The apostle John is writing to help Christians know if they have eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:13). John does not want anyone to be deceived regarding their relationship with God. He wants us to evaluate our walk so that we can know if we are walking in the light or if we are walking in the darkness. The third chapter of this letter has been set off by calling for everyone to see the love of the Father.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1 ESV)
Our walk with God is defined and transformed by the fact that the Father has shown an extraordinary love for us. John has clearly defined for us what it means to love God and what it means to love those who belong to Christ. As we listen to John’s teachings, those who have hearts for the Lord are certainly pricked. But rather than sending his readers away doubting everything about their faith, John draws us a little closer to assure our hearts about our relationship with our Lord. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 John 3:19-24 and we are going to consider how God’s love can be assured to us.
Condemning Hearts (1 John 3:19-20)
It is important to remind ourselves of the conclusion drawn back in verse 18. The key truth is that we must not be fake. Let us not love in word but in action and in truth (cf. 1 John 3:18). What John is about to teach us in this final paragraph of chapter 3 does not contradict what he has taught earlier in this chapter. John is not interested in soothing a hypocritical heart. Our hearts ought to be convicted when our practice is not matching our confession. Back in verse 10 the apostle John proclaimed that if we are not practicing righteousness, then we do not belong to God. But the problem John wants to address is the problem of having our hearts out of alignment with the truth and with God’s judgment. John is looking at a situation where our hearts are still condemning us even though we are of the truth.
I think it is fairly easy to think of circumstances in which our hearts would still condemn us. You might be able to think of situations in your own life where your conscience is still convicting you even though you have asked for forgiveness and even though you are walking in the light rather than in the darkness. There are times when we commit a sin that has serious consequences. There are times when we might commit a sin that causes a lot of harm to others or to ourselves. There can be times when we do something wrong and we are just beating ourselves up over the fact that we did what we did. I have had many conversations with Christians who do not know if they in a relationship with God because of their past sins. They have repented of those sins. They no longer practice those sins. They are sorrowful for those sins. But their conscience continues to afflict the heart and they are weighed down by the guilt of those past sins. So what assurance can such a Christian have?
John says in verses 19-20 that whenever our hearts condemn us under these circumstances, God is greater than our hearts and he knows all things. The way we can know that we are of the truth and be able to reassure our hearts before him is by knowing this important message. God is greater than our hearts and he knows. He knows your heart. He knows if you have been repentant. He knows if you have been walking in the light and not in the darkness. He knows if you love him with all your heart. He knows everything. Sometimes the only way we think of God knowing all things is in a negative light. He sees our sins and knows what we do in the darkness. But there is good news in the fact that God knows all things. The good news is that God knows your heart. God knows your motives. God knows if your heart is pure. We look at our failures and want to quit. We look at our sins and see ourselves as unworthy. In fact, God wants to move us to that kind of thinking about our sins. Remember that Jesus said that the blessed are those who are poor in spirit and who are mourning over their sins. When we have this contrition before our Lord, we are to know that God is greater than our hearts. We are to rejoice in the gospel that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 8:1). We take comfort that we were taught that if we confess our sins that God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (cf. 1 John 1:9). God is greater than our hearts and we must allow room for the grace of God.
Think about what the apostle Paul said about his relationship with God. Paul describes himself as the least of the apostles and unworthy to be called an apostle (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9). But what does Paul say next? “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” When Paul writes to Timothy he tells Timothy that he is the foremost of sinners (cf. 1 Timothy 1:15). But what does Paul say next? “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16). We can feel the weight of what our past sins have done to us, to others, and to our God. But we rest in the grace of God, knowing that he is greater than our hearts when we are walking in the light.
Clear Hearts (1 John 3:21-22)
Then John comes to the other side of the coin and talks about when our hearts do not condemn us. If our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence with God. It is important to see that John does not say that we can never have confidence in our relationship with God. John does not say that we cannot know if we are saved or not. John does not say that we cannot have any assurance if we are children of God. Rather, we are to have confidence before God and know that he is listening to us when we pray to him because we are doing what is pleasing to him. We are to put our hope in the relationship we have with God.
Allow me a moment to sum up what I believe John is trying give as assurance for our walk with God. In verse 22 John says that we have confidence in our relationship with God because we are keeping his commands and doing what pleases him. We can look at the fruit of our lives and see if we are walking in the light or walking in darkness. We can look at our actions and determine if we are children of God or children of the devil. So as we look at the fruit of our lives there are going to be times that we fail. John told us in chapter 1 that if anyone says he does not sin, he makes God a liar (cf. 1 John 1:10). So when we see our failures and sins, we confess our sins and God is faithful to forgive us. Once we have come to God in repentance, then if our heart still condemns, we reassure our hearts by knowing that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.
