If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
All Commentaries on 1 John 1:6 Go To 1 John 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
This is He who cometh by water and blood. Some Greek codices add καί πνεÏματος, i.e, and by spirit: not by water only, but by water and blood, and by spirit.
And the Spirit it is which testifies that Christ is Truth. (Vulg.) The Greek has ότι τὸ πνεÏμα Îστιν ή α̉λήθεια, i.e, The Spirit is the Truth. This is also the reading of the Syriac. The meaning Isaiah , It is the Spirit who recently at Pentecost testified that Christ is the Son of God. Him therefore we must believe because He is the Spirit of Truth, and the Truth Itself. But the genuine reading Isaiah , Because Christ is Truth. For the Apostle is here treating of Christ, and Christ"s proper name is the Truth.
To the obscure and as it were dead testimony of water and blood, is added the clear and living witness of the Holy Ghost. For He as well during Christ"s (earthly) life, in which He wrought miracles by Him to bear witness to this, as also after His death and resurrection, when He was sent by Him to the Apostles at Pentecost, testified by their mouth, and preached everywhere that Christ was the Truth, i.e, true God. For Christ, in that He is God is the Word, and therefore the Truth and Wisdom of the Father. In that He is Prayer of Manasseh , He is the true ambassador and interpreter of the Father, who opened out the shadows of the Old Law, and published the true doctrine concerning God, according to His own words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Hence too the Aaronic High Priest bore, as a type of Christ the true and real High Priest, the Urim and Thummim, i.e, doctrine and truth, in his breastplate.
