Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
1 John 3:20

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 20. If our heart condemn us — If we be conscious that our love is feigned, we shall feel inwardly condemned in professing to have what we have not. And if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, for he knows every hypocritical winding and turning of the soul, he searches the heart, and tries the reins, and sees all the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the heart which we cannot see, and, if we could see them, could not comprehend them; and as he is the just Judge, he will condemn us more strictly and extensively than we can be by our own conscience.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

God’s children love one another (3:11-24)

Since Christians do what is right and refuse what is wrong, their lives will be characterized by love. But the world will not respond kindly to their goodness, just as Cain did not respond kindly to Abel’s (11-12). When sinners are shamed by the uprightness of others, the outcome usually is that they hate them for it (13). Hate produces murder, and murder is obviously not a characteristic of the Christian (14-15).
Those who have genuine love, instead of taking the lives of others, would rather sacrifice their own. Self-sacrifice, even in the everyday things of life, is the chief characteristic of love. Love is proved by actions, not words, as Jesus Christ showed, and Christians must follow his example (16-18).
With such high standards before them, some Christians may feel guilty that they have failed to practise this love. They may even doubt their salvation. John assures them that they have no need for uncertainty. God knows their good intentions and sees even those acts of kindness of which they themselves are not aware. They must not doubt, but have confidence when they come into his presence (19-21). If they are obedient to his commands, they can be assured that he will answer their prayers. The indwelling Spirit reinforces this assurance and enriches their fellowship with God (22-24).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

For if our heart condemn us - We cannot hope for peace from any expectation that our own hearts will never accuse us, or that we ourselves can approve of all that we have done. The reference here is not so much to our past lives, as to our present conduct and deportment. The object is to induce Christians so to live that their hearts will not condemn them for any secret sins, while the outward deportment may be unsullied. The general sentiment is, that if they should so live that their own hearts would condemn them for present insincerity and hypocrisy, they could have no hope of peace, for God knows all that is in the heart. In view of the past - when the heart accuses us of what we have done - we may find peace by such evidences of piety as shall allay the troubles of an agitated soul, 1 John 3:9, but we cannot have such peace if our hearts condemn us for the indulgence of secret sins, now that we profess to be Christians. If our hearts condemn us for present insincerity, and for secret sins, we can never “persuade” or soothe them by any external act of piety. In view of the consciousness of past guilt, we may find peace; we can find none if there is a present purpose to indulge in sin.

God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things - We cannot hope to find peace by hiding anything from his view, or by any supposition that he is not acquainted with the sins for which our consciences trouble us. He knows all the sins of which we are conscious, and sees all their guilt and aggravation as clearly as we do. He knows more than this. He knows all the sins which we have forgotten; all those acts which we endeavor to persuade ourselves are not sinful, but which are evil in his sight; and all those aggravations attending our sins which it is impossible for us fully and distinctly to conceive. He is more disposed to condemn sin than we are; he looks on it with less allowance than we do. We cannot hope, then, for a calm mind in any supposition that God does not see our sins as clearly as we do, or in any hope that he will look on them with more favor and indulgence. Peace cannot be found in the indulgence of sin in the hope that God will not perceive or regard it, for we can sooner deceive ourselves than we can him; and while therefore, 1 John 3:19, in reference to the past, we can only “persuade” our hearts, or soothe their agitated feelings by evidence that we are of the truth now, and that our sins are forgiven; in reference to the present and the future, the heart can be kept calm only by such a course of life that our own hearts and our God shall approve the manner in which we live.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

20.For if our heart condemn us He proves, on the other hand, that they in vain possess the name and appearance of Christians, who have not the testimony of a good conscience. For if any one is conscious of guilt, and is condemned by his own heart, much less can he escape the judgment of God. It hence follows, that faith is subverted by the disquiet of an evil conscience.

He says, that God is greater than our heart, with reference to judgment, that is, because he sees much more keenly than we do, and searches more minutely and judges more severely. For this reason, Paul says, that though he was not conscious of wrong himself, yet he was not therefore justified, (1 Corinthians 4:4;) for he knew that however carefully attentive he was to his office, he erred in many things, and through inadvertence was ignorant of mistakes which God perceived. What then the Apostle means is, that he who is harassed and condemned by his own conscience, cannot escape the judgment of God.

To the same purpose is what immediately follows, that God knoweth or seeth all things For how can those things be hid from him which we, who in comparison with him are dull and blind, are constrained to see? Then take this explanation, “Since God sees all things, he is far superior to our hearts.” For to render a copulative as a causal particle is no new thing. The meaning is now clear, that since the knowledge of God penetrates deeper than the perceptions of our conscience, no one can stand before him except the integrity of his conscience sustains him.

But here a question may be raised. It is certain that the reprobate are sometimes sunk by Satan into such stupor, that they are no longer conscious of their own evils, and. without alarm or fear, as Paul says, rush headlong into perdition; it is also certain, that hypocrites usually flatter themselves, and proudly disregard the judgment of God, for, being inebriated by a false conceit as to their own righteousness, they feel no convictions of sin. The answer to these things is not difficult; hypocrites are deceived because they shun the light; and the reprobate feel nothing, because they have departed from God; and, indeed there is no security for an evil conscience but in hiding-places.

But the Apostle speaks here of consciences which God draws forth to the light, forces to his tribunal, and fills with an apprehension of his judgment. Yet; it is at the same time generally true, that we cannot have a calm peace except that which God’s Spirit gives to purified hearts; for those who, as we have said, are stupefied, often feel secret compunctions, and torment themselves in their lethargy.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 3

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God ( 1 John 3:1 ):

I love that verse. Behold, what manner of love God has bestowed upon you, that you should be called the son of God. What glorious love, that God should adopt me as His son, that God should claim me as His son. That God should call me His son. What manner of love God has for me that He would call me His son.

therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doesn't yet appear what we're going to be: but we know that, when he appears, we're going to be like him; for we will see him as he is ( 1 John 3:1-2 ).

Now, we should not look for the rapture to make a tremendous transition and change in our lives. You know what I would hope? I would hope that I could be in heaven for an hour before I realized it. That I walked in such fellowship with the Lord, such communion with Him, lived so close to Him, that suddenly I'd say, "Man, the air is clear. Where am I? Hey, this heaven!" And you'd be there an hour before you ever knew it. That there would be no real radical change. You know, people are looking for real radical changes to take place, but you know, the Spirit working in our heart, day by day He is conforming us into the image of Christ. And we are being changed from glory to glory into the same image by the power of His Spirit working within us, so that there should not be some dramatic radical change when we then come right into the actual presence of our Lord in glory. You see, what will we be occupied with when we get there? Just loving Him, and fellowshipping and worshipping Him, sharing with Him. What should we then be occupied with here? Just loving Him, serving Him, worshipping Him. It shouldn't bring to pass a real radical change, you know, a hundred and eighty degrees. Running in my flesh, hard as I can this way, and then the rapture, and back now the other way. But just that transition right on in.

