yet how many there are who are living in known sin who profess to be Christians! How many whose minds are dark on the whole subject of religion, who have never known anything of the real peace and joy which it imparts, who nevertheless entertain the belief that they are the friends of God, and are going to heaven! They trust in a name, in forms, in conformity to external rites, and have never known anything of the internal peace and purity which religion imparts, and in fact have never had any true fellowship with that God who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all. Religion is light; religion is peace, purity, joy; and though there are eases where for a time a true Christian may be left to darkness, and have no spiritual joy, and be in doubt about his salvation, yet still it is a great truth, that unless we know by personal experience what it is to walk habitually in the light, to have the comforts of religion, and to experience in our own souls the influences which make the heart pure, and which bring us into conformity to the God who is light, we can have no true religion. All else is but a name, which will not avail us on the final day.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship — Having fellowship, κοινωνια, communion, with God, necessarily implies a partaking of the Divine nature. Now if a man profess to have such communion, and walk in darkness-live an irreligious and sinful life, he lies, in the profession which he makes, and does not the truth-does not walk according to the directions of the Gospel, on the grace of which he holds his relation to God, and his communion with him.

The Gnostics, against whose errors it is supposed this epistle was written, were great pretenders to knowledge, to the highest degrees of the Divine illumination, and the nearest communion with the fountain of holiness, while their manners were excessively corrupt.


 
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