Passage

1 John 1.6

Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

4. and these things we write, that our joy may be made full. 5. And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:4-8, ASV)

WEB

4. And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled. 5. This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:4-8, WEB)

KJV

4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:4-8, KJV)

YLT

4. and these things we write to you, that your joy may be full. 5. And this is the message that we have heard from Him, and announce to you, that God is light, and darkness in Him is not at all;

6. if we may say, 'we have fellowship with Him,' and in the darkness may walk, we lie, and do not the truth;

and if in the light we may walk, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son doth cleanse us from every sin; 8. if we may say, 'we have not sin,' ourselves we lead astray, and the truth is not in us; (1 John 1:4-8, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: The letter is formally anonymous. Early and unanimous tradition assigns it to John the apostle (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5 and 3.16.8, c. AD 180), and its vocabulary and style are closely shared with the Fourth Gospel.
Audience: Churches in Roman Asia, addressed after a secession: "they went out from us, but they were not really of us" (1 John 2:19). The departing teachers denied that Jesus is the Christ (2:22) and that He has come in the flesh (4:2).
Location: Traditionally Ephesus, the center of the Johannine circle in Asia Minor.
Time period: c. AD 85-95, late in the apostolic period. The stated purpose is assurance: "these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

Theological reading

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

The first of five "if we say" clauses. Verses 6, 8, and 10 each begin ean eipōmen, if we say, and each quotes a claim John rejects: that we have fellowship while walking in darkness (verse 6), that we have no sin (verse 8), that we have not sinned (verse 10). Verses 7 and 9 give the alternative. The pattern reads as a rebuttal of slogans, probably those of the departed teachers.

"Walk." Peripatōmen, the Hebraic idiom for conduct as a way of life, and the tense is present and continuous: a direction, not an incident.

"Light" and "darkness." Verse 5 has established the premise: "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." John's moral argument runs from God's nature, exactly as chapter 4 will run from "God is love."

"Do not practice the truth." Ou poioumen tēn alētheian, a Hebraic expression (compare asah emet) in which truth is something done rather than only believed. The letter refuses to let orthodoxy and conduct come apart in either direction, which is why it can insist on a doctrinal test at 4:2 and a behavioral one here.

Balance with verses 8-9. John rejects the claim to walk in darkness while claiming fellowship, and in the next breath rejects the claim to be sinless. The letter's standard is a direction of life honestly confessed, not a record of perfection.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G0225 - aletheia, aletheia, Strong's G0225

Quoted in

Lexicon:

G0225 - aletheia

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.