"Now we are the sons of God, it doesn't yet appear what we're going to be." You know, the Bible is interesting in that it doesn't give us that much insight into just what heaven is gonna be like. And the reason why is because there are no words that can describe it. That's what Paul said of his experience, "I was caught up into the third heaven and, hey, I heard things that it would be a crime to try to describe them in human language, and I'm not gonna even try" ( 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 ). It would be a crime to try to describe them in human terms. There is no human language that can express these things. So, because language is limited and is incapable of really expressing the fullness of the glory, the beauty, it just remains not described for us. "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the hearts of men those things that God has prepared for those that love Him. But God has begun to reveal them to us by His Spirit" ( 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 ).

Now there are occasions when I have a taste of heaven. A special work of God's Spirit within my heart and I'm carried away into an ecstasy. I experience a joy that's indescribable, full of glory. I feel a deep glorious peace that I can't describe. The Spirit of God beginning to reveal to me some of those things of the heavenly scene, but yet, so far beyond anything that words could describe.

What if you had a child that was blind and you tried to describe the sunset that we had last night? With a child who has never seen the oranges, and the reds, and the clouds and the beauties, fading out into the light blues and the pinks and all. How could you with words, adequately describe the beauty of a sunset? It defies description. So the heavenly scene defies description. The Bible doesn't attempt to. It just tells you, "Hey, it's glory beyond anything you could ever believe or imagine."

It doesn't yet appear what we are gonna be. Paul said, "Some of you will ask, 'How are the dead raised? With what body will they come?'" ( 1 Corinthians 15:35 ) And he doesn't really seek to tell us too much about the body, only in the fact that it's going to be vastly superior to the body that we have. We're planted in corruption; we're going to be raised in incorruption. We're planted in weakness; we're going to be raised in power. We are sown in dishonor; we're going to be raised in glory. We're planted as a natural body; we're going to be raised in a spiritual body. There is a natural body; there is a spiritual body. As we are born in the image of the earth, so shall we bear the image of the heavens. When you put a seed into the ground it dies before it comes forth into new life, and the body that comes out of the ground isn't the body that you planted. All you planted was a bare grain and God gives it a body that pleases Him, so is the resurrection of the dead.

New body--it's not gonna be the body that I planted in the ground. I'm not gonna have gimpy knees and I'm not gonna have bad eyes, and I'm not gonna have a bald head. I'm not gonna have wrinkles. A glorious new form, and I don't know what it is, it does not appear what I'm gonna be. It doesn't bother me. I know this, I'm gonna be like Him. Hey, that's all that matters. I'm gonna be like Him, for I'm gonna see Him as He is. And that's my hope tonight. I'm gonna be like Him as I see Him as He is.

And every man who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure ( 1 John 3:3 ).

This to me is one of the most purifying hopes within the church: Jesus is coming at any moment, and I'm gonna be changed to be just like Him. I'm gonna see Him as He is. And so that keeps me from doing a lot of things that I might otherwise do, from getting involved in a lot of wasted time that I might otherwise get involved in, because the Lord is coming soon and I want to use my time for His glory. Keep myself pure.

Whosoever commits sin ( 1 John 3:4 )

Now this word commits should be translated "practices sin" or "living in sin".

Whosoever [is living or practicing] sin is transgressing the law: for sin is lawlessness. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin ( 1 John 3:4-5 ).

Now, I pointed out in chapter 1 that the sins (plural) refer to the fruit, and sin (singular) refers to the nature of sin in us, here in I John. So the sin (singular) here, as far as Christ is concerned, "in Him is no sin," that is, there was no nature of sin. We have a sinful nature. If I try to deny that, I'm only deceiving myself, and the truth isn't in me. If I say I have no sin, that I don't have a sinful nature, then I'm only deceiving myself. If I say that my sinful nature has never borne any fruit, that I've never sinned, then I do even worse; I make God a liar now. But Jesus did not have a sinful nature. He was born of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit. He died, as Peter said, as a lamb without spot or blemish. Spot, an inherent defect, He didn't have an inherent defect. Nor were there any acquired, the blemishes. I have both; I have spots and blemishes. I have the inherent sin, the nature of sin, and it has produced too much fruit. So, thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ. Having confessed my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. So, whosoever is practicing sin is transgressing the law, for sin is the transgression of the law, and you know that He was manifested to take away our sins. He came in order that He might die for my sins, that He might take away my sins and my guilt, and in Him is no sin nature.

Whosoever abides in him does not practice sin: and whosoever practices sin has not seen him, neither known him ( 1 John 3:6 ).

Pretty powerful words. It should cause us to examine our own lives. If I am living a life of practicing sin, I really don't know Him. I really haven't seen Him. If I really know Him, then I'm gonna be free from the practice of sin.

Little children, let no man deceive you ( 1 John 3:7 ):

And don't deceive yourself.

he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous ( 1 John 3:7 ).

Now, Christ our example in purity, every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure. He is our example in righteousness, as he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous.

He that is practicing sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. And for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil ( 1 John 3:8 ).

So again, don't deceive yourself. If you are practicing sin, living in sin, you are not of God; you are a part of that rebellion against God, led by Satan.

Whosoever is born of God does not practice sin; for his seed remaineth in him ( 1 John 3:9 ):

And the word His there in your Bible, if you'd capitalize, because it refers to Jesus Christ.

his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God ( 1 John 3:9 ).

You see, I have been born now of God, I have been born again, this is what Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about, He said, "Hey, fellow, you got to be born again if you are gonna enter into the kingdom of heaven." He says, "How can I be born again? I am an old man. I can't go back to my mother's womb anymore." And He said, "No. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don't marvel when I say that you've got to be born again." Born of the Spirit, the new birth.

Now, born of the flesh, I was born a sinner, with the nature of sin. And because of the nature of sin, there was the fruit, a sinful life. Now I have been born again, through the work of Jesus Christ, being born again, I have now a new nature. And when I do something that is untowards, mean, ugly, nasty, I can't say, "Well, you know, that's just my old nature." Because I have now a new nature. I've been born again. So that doing the righteous things become natural; sin becomes unnatural to the child of God. It doesn't mean that I don't sin, but it does mean it becomes an unnatural thing to me. Doing righteousness becomes the natural thing of my life. Doing the right thing comes natural. The nature of Christ, His seed abides in me and I can't practice sin. It's opposite to my new nature. It's opposing my new nature. I may fall into sin, but it's so opposing to my new nature that I'm miserable, I'm uncomfortable, and I come right out of it and I say, "Lord, forgive me. I was a fool. I was blind and foolish. Oh Lord, forgive me." I can't be comfortable living in sin. It's miserable because of my new nature. I'm out of character now with the new nature that I have in Christ. And so we are what we are by nature. That's why you need the new nature. That's why Jesus said, "You've got to be born again."

