Verse 6
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
In this verse, the apostle made the application of his remarks in the verse preceding. Smith identified the false teachers refuted by this as "the Nicolaitans who held to the heresy of antinomianism."[28] John did not honor their heresy nor the names of any of its advocates with any identification whatever. Plummer thought that the heresy in view was that of the "Carpocratian Gnostics, who taught that to the enlightened all actions are indifferent, because neither impurity nor filth Can change the nature of pure gold."[29]
And do not the truth ... This is changed in the RSV to "do not live according to the truth," but Morris assured us that the ASV is the correct rendition.[30] This very statement is found in John 3:21 and in the Qumran scrolls. "Truth can be a quality of action as well as of speech."[31]
The false claim in this verse is that of affirming that we walk with God even while we are walking in darkness. "Walk" in this passage, as frequently in the New Testament, is an idiom for the totality of human conduct.
[28] David Smith, op. cit., p. 171.
[29] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 4.
[30] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1261.
[31] Ibid.
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