Grounding Our Assurance (1 John 3:23-24)
John concludes this message by grounding our assurance in our relationship with God. In verse 23 we are reminded of the two summary commandments. We believe in name of his Son, Jesus Christ and we love one another just as he commanded us to do. Here is the grounding for our assurance in Christ. “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.” Now think about why grounding our assurance is important. John wants us to be looking at the right things to know if we are in relationship with God. This is all the more important when our hearts condemn us. What can I look at? John gives us two objective truths to look at in verse 24.
First, John tells us that if we keep God’s commands, then we live in God and God lives in us. There is a reciprocal relationship that is being described. We are in God and God is in us. So what does it mean that we abide in God? Jesus said the same thing in John 15 where abiding in him was described being the vine and we are the branches. What I want us to think about is a deeply connected relationship. If we are doing what God has told us to do, then we are connected to God. We have relationship with God. We have fellowship with God. He is our Father and we are his children. This is the tangible, objective proof that we can look at in our lives. Notice that John does not point to feelings because feelings can lead us astray. We might feel right with God when we are not. We might feel condemned by God when we are not. Listening to God through his word and doing what he says is how we know we are in him and he is in us. Please also consider that God living in us does not mean that we are performing miracles or having certain feelings. John wants us to know we have relationship. This is so important that the teaching goes back to the start of this letter. You might remember that John wanted us to know that we have fellowship with God when we have fellowship with the apostles (cf. 1 John 1:3). God revealed his will through the apostles and we must listen to them and obey their words to be in fellowship with them and to be in fellowship with God.
But there is a second objective truth to know if we are in relationship with God. Look again at verse 24. John says that we know that God abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Now it is important that we carefully think about what John means here. We know that we live in God and he in us (relationship) by the Spirit that God has given to us. Here is what I think is really important to think about. This must be an objective truth to point to. He would be completely undoing everything he has worked in this chapter if he ends it by saying that you know you are in relationship with God because you feel the Spirit in you. The whole point of this final paragraph is to help reassure us when our hearts condemn us. When my heart is condemning me, pointing to my feelings will not help at all. In fact, John is showing us that in this circumstance our feelings are incorrect and we are trying to reassure ourselves before him. Therefore, having the Holy Spirit given to us cannot be something that is searchable within us. We are not checking our feelings every day, seeing if we feel the Holy Spirit in our lives, to know if we are still abiding in God and God abiding in us.
So what is the objective truth we are able to point to regarding receiving the Spirit that tells us that we are in relationship with God? John will answer this in part in chapter 4. But I want to note that the New Testament does frequently talk about what we have received with the Spirit that would be objective truth so that we know that God abides in us and we are in relationship with him. Let’s consider a few of those scriptures now and then we will draw our conclusion.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:3-6 ESV)
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:13-17 ESV)
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7 ESV)
Friends, our salvation moment is a tangible, objective proof that has been given to us as an assurance for our hearts. Christ gave his life so that we could belong to him. God has poured his love into our hearts with that amazing, selfless, loving act of kindness and grace to us. We have received the spirit of adoption when we came to Christ. Christ did not make us slaves but made us sons of God. We have been adopted into the family of God. We point to the moment we were joined to Christ. The same point is made in Titus 3. God has shown his goodness and loving kindness by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. We have become children of God. We have become heirs of God in Christ to the hope of eternal life. Yet again we are pointing to the moment when we were saved. This reminds of us what the apostle Peter taught in his first sermon recorded in Acts 2. He told the people to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When you come up from the waters of baptism, not only are your sins washed away but you are also adopted as God’s children. You have been brought into covenant relationship with God. You are citizens of his kingdom and heirs of the promise.
We can assure our hearts when our hearts condemn us by seeing if we are keeping his commands and looking back to our salvation moment when we were forgiven our sins and placed into God’s family. These are the objective truths to overrule a convicting heart. Yes, we will still fall short. Yes, we will still sin. But if we are walking in the light and striving to listen and obey his words, sincerely repenting when we fall short, then we simply look at our lives and see that are striving to obey him and we were given the Spirit of adoption when we came to Christ.
So what are you looking at to know if you are in relationship with God? Make sure you are not looking at the wrong things. We are not depending on ourselves to save ourselves for we cannot save ourselves. We needed the sacrifice of Jesus to give his life for our salvation. We must depend on the mercy and grace of God to save us. The ways we know we can rely on that mercy and grace are by pointing to our desire to walk in God’s ways and pointing to our salvation in which we were adopted as God’s children.