Now a pig is a pig by nature, and there are certain natural inclinations of a pig. He would be very uncomfortable in a different environment than what his nature calls for. Now, by nature he loves to get in a mud hole and just oink and scoot around in a mud hole, a stinky, smelly thing by nature, and he enjoys it. Now, you can take him out of the mud hole and wash him off with deodorant soap, cologne him and bring him into your parlor. Now, this isn't natural for a pig. He would be very uncomfortable in your living room. He would go rooting around looking for a way to get out. He would want to get back to the mud, the smelly mud pit. "I like it, it's my nature," if I'm a pig.

That's why reformation doesn't work for people. It takes more than reformation; it takes a change of nature. That's what the gospel offers to us. It doesn't say, "Come on, clean up your act." No. "Reform." No, it says, "Be ye transformed," have a change of nature. To where doing righteousness becomes the natural thing. Because His Spirit, His Seed is now abiding in me. A new nature through Jesus Christ, His nature planted in me.

And that is why the unconverted has such a difficulty, many times in making the decision to turn his life over to Jesus Christ. Because he sees the Christian and he says, "I could never live that way." Why? Because he's a pig, and he's happy in the mud, and he cannot imagine living a life of cleanliness, a life a purity. That's so totally opposed to his nature. He feels that he would be extremely uncomfortable in that environment. And Satan oftentimes uses that as weapon against the person making the decision. They say, "I could never live like those Christians. I would like to live that way, but, hey, that's not for me, man. I just couldn't do it." Of course you can't, we couldn't if there weren't a change of nature. But we've been born of God. His seed now abides in us. I have the new nature and I cannot practice sin in this new nature. Now, if you're comfortable practicing sin, then you don't have the new nature. "Oh, but I raised my hand and went forward in a Billy Graham crusade." I don't care. You know, you're not really born again unless there's a change of nature.

Now in this the children of God are manifest ( 1 John 3:10 ),

This is how you know if you're a child of God.

and the children of the devil are manifest: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God ( 1 John 3:10 ),

If you're not living a righteous life, you're not of God. I don't care what you might profess.

neither he that doesn't love his brother ( 1 John 3:10 ).

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that you should love one another. That's the heart of the gospel message. Remember the lawyer came to Jesus and said, "What is the greatest commandment?" And Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. And in these two are all the law and the prophets" ( Matthew 22:37-40 ). What did He teach us? Love one another, even as I have loved you. If we don't have love for each other, then we are not of God; we don't have the new nature. For he that loves God, loves him that is begotten of God. That's part of the nature.

The message that we've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's were righteous. So marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you ( 1 John 3:11-13 ).

Because your deeds are righteous, and theirs are evil, and they will hate you for that. You make them feel guilty. They don't like to feel guilty. They hate you, "You're always doing the right thing. You're goodie, goodie, you think you are better than everybody else, don't you?" They hate you. I'm amazed at when a person, say, finds a bag, a Brinks bag on the highway with twenty thousand dollars in it and they take it down to the police department and turn it in. You know that they get all kinds of hate mail and threats on their lives and everything else? People call them up and harass them and tell them what fools they are and how stupid they were. And people that do those kind of things get all kinds of harassment. The world hates a righteous person. Marvel not that the world hates you.

We know that [oetis that] we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. And he that loveth not his brother abides in death ( 1 John 3:14 ).

Now how do I know that I've passed from death to life? Because I love the family of God, I love the brethren. Jesus said to His disciples, "By this sign shall the world know that you are my disciples, that you love one another" ( John 13:35 ). That's the greatest witness to the world is the love within the Christian body. They know that you are really Christians because you love one another as you do. Hey, not only is it the proof to the world, but it's also the proof to yourself. How do you know that you have passed from death unto life? Because God has given you such a love for the body of Christ, those within the body of Christ.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: [as Cain,] and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him ( 1 John 3:15 ).

So hereby we perceive the love of God. How do you know that God loves you? How do you know what you know? Now I know that God loves me. How do I know that God loves me? Because He laid down His life for us, that's how I know He loves me. Again, as we mentioned before, whenever God wants to prove that He loves you, He always points to the cross. He never seeks to make proof of His love in any other way. He doesn't try to prove that He loves you by the circumstances of your life always being good and prosperous and happy and rosy. Whenever you begin to doubt the love of Christ or the love of God, turn and look at the cross. There's the proof that God loves you. For God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son.

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren ( 1 John 3:16 ).

"Love one another even as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man will lay down his life for friends. You are my friends," Jesus said, "if you do what I command you" ( John 15:12-14 ). And He laid down His life for us. We ought to have such love each other, for the body of Christ, that we would lay down our lives for each other. Jesus said to husbands, "Love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it." God help us, may God work His love in our hearts.

But whoso hath this world's goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? ( 1 John 3:17 )

Now coming to practical examples. You've been blessed, you've been prospered, you have a lot of world's goods. And now you see a brother in Christ who is in great need and you don't reach out to help him in his need. How can you really say that the love of Christ abides in you? "Oh, yes, I love him. Poor brother, I feel sorry for him. I love him so much. I feel so sorry for him. Not having any turkey this Christmas, it's a shame you know. Has to eat a Big Mac for Christmas, terrible. Oh, but I love him. Oh, how I love that man." No, No, no you don't. You can't really love them and shut your heart up on their need and be cold and calloused concerning their need. How does the love of God really dwell in you? How can you say that God's love dwells in you?

Little children, let us not love in word ( 1 John 3:18 ),

That's easy isn't it, "Oh, I love the world, it's just people I can't stand." You know, it's easy to profess love, "Oh, I love you so much . . . " What was it Shakespeare that said, "Thou protesteth too much." I always get a little suspicious when people, every time they see you say, "Oh, I love you so much, brother." I had a fellow that was saying that to me around here for a long time. And then he did his best to put a knife in my back. Oh, he loves me so much. Yes, yes, yes. Loving in words, that isn't where it's at. Let's love in deed; let's show our love by what we do, not by our words only. It's good to express it, but it's better to show it in our deeds. In reaching out, in helping, in giving a call, in giving a word of encouragement, in giving support financially if necessary, to reach out in love to touch each other and to help each other. Let's love in deed, for that's love in truth.

And hereby we know that we are of the truth ( 1 John 3:19 ),

How do I know that I am of the truth? Because I love in truth, I love in my deeds, and that's how I know that I'm of the truth.

and it gives assurance in our hearts towards him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things ( 1 John 3:19-20 ).

Now, sometimes our hearts do condemn us, and Satan oftentimes condemns us. There are people that are suffering under the condemnation of Satan under their own heart. I feel sort of sorry for them. They always go away castigating themselves saying, "Why did I say that? Oh, why did I say that?" And they can't sleep at night because of what they said that night when they were together with their friends. And they're afraid, "Oh, I've said the wrong thing. Nobody will love me anymore." And there are people that have that kind of a nature that they are just troubled by things like that. And their hearts often condemn them. But if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. You know, I am convinced that I condemn myself for a lot of things that God doesn't me for, because God has justified me. Paul said, "Who is he that condemns us? It is Christ who died, rather is risen again, and is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us" ( Romans 8:34 ). "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" ( Romans 8:1 ). If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart.

