What Does 1 John 1:10 Mean?

If we say that we have not missed the mark, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:10 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

THE KEY

Denying your own missing does more than conceal it: your words make God a liar and show that his word is not in you.

THE MEANING

When you say you have not missed, your claim collides with what God says and makes him sound false. The verse reveals that his word is absent from that denial; the break is between your claim and the truth it rejects.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie this verse undoes is that denying any missing protects your truthfulness; the denial instead makes God’s testimony sound false.

THE ROOT

ἡμαρτήκαμεν

hēmartēkamen

GROWS FROM

ἁμαρτ-

hamart-

To miss, to miss the mark.

“have not missed the mark” in this verse is hēmartēkamen. The Greek verb for “sinned” names missing, not a separate kind of thing sealed off from the rest of life. The denial “we have not missed” cannot erase that missing; it puts the speaker’s claim against what God says.

ALSO GROWS

hamartia: Missing; sin.

ἁμαρτία

The noun in 1 John 1:8 shares this root, linking the denial of having sin to the denial of having sinned.

hamartōlos: One who misses; sinner.

ἁμαρτωλός

This branch makes the root describe a person in relation to the missing, not a fixed identity beyond it.

ψεύστην

pseustēn

GROWS FROM

ψευδ-

pseud-

Falsehood, lying.

The verse says the denial makes God a liar: the falsehood arises in the speaker’s claim, not in God’s word. The sentence exposes the consequence of denying the missing, the truth is made to sound false.

ALSO GROWS

pseudomai: To lie, speak falsely.

ψεύδομαι

The denial is speech that contradicts what God says.

pseudos: Falsehood, lie.

ψεῦδος

This names the false account produced when the speaker says no missing exists.

THE PATTERN

When people deny the missing, God’s truth is made to sound false; acknowledging it brings truth into speech.

If we say that we have no falling short, we lead ourselves off the path, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8 · SDVThe denial begins as self-deception, showing the same gap between human speech and truth.

Let it never be so. But let God be true, and every human a liar. As it is written, that you may be aligned in your words, and may overcome when you are judged.

Romans 3:4 · SDVHuman claims do not undo God’s truth; the verse names God as true even when people speak falsely.

I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.

Psalm 32:5 · SDVThe hidden missing comes into speech, and the concealment gives way to release.

THE THREAD

If we say that we have no falling short, we lead ourselves off the path, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8 · SDV

The Greek “sin” here, ⁨ἁμαρτία⁩ (hamartia), shares its root with “sinned” in verse 10. Verse 8 shows denial turning inward as self-deception; verse 10 shows the same denial making God sound false.

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