1 John 1.6a-Fellowship with God and Walking in the Darkness Are Antithetical
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday April 4, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:6a-Fellowship with God and Walking in the Darkness Are Antithetical
Lesson # 28
1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (NASB5)
“If” is the conditional particle ean (ἐάν), which introduces the protasis of a fifth class condition which is expressing an eternal spiritual principle or spiritual axiom with regards to fellowship with God.
“We say” is the first person plural aorist active subjunctive form of the verb eipon (εἶπον), which means, “to claim” and the first person plural form of this verb is distributive, meaning, “any of us.”
The aorist tense of this verb is an ingressive aorist which presents a hypothetical situation that John’s readers “could potentially” enter into if they adhere to this claim of the false teachers.
“We have fellowship with Him” is composed of the following: (1) accusative feminine singular form of the noun koinōnia (κοινωνία), “fellowship” (2) first person plural present active indicative form of the verb echō (ἒχω), “we have” (3) preposition meta (μετά), “with” (4) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “Him.”
The verb echō means, “to experience the state or condition of being in” and the first person plural form of this verb is referring to John and the recipients of this epistle as well as all Christians.
The noun koinōnia means “fellowship” and refers to the vertical aspect of Christian fellowship, namely communion with the Father.
The intensive personal pronoun autos means “Him” and refers to the Father since the last time this word appeared in 1 John 1:5, it was used with reference to the first person of the Trinity.
The word is the object of the preposition meta which means “with” since it is functioning as a marker of the experiencer of an event, with the added implication of association.
“And yet walk in the darkness” is presenting a contrast between a hypothetical believer experiencing fellowship with God and walking in the darkness.
“Walk in the darkness” is composed of the following: (1) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (2) articular dative neuter singular form of the noun skotos (σκότος), “the darkness” (3) first person plural present active subjunctive form of the verb peripateō (περιπατέω), “walk.”
The verb peripateō means “to live, to conduct one’s life” and is used in a figurative sense and the first person plural form of this verb refers to the believers in the Roman province of Asia who received this epistle from the apostle John.
The noun skotos means “darkness” but is used figuratively for not experiencing fellowship with God as a result of living according to the sin nature and the lies of Satan’s cosmic system which is characterized by evil.
The noun skotos, “the darkness” is a locative of sphere and it is employed with the preposition en and refers to the sphere in which one lives or exists which indicates a hypothetical believer living their lives in the sphere of darkness.
1 John 1:6 If any of us enters into making the claim that we have been experiencing fellowship with Him yet we have been living in the darkness, then, we are, as an eternal spiritual truth lying to ourselves. Consequently, we are, as an eternal spiritual truth unequivocally not practicing the truth. (Author’s translation)
In 1 John 1:5, the apostle John taught the recipients of this epistle that God is, as an eternal spiritual truth existing in the state of being light.
Then, he states in emphatic terms that there is absolutely no darkness in His nature, none whatsoever.
Now, in 1 John 1:6-2:2, he presents the implications of these assertions in verse 5.
These verses are an inference from verse 5 and communicate spiritual principles with regards to fellowship with God.
Specifically, they present spiritual principles which the recipients of this epistle can employ for themselves in order to determine if they are in fact experiencing fellowship with God or not.
These principles are designed to protect the recipients of this epistle from the false teaching which was being propagated where they lived.
1 John 1:6 contains the first in a series of six fifth class conditional statements which communicate spiritual principles pertaining to experiencing fellowship with God (1 Jn. 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10; 2:1).
Each of these fifth class conditional clauses consist of three pairs that can be divided into two: (1) Negative statement in the apodosis (1 Jn. 1:6, 8, 10). (2) Positive statement in the apodosis (1 Jn. 1:7, 9; 2:1).
The negative statements 1 John 1:6, 8 and 10 reflect the claims of the false teachers located in geographical region of the recipients of this epistle whereas the positive statements in 1 John 1:7, 9 and 2:1 reflect the apostolic teaching with regards to fellowship with God.
The recipients of this epistle were located in the Roman province of Asia and the occasion of the epistle itself and the context of the entire book clearly indicates that the recipients of 1 John were already believers who were experiencing fellowship with God and each other.
However, they were now being exposed to Docetic and Cerinthian Gnostic teaching that denied the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John emphatically refutes this teaching in the prologue of the epistle.
If they believed this false teaching, it would prevent them from continuing to have fellowship with God since fellowship with God is based upon the Person, Work and Life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This false teaching the apostle John was seeking to protect the recipients of this epistle from, was an “incipient” form of Gnosticism since it was not a full blown threat to orthodox Christianity in the mid to late part of the first century as it did become in the middle of the second century.
John’s teaching in the prologue and throughout the book concerning the person of Christ is designed to protect his readers from these heretical teachings and to ensure that their fellowship with God and other believers might continue or be maintained.
Therefore, John’s teaching in 1 John 1:6-2:2 is designed to protect the recipients of this epistle from these false teachers.
This fifth class condition in 1 John 1:6 is presenting a hypothetical situation which could take place in the Christian community.
It expresses the spiritual principle that if any believer enters into making the claim that they have been experiencing fellowship with God and yet have been living in the darkness, then they are lying to themselves.
John then asserts that the result is that they are unequivocally not practicing the truth.
Walking in the darkness takes place for the believer when they are living out of fellowship with God and is the result of disobeying the truth of God’s Word.
They do this living their lives according to their old Adamic sin nature and cosmic viewpoint.
The believer is lying to himself or herself if they claim that they are experiencing fellowship with God and yet are living according to the old Adamic sin nature and cosmic viewpoint.
Walking in the light takes place when the believer experiences fellowship with God and is accomplished when the believer is living according to divine viewpoint which is the truth of God’s Word and is the result of obeying the apostolic teaching.
In this fifth class conditional statement John is presenting a hypothetical situation in order to teach a spiritual principle regarding fellowship with God.
1 John 1:6 reflects the Gnostic teaching.
John is not speaking directly to the Gnostic teachers, but rather he is speaking directly to the believers in the Roman province of Asia as a corporate unit in order to protect them from the lies of the proto-Gnostic teachers.
John is not stating that his readers have been adhering to the Gnostic teaching but rather he is presenting a hypothetical situation that could potentially take place among his readers, and which he emphatically does not want to take place.
The implication is not that these false teachers were determined to make the recipients of this epistle accept their teaching since as we noted the context of the book does not indicate that this was taking place nor does church history indicate that this took place.
John is teaching that it is a contradiction for a believer to claim that they have been experiencing fellowship with the Father and yet are living in the darkness of Satan’s cosmic system.
It is a contradiction and cannot take place because spirituality is an absolute and thus fellowship with God is an absolute.
You are either in fellowship with Him or you are not.
The Gnostics maintained, i.e. they were “firm in their conviction” that they could experience fellowship with God and yet live in the darkness of the cosmic system, which amounted to self-deception since it did not conform to the holiness of God’s character.
Adherence to their teaching would produce self-deception.
The false teachers were involved in self-deception and were firm in their conviction that they could have fellowship with God and yet live according to their old Adamic sin nature and cosmic viewpoint.
The implication of this of course is that they were teaching lies.
The false teachers evidently maintained that one could have fellowship with a holy God even though they live in the darkness of the cosmic system of Satan.