If our heart condemn us not, we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight ( 1 John 3:21-22 ).

Now, there are a lot of people that take that first part as a promise, "whatsoever we ask we receive of Him," but they don't finish the verse, "because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." You see, there are some fascinating, sort of broad promises given to us on prayer. Jesus said, "And whatsoever things you desire when you pray believe that you receive them, and ye shall have them" ( Matthew 21:22 ). Now people just take that, and they start then preaching these sermons on faith, and, "Hey, you can have anything you want. You can have a Mercedes. You can live on Lido Island, or you can . . . Faith. All you need is faith. Whatsoever things you desire, do you desire it? Believe and you'll have it." Who was Jesus talking to? The multitudes? Nope. He was talking to His disciples. What constitutes being a disciple? "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" ( Matthew 16:24 ). That needs to be stamped over the top of that. "Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them . . . Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." What does that mean? It means that your prayers will only be on those things that are for His glory and for His kingdom and not to satisfy your own desires of making a big splash in a Mercedes or whatever.

We have this confidence when we keep His commandments and we do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Then we have power in prayer, because our prayers are not directed towards our self-interest and our own self-aggrandizement, but our prayers are on the things of His kingdom and things for His glory and things whereby others may prosper and be blessed.

And this is his commandment ( 1 John 3:23 ),

Now he's talked about a lot of commandments, and he's going to be talking more about commandments and keeping the commandments. What is the commandment?

That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment ( 1 John 3:23 ).

That's all. He doesn't give you ten commandments, long list of do's and do nots. All He said is to just believe on Jesus and love one another. I'm glad that He reduced it down to just simplicity. I'll never forget it. It's easy to remember to just believe on Him and to love one another. He doesn't lay a long burden and list on me that I have a hard time fulfilling. Just do this, "Believe on Jesus and love each other."

And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us ( 1 John 3:24 ),

How do I know that He abides in us or in me?

by his Spirit which he has given me ( 1 John 3:24 ).

God has filled my life with His Holy Spirit. I know He abides in me. Hereby I know, by the Spirit that He has given.

So next week we'll finish I John as we go into chapters 4 and 5. Then we'll take II and III John, and perhaps Jude in one evening. Enter into the book of Revelation for about, what, ten weeks maybe. So that means about March or so, and then we'll be starting over in Genesis again. Through the Bible, it's exciting. We learn about God, as He has revealed the truth of Himself to us.

And now may the Spirit of God teach you all things and bring to your remembrance those things that He has commanded us. We remember to just love God and believe on Jesus Christ. And may the love of Christ be perfected in your life, may it increase and may it grow and may God help you to maintain the proper perspective, in the world but not of the world. Your every touch just as light as possible, because the world is gonna pass away and the lust thereof, but he who does the will of God will abide forever. God help us to be interested and occupied with the things that are eternal. In Jesus' name. "

Contending for the Faith

Assurance of Conscience

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

For if our heart condemn us: Vincent contends that it should be rendered, "shall assure our heart before Him whereinsoever our heart condemn us because God is greater than our heart" (352). The Christian needs reassurance from time to time in his daily pursuit of a loving life. There may be times when he will say, "Have I been as loving as I ought? Have I reached the heights of love that God desires? Have I done and been all that I need to do and be?" And the answer always returns with a resounding, "No!" for we all fail to reach the heights of God’s love. At those times, our conscience goads and condemns us.

God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things: Keep in mind that John promises assurance. This phrase has often been used to rob us of assurance instead of giving assurance. Some interpret it to mean that if our own conscience condemns us, God is greater than our conscience and will condemn us even more. As Vincent says, such an explanation suggests that "God who is greater than our heart and knows all things, must not only endorse but emphasize our self-accusation" (353). We ask, "Where is the assurance?" Vincent then gives his preferable interpretation of John’s statement: "the sense is: when our heart condemns us we shall quiet it with the assurance that we are in the hands of a God who is greater than our heart--who surpasses man in love and compassion no less than in knowledge" (353). Truly, God knows the best and the worst of us. We have no secrets from Him. God not only knows our failures, He knows the intentions of our hearts, and He is not so much concerned about where we are spiritually as He is about the direction our life is taking. If he knows that the general tenor of our life is toward Him and that we are trying to grow in Him day by day, He will keep our conscience clear. God overrules the judgment of our conscience when we fall short and forgives us anyway. He assures us that "if we walk in the light, as He is in the light...the blood of Christ is (constantly cleansing) us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). John gives his "children" assurance that, in spite of their faults and failures, the condemning judgment of their hearts can be answered and silenced.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

C. Learning to See Christian Love 3:10b-23

John has made clear that the only basis on which a Christian can be identified (manifested) as such is by his or her righteous behavior. Christians are not manifested by the absence of sin in them; he never says this. The next question that John proceeded to respond to is, How can we identify "righteousness?" John’s response was, It is not seen in morality-unbelievers can be moral-but in brotherly love. In this section, as in the one preceding it and in the one following it, the theme, brotherly love, opens and closes the section, forming an inclusio.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

"By this" refers to what John said in 1 John 3:17-18. Tangible demonstrations of love for the brethren show the believer’s true character, his righteousness. They should be a comfort to us when we feel guilty that we have not met many needs, a condition that prevails no matter how generous we may be. We can overcome feelings of false guilt by remembering that God knows our real motives. He does not judge on the basis of appearance, as we often judge ourselves.

"This phrase ["before Him," 1 John 3:19] could refer to standing in the presence of God on the day of judgment (1 John 4:17), an occasion which might well fill the heart of a man with foreboding. But the context here is one of prayer: dare we approach God with our requests if we feel guilty before him? On the whole, it seems more likely that this is what is in John’s mind (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:9[-10]). We then have a smooth transition to 1 John 3:21. [Note: Marshall, p. 199.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. What Love Does for Believers 3:19-23

The practice of such self-sacrificing love for the brethren can give us boldness in God’s presence now as we pray and in the future when we stand before Him at His judgment seat.

Barclay's Daily Study Bible

Chapter 3

REMEMBER THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ( 1 John 3:1-2 )

3:1-2 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God--and such we indeed are. The reason why the world does not recognize us is that it did not recognize him. Beloved, even as things are we are children of God, and it has not yet been made clear what we shall be. We know that, if it shall be made clear, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

It may well be that the best illumination of this passage is the Scottish Paraphrase of it:

Behold the amazing gift of love

the Father hath bestow'd

On us, the sinful sons of men,

to call us sons of God!

Concealed as yet this honour lies,

by this dark world unknown,

A world that knew not when he came,

even God's eternal Son.

High is the rank we now possess,

but higher we shall rise;

Though what we shall hereafter be

is hid from mortal eyes.

Our souls, we know, when he appears,

shall bear his image bright;

For all his glory, full disclosed,

shall open to our sight.

A hope so great, and so divine,

may trials well endure;

And purge the soul from sense and sin,

as Christ himself is pure.

John begins by demanding that his people should remember their privileges. It is their privilege that they are called the children of God. There is something even in a name. Chrysostom, in a sermon on how to bring up children, advises parents to give their boy some great scriptural name, to teach him repeatedly the story of the original bearer of the name, and so to give him a standard to live up to when he grows to manhood. So the Christian has the privilege of being called the child of God. Just as to belong to a great school, a great regiment, a great church, a great household is an inspiration to fine living, so, even more, to bear the name of the family of God is something to keep a man's feet on the right way and to set him climbing.

But, as John points out, we are not merely called the children of God; we are the children of God.

There is something here which we may well note. It is by the gift of God that a man becomes a child of God. By nature a man is the creature of God, but it is by grace that he becomes the child of God. There are two English words which are closely connected but whose meanings are widely different, paternity and fatherhood. Paternity describes a relationship in which a man is responsible for the physical existence of a child; fatherhood describes an intimate, loving, relationship. In the sense of paternity all men are children of God; but in the sense of fatherhood men are children of God only when he makes his gracious approach to them and they respond.

There are two pictures, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, which aptly and vividly set out this relationship. In the Old Testament there is the covenant idea. Israel is the covenant people of God. That is to say, God on his own initiative had made a special approach to Israel; he was to be uniquely their God, and they were to be uniquely his people. As an integral part of the covenant God gave to Israel his law, and it was on the keeping of that law that the covenant relationship depended.

In the New Testament there is the idea of adoption ( Romans 8:14-17; 1 Corinthians 1:9; Galatians 3:26-27; Galatians 4:6-7). Here is the idea that by a deliberate act of adoption on the part of God the Christian enters into his family.

While all men are children of God in the sense that they owe their lives to him, they become his children in the intimate and loving sense of the term only by an act of God's initiating grace and the response of their own hearts.

Immediately the question arises: if men have that great honour when they become Christians, why are they so despised by the world? The answer is that they are experiencing only what Jesus Christ has already experienced. When he came into the world, he was not recognized as the Son of God; the world preferred its own ideas and rejected his. The same is bound to happen to any man who chooses to embark on the way of Jesus Christ.

REMEMBER THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ( 1 John 3:1-2 continued)

John, then, begins by reminding his people of the privileges of the Christian life. He goes on to set before them what is in many ways a still more tremendous truth, the great fact that this life is only a beginning. Here John observes the only true agnosticism. So great is the future and its glory that he will not even guess at it or try to put it into inevitably inadequate words. But there are certain things he does say about it.

(i) When Christ appears in his glory, we shall be like him. Surely in John's mind there was the saying of the old creation story that man was made in the image and in the likeness of God ( Genesis 1:26). That was God's intention; and that was man's destiny. We have only to look into any mirror to see how far man has fallen short of that destiny. But John believes that in Christ a man will finally attain it, and at last bear the image and the likeness of God. It is John's belief that only through the work of Christ in his soul can a man reach the true manhood God meant him to reach.

(ii) When Christ appears, we shall see him and be like him. The goal of all the great souls has been the vision of God. The end of all devotion is to see God. But that vision of God is not for the sake of intellectual satisfaction; it is in order that we may become like him. There is a paradox here. We cannot become like God unless we see him; and we cannot see him unless we are pure in heart, for only the pure in heart shall see God ( Matthew 5:8). In order to see God, we need the purity which only he can give. We are not to think of this vision of God as something which only the great mystics can enjoy. There is somewhere the story of a poor and simple man who would often go into a cathedral to pray; and he would always pray kneeling before the crucifix. Someone noticed that, though he knelt in the attitude of prayer, his lips never moved and he never seemed to say anything. He asked what he was doing kneeling like that and the man answered: "I look at him; and he looks at me." That is the vision of God in Christ that the simplest soul can have; and he who looks long enough at Jesus Christ must become like him.

One other thing we must note. John is here thinking in terms of the Second Coming of Christ. It may be that we can think in the same terms; or it may be that we cannot think so literally of a coming of Christ in glory. Be that as it may, there will come for every one of us the day when we shall see Christ and behold his glory. Here there is always the veil of sense and time, but the day will come when that veil, too, will be torn in two.

When death these mortal eyes shall seal,

And still this throbbing heart,

The rending veil shall thee reveal

All glorious as thou art.

Therein is the Christian hope and the vast possibility of the Christian life.

THE OBLIGATION OF PURITY ( 1 John 3:3-8 )

3:3-8 Anyone who rests this hope on him purifies himself as he is pure. Anyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that he appeared that he might take away our sins and there is no sin in him. Anyone who abides in him does not sin. Anyone who sins has not seen him, and does not know him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He who does sin is of the devil, because the devil is a sinner from the beginning. The purpose for which the Son of God appeared was that he might destroy the works of the devil.

John has just said that the Christian is on the way to seeing God and being like him. There is nothing like a great aim for helping a man to resist temptation. A novelist draws the picture of a young man who always refused to share in the lower pleasures to which his comrades often invited and even urged him. His explanation was that some day something fine was going to come to him, and he must keep himself ready for it. The man who knows that God is at the end of the road will make all life a preparation to meet him.

This passage is directed against the Gnostic false teachers. As we have seen they produced more than one reason to justify sin. They said that the body was evil and that, therefore, there was no harm in sating its lusts, because what happened to it was of no importance. They said that the truly spiritual man was so armoured with the Spirit that he could sin to his heart's content and take no harm from it. They even said that the true Gnostic was under obligation both to scale the heights and to plumb the depths so that he might be truly said to know all things. Behind John's answer there is a kind of analysis of sin.

He begins by insisting that no one is superior to the moral law. No one can say that it is quite safe for him to allow himself certain things, although they may be dangerous for others. As A. E. Brooke puts it: "The test of progress is obedience." Progress does not confer the privilege to sin; the further on a man is the more disciplined a character he will be. John goes on to imply certain basic truths about sin.

(i) He tells us what sin is. It is the deliberate breaking of a law which a man well knows. Sin is to obey oneself rather than to obey God.

(ii) He tells us what sin does. It undoes the work of Christ. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world ( John 1:29). To sin is to bring back what he came into the world to abolish.

(iii) He tells us why sin is. It comes from the failure to abide in Christ. We need not think that this is a truth only for advanced mystics. It simply means this--so long as we remember the continual presence of Jesus, we will not sin; it is when we forget that presence that we sin.

(iv) He tells us whence sin comes. It comes from the devil; and the devil is he who sins, as it were, on principle. That probably is the meaning of the phrase from the beginning ( 1 John 3:8). We sin for the pleasure that we think it will bring to us; the devil sins as a matter of principle. The New Testament does not try to explain the devil and his origin; but it is quite convinced--and it is a fact of universal experience that in the world there is a power hostile to God; and to sin is to obey that power instead of God.

(v) He tells us how sin is conquered. It is conquered because Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil. The New Testament often dwells on the Christ who faced and conquered the powers of evil ( Matthew 12:25-29; Luke 10:18; Colossians 2:15; 1 Peter 3:22; John 12:31). He has broken the power of evil, and by his help that same victory can be ours.

THE MAN WHO IS BORN OF GOD ( 1 John 3:9 )

3:9 Anyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because his seed abides in him; and he cannot be a consistent and deliberate sinner, because he has been born of God.

This verse bristles with difficulties, and yet it is obviously of the first importance to find out what it means.

First, what does John mean by the phrase: "Because his seed abides in him"? There are three possibilities.

(i) Frequently the Bible uses the word seed to mean a man's family and descendants. Abraham and his seed are to keep the covenant of God ( Genesis 17:9). God made his promise to Abraham and to his seed for ever ( Luke 1:55). The Jews claim to be Abraham's seed ( John 8:33; John 8:37). In Galatians 3:1-29, Paul speaks about Abraham's seed ( Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:29). If we take seed in that sense here, we need to take him as referring to God and then we get very good sense. "Anyone who has been born of God does not sin, because God's family constantly abide in God." God's family live so near to God that they may be said to abide in him. The man who lives like that has a strong defence against sin.

(ii) It is human seed which produces human life, and the child may be said to have his father's seed in him. Now the Christian is reborn through God and, therefore, has God's seed in him. This was an idea with which the people of John's age were very familiar. The Gnostics said that God had sowed seeds into this world and through the action of these seeds the world was being perfected; and they claimed that it was the true Gnostics who had received these seeds. Some Gnostics said that man's body was a material and evil thing; but into some bodies Wisdom secretly sowed seeds and the truly spiritual men have these seeds of God for souls. This was closely connected with the Stoic belief that God was fiery spirit and a man's soul, that which gave him life and reason, was a spark (scintilla) of that divine fire which had come from God to reside in a man's body.

If we take John's words this way, it means that every reborn man has the seed of God in him, and that, therefore, he cannot sin. There is no doubt that John's readers would know this idea.

(iii) There is a much simpler idea. Twice at least in the New Testament the word of God is that which is said to bring rebirth to men. James has it: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures" ( James 1:18). The word of God is like the seed of God which produces new life. Peter has this idea even more clearly, "You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" ( 1 Peter 1:23). There the word of God is definitely identified with the imperishable seed of God. If we take it this way, John means that the man who is born of God cannot sin because he has the strength and guidance of the word of God within him. This third way is simplest and, on the whole best. The Christian is preserved from sin by the indwelling power of the word of God.

THE MAN WHO CANNOT SIN ( 1 John 3:9 continued)

Second, this verse presents us with the problem of relating it with certain other things which John has already said about sin. Let us set the verse down, as it is in the Revised Standard Version:

No one born of God commits sin; for God's nature abides in

him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.

Taken at its face value this means that it is impossible for the man who is born of God to sin. Now John has already said, "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"; and "if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar"; and he urges us to confess our sins ( 1 John 1:8-10). He goes on to say, "if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father in the person of Jesus Christ." On the face of it there is contradiction here. In the one place John is saying that man cannot be anything other than a sinner and that, there is an atonement for his sin. In the other place he is saying equally definitely that the man who is born of God cannot sin. What is the explanation?

(i) John thinks in Jewish categories because he could do no other. We have already seen that he knew and accepted the Jewish picture of the two ages, this present age and the age to come. We have also seen that it was John's belief that, whatever the world was like, Christians by virtue of the work of Christ had already entered into the new age. It was exactly one of the characteristics of the new age that those who lived in it would be free from sin. In Enoch we read: "Then too will wisdom be bestowed on the elect, and they will all live and never again sin, either through heedlessness or through pride" (Enoch 5: 8). If that is true of the new age, it ought to be true of Christians who are living in it. But, in fact, it is still not true because Christians have not even yet escaped from the power of sin. We might then say that in this passage John is setting down the ideal of what should be and in the other two passages he is facing the actuality of what is. We might put it that he knows the ideal and confronts men with it; but also faces the facts and sees the cure in Christ for them.

(ii) That may well be so but there is more to it. In the Greek there is a subtle difference in tenses which makes a very wide difference in meaning. In 1 John 2:1 it is John's injunction that you may not sin. In that verse sin is in the aorist tense which indicates a particular and definite act. So what John is saying is quite clearly that Christians must not commit individual acts of sin; but if they do lapse into sin, they have in Christ an advocate to plead their cause and a sacrifice to atone. On the other hand, in our present passage in both cases sin is in the present tense and indicates habitual action.

What John is saying may be put down in four stages. (a) The ideal is that in the new age sin is gone for ever. (b) Christians must try to make that true and with the help of Christ struggle to avoid individual acts of sin. (c) In fact all men have these lapses and when they do, they must humbly confess them to God, who will always forgive the penitent heart. (d) In spite of that, no Christian can possibly be a deliberate and consistent sinner; no Christian can live a life in which sin is dominant in all his actions.

John is not setting before us a terrifying perfectionism; but he is demanding a life which is ever on the watch against sin, a life in which sin is not the normal accepted way but the abnormal moment of defeat. John is not saying that the man who abides in God cannot sin; but he is saying that the man who abides in God cannot continue to be a deliberate sinner.

THE MARKS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD ( 1 John 3:10-18 )

3:10-18 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; anyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, and neither is he who does not love his brother, because the message that we have heard from the beginning is the message that we should love one another, that we should not be like Cain, who was of the Evil One and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his works were evil and his brother's works were just. Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. He does not possess eternal life abiding within him. In this we recognize his love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our life for the brothers. Whoever possesses enough for his livelihood in this world and sees his brother in need and shuts his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? My dear children, do not make love a matter of talking and of the tongue, but love in deed and in truth.

This is a passage with a closely-knit argument and a kind of parenthesis in the middle.

As Westcott has it: "Life reveals the children of God." There is no way of telling what a tree is other than by its fruits, and there is no way of telling what a man is other than by his conduct. John lays it down that any one who does not do righteousness is thereby demonstrated to be not of God. At present we shall omit the parenthesis and go straight on with the argument.

Although John is a mystic, he has a very practical mind; and, therefore, he will not leave righteousness vague and undefined. Someone might say, "Very well, I accept the fact that the only thing which proves that a man belongs to God is the righteousness of his life. But what is righteousness?" John's answer is clear and unequivocal. To be righteous is to love our brother men. That, says John, is a duty about which we should never be in any doubt. And he goes on to adduce various reasons why that commandment is so central and so binding.

(i) It is a duty which has been inculcated into the Christian from the first moment that he entered the Church. The Christian ethic can be summed up in the one word love and from the moment that a man pledges himself to Christ, he pledges himself to make love the mainspring of his life.

(ii) For that very reason the fact that a man loves his brother men is the final proof that he has passed from death to life. As A. E. Brooke puts it: "Life is a chance of learning how to love." Life without love is death. To love is to be in the light; to hate is to remain in the dark. We need no further proof of that than to look at the face of a man who is in love and the face of a man who is full of hate; it will show the glory or the blackness in his heart.

(iii) Further, not to love is to become a murderer. There can be no doubt that John is thinking of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount ( Matthew 5:21-22). Jesus said that the old law forbade murder but the new law declared that anger and bitterness and contempt were just as serious sins. Whenever there is hatred in the heart a man becomes a potential murderer. To allow hatred to settle in the heart is to break a definite commandment of Jesus. Therefore, the man who loves is a follower of Christ and the man who hates is no follower of his.

(iv) There follows still another step in this closely-knit argument. A man may say, "I admit this obligation of love and I will try to fulfil it; but I do not know what it involves." John's answer ( 1 John 3:16) is: "If you want to see what this love is, look at Jesus Christ. In his death for men on the Cross it is fully displayed." In other words, the Christian life is the imitation of Christ. "Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus" ( Php_2:5 ). "He left us an example that we should follow in his steps" ( 1 Peter 2:21). No man can look at Christ and then say that he does not know what the Christian life is.

(v) John meets one more possible objection. A man may say, "How can I follow in the steps of Christ? He laid down his life upon the Cross. You say I ought to lay down my life for the brothers. But opportunities so dramatic as that do not come into my life. What then?" John's answer is: "True. But when you see your brother in need and you have enough, to give to him of what you have is to follow Christ. To shut your heart and to refuse to give is to show that that love of God which was in Jesus Christ has no place in you." John insists that we can find plenty of opportunities to show forth the love of Christ in the life of the every day. C. H. Dodd writes finely on this passage: "There were occasions in the life of the early church, as there are certainly tragic occasions at the present day, for a quite literal obedience to this precept (i.e., to lay down our life for the brothers). But not all life is tragic; and yet the same principle of conduct must apply all through. Thus it may call for the simple expenditure of money we might have spent upon ourselves, to relieve the need of someone poorer. It is, after all, the same principle of action, though at a lower level of intensity: it is the willingness to surrender that which has value for our own life, to enrich the life of another. If such a minimum response to the law of charity, called for by such an everyday situation, is absent, then it is idle to pretend we are within the family of God, the realm in which love is operative as the principle and the token of eternal life."

Fine words will never take the place of fine deeds; and no amount of talk of Christian love will take the place of a kindly action to a man in need, involving some self-sacrifice, for in that action the principle of the Cross is operative again.

THE WORLD'S RESENTMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN WAY ( 1 John 3:10-18 continued)

In this passage there is a parenthesis; we return to it now.

The parenthesis is 1 John 3:11 and the conclusion drawn from it is in 1 John 3:12. The Christian must not be like Cain who murdered his brother.

John goes on to ask why Cain murdered his brother; and his answer is that it was because his works were evil and his brother's were good. Then he drops the remark: "Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you."

An evil man will instinctively hate a good man. Righteousness always provokes hostility in the minds of those whose actions are evil. The reason is that the good man is a walking rebuke to the evil man, even if he never speaks a word to him, his life passes a silent judgment. Socrates was the good man par excellence; Alcibiades was brilliant but erratic and often debauched. He used to say to Socrates: "Socrates, I hate you, because every time I meet you you show me what I am."

The Wisdom of Solomon has a grim passage ( Wis_2:10-20 ). In it the evil man is made to express his attitude to the good man: "Let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings.... He was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness." The very sight of the good man made the evil man hate him.

Wherever the Christian is, even though he speak no word, he acts as the conscience of society; and for that very reason the world will often hate him.

In ancient Athens the noble Aristides was unjustly condemned to death; and, when one of the jurymen was asked how he could have cast his vote against such a man, his answer was that he was tired of hearing Aristides called "The Just." The hatred of the world for the Christian is an ever-present phenomenon, and it is due to the fact that the worldly man sees in the Christian the condemnation of himself; he sees in the Christian what he is not and what in his heart of hearts he knows he ought to be; and, because he will not change, he seeks to eliminate the man who reminds him of the lost goodness.

THE ONLY TEST ( 1 John 3:19-24 a)

3:19-24a By this we know that we are of the truth, and by this we will reassure our heart before him, when our heart condemns us in anything, for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we can come confidently to God and receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do the things which are well pleasing to him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we should love one another, even as he gave us his commandment. And he who keeps his commandment abides in him and he in him.

Into the human heart there are bound to come doubts. Any man with a sensitive mind and heart must sometimes wonder if he really is a Christian at all. John's test is quite simple and far-reaching. It is love. If we feel love for our fellow-men welling up within our hearts, we can be sure that the heart of Christ is in us. John would have said that a so-called heretic whose heart was overflowing with love and whose life was beautiful with service, was far nearer Christ than someone who was impeccably orthodox, yet cold and remote from the needs of others.

John goes on to say something which, as far as the Greek goes, can mean two things. That feeling of love can reassure us in the presence of God. Our hearts may condemn us but God is greater than our hearts. The question is: what is the meaning of this last phrase?

(i) It could mean: since our hearts condemn us and God is infinitely greater than our hearts, God must condemn us even more. If we take it that way, it leaves us only with the fear of God and with nothing to say but: "God be merciful to me, a sinner." That is a possible translation and no doubt it is true; but it is not what John is saying in this context, for here he is thinking of our confidence in God and not our dread of him.

(ii) The passage must therefore mean this. Our hearts condemn us--that is inevitable. But God is greater than our hearts; he knows all things. Not only does he know our sins; he also knows our love, our longings, the nobility that never fully works itself out, our penitence; and the greatness of his knowledge gives him the sympathy which can understand and forgive.

It is this very knowledge of God which gives us our hope. "Man," as Thomas a Kempis said, "sees the deed, but God knows the intention." Men can judge us only by our actions, but God can judge us by the longings which never became deeds and the dreams which never came true. When Solomon was dedicating the Temple, he spoke of how David had wished to build a house for God and how that privilege had been denied to him. "It was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said unto David, my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart'" ( 1 Kings 8:17-18). The French proverb says, "To know all is to forgive all." God judges us by the deep emotions of the heart; and, if in our heart there is love, then, however feeble and imperfect that love may be, we can with confidence enter into his presence. The perfect knowledge which belongs to God, and to God alone, is not our terror but our hope.

THE INSEPARABLE COMMANDS ( 1 John 3:19-24 a continued)

John goes on to speak of the two things which are well-pleasing in God's sight, the two commandments on obedience to which our relationship to God depends.

(i) We must believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Here we have that use of the word name which is peculiar to the biblical writers. It does not mean simply the name by which a person is called; it means the whole nature and character of that person as far as it is known to us. The Psalmist writes: "Our help is in the name of the Lord" ( Psalms 124:8). Clearly that does not mean that our help lies in the fact that God is called Jehovah; it means that our help is in the love and mercy and power which have been revealed to us as the nature and character of God. So, then, to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, means to believe in the nature and character of Jesus Christ. It means to believe that he is the Son of God, that he does stand in relation to God in a way in which no other person in the universe ever stood or ever can stand, that he can perfectly reveal God to men and that he is the Saviour of our souls. To believe in the name of Jesus Christ is to accept him for what he really is.

(ii) We must love one another, even as he gave us his commandment. This commandment is in John 13:34. We must love each other with that same selfless, sacrificial, forgiving love with which Jesus Christ loved us.

When we put these two commandments together, we find the great truth that the Christian life depends on right belief and right conduct combined. We cannot have the one without the other. There can be no such thing as a Christian theology without a Christian ethic; and equally there can be no such thing as a Christian ethic without a Christian theology. Our belief is not real belief unless it issues in action; and our action has neither sanction nor dynamic unless it is based on belief.

We cannot begin the Christian life until we accept Jesus Christ for what he is; and we have not accepted him in any real sense of the term until our attitude to men is the same as his own attitude of love.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Gann's Commentary on the Bible

1 John 3:20

[Two different ideas.] 1) & 2) -20

    1) If our hearts condemn us (our conscience) we should know that God condemns us more (greater.)

"If our heart condemns us, God also condemns us. God is greater than our conscience; he knows more against us than our conscience knows." - Frank L. Cox

        OR

    2) If our conscience feels guilty, know (remember) God still forgives us. (Therefore we shouldn’t feel guilty.) See NIV. [God forgives us thru Christ’s death for us - v.16.] "God know how to remove all condemnation from our hearts."

He knows everything -- "There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is hid from God. No cover of darkness, no closed doors, no place off the side of the road, no place in the woods--no secret is unknown to God." - PO&SB Hebrews 4:13.

Jeremiah 16:17;

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For if our heart condemn us,.... Of want of love to the brethren, and of hypocrisy in it, as well as of any other sin; for the conscience, which is meant by the heart here, is accuser, witness and judge; it accuses of the evil of sin, and is as good as a thousand witnesses; and upon its own testimony pronounces guilty, and condemns.

God is greater than our heart: for he is the Maker of it, and he has the power over it, and the management of it; it is in his hands, and to be turned by him as he pleases; and he is the searcher and trier of it; and besides, is a swifter witness than conscience, and a superior Judge unto it.

And knoweth all things; that are in the heart; the principles of actions, and all the actions of men, for which their hearts condemn them; and all the sinfulness in them, and the aggravations of them; wherefore, as he knows them more perfectly, he judges of them more exactly, and will reprove more sharply, and condemn more severely for them: hence, if the condemnation of men's hearts and consciences be so very great, as sometimes to be intolerable and insupportable, what will be the righteous judgment, and dreadful condemnation of God? how fearful a thing will it be to fall into the hands of the living God! this sense is confirmed by the Syriac version rendering it, "how much greater is God than our hearts?" there is another sense given by some, which is not by way of terror, but comfort, and that is, that if the hearts of believers accuse, reprove, and condemn for sin through unbelief, or want of clear view of pardon and righteousness by Christ, God is greater, as in power, so in knowledge, than the hearts of men; and he knows the thoughts he has towards them, which are of peace, and not of evil; the covenant he has made with his Son, of which he is ever mindful; and what his Son has done, that he has made full satisfaction for sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness: so that let sin, or Satan, or the world, or the law, or their own hearts condemn them, there is no condemnation of any avail unto them. But the former sense seems best to agree with the context.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.   21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.   22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

      The apostle, having intimated that there may be, even among us, such a privilege as an assurance or sound persuasion of heart towards God, proceeds here,

      I. To establish the court of conscience, and to assert the authority of it: For, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things,1 John 3:20; 1 John 3:20. Our heart here is our self-reflecting judicial power, that noble excellent ability whereby we can take cognizance of ourselves, of our spirits, our dispositions, and actions, and accordingly pass a judgment upon our state towards God; and so it is the same with conscience, or the power of moral self-consciousness. This power can act as witness, judge, and executioner of judgment; it either accuses or excuses, condemns or justifies; it is set and placed in this office by God himself: the spirit of man, thus capacitated and empowered, is the candle of the Lord, a luminary lighted and set up by the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly, taking into scrutiny and viewing the penetralia--the private recesses and secret transactions of the inner man, Proverbs 20:27. Conscience is God's vicegerent, calls the court in his name, and acts for him. The answer of a good conscience towards God,1 Peter 3:21. God is chief Judge of the court: If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart, superior to our heart and conscience in power and judgment; hence the act and judgment of the court are the act and judgment of God; as, 1. If conscience condemn us, God does so too: For, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things,1 John 3:20; 1 John 3:20. God is a greater witness than our conscience, and knoweth more against us than it does: he knoweth all things; he is a greater Judge than conscience; for, as he is supreme, so his judgment shall stand, and shall be fully and finally executed. This seems to be the design of another apostle when he says, For I know nothing by myself, that is, in the case wherein I am censured by some. "I am not conscious of any guile, or allowed unfaithfulness, in my stewardship and ministry. Yet I am hereby justified; it is not by my own conscience that I must ultimately stand or fall; the justification or justifying sentence of my conscience, or self-consciousness, will not determine the controversy between you and me; as you do not appeal to its sentence, so neither will you be determined by its decision; but he that judgeth me (supremely and finally judgeth me), and by whose judgment you and I must be determined, is the Lord," 1 Corinthians 4:4. Or, 2. If conscience acquit us, God does so too: Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God (1 John 3:21; 1 John 3:21), then have we assurance that he accepts us now, and will acquit us in the great day of account. But, possibly, some presumptuous soul may here say, "I am glad of this; my heart does not condemn me, and therefore I may conclude God does not." As, on the contrary, upon the 1 John 3:20, some pious trembling soul will be ready to cry out, "God forbid! My heart or conscience condemns me, and must I then infallibly expect the condemnation of God?" But let such know that the errors of the witness are not here reckoned as the acts of the court; ignorance, error, prejudice, partiality, and presumption, may be said to be faults of the officers of the court, or of the attendants of the judge (as the mind, the will, appetite, passion, sensual disposition, or disordered brain), or of the jury, who give a false verdict, not of the judge itself; conscience--syneidesis, is properly self-consciousness. Acts of ignorance and error are not acts of self-consciousness, but of some mistaken power; and the court of conscience is here described in its process, according to the original constitution of it by God himself, according to which process what is bound in conscience is bound in heaven; let conscience therefore be heard, be well-informed, and diligently attended to.

      II. To indicate the privilege of those who have a good conscience towards God. They have interest in heaven and in the court above; their suits are heard there: And whatsoever we ask we receive of him,1 John 3:22; 1 John 3:22. It is supposed that the petitioners do not desire, or do not intend to desire, any thing that is contrary to the honour and glory of the court or to their own intended spiritual good, and then they may depend upon receiving the good things they ask for; and this supposition may well be made concerning the petitioners, or they may well be supposed to receive the good things they ask for, considering their qualification and practice: Because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight,1 John 3:22; 1 John 3:22. Obedient souls are prepared for blessings, and they have promise of audience; those who commit things displeasing to God cannot expect that he should please them in hearing and answering their prayers, Psalms 66:18; Proverbs 28:9.