Would you please explain I John 3:20,21?<\/p>\n
John wrote: “Because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, we have boldness toward God<\/em>” (I John 3:20,21). In order to see what is meant, look at the context. In the two verses prior to this passage, we read: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him<\/em>” (I John 3:18,19). And then the verse following: “And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing to His sight<\/em>” (I John 3:22).<\/p>\n The writer is speaking of our assurance that we are right with God. Back in I John 1:7, we read, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.<\/em>” Many seem to go through life doubting their salvation. This is what John is writing about. We can have the assurance that we are right with God. The apostle Paul wrote of the conscience, “For when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts, one with another accusing or else excusing them<\/em>” (Romans 2:14,15). The purpose of the conscience is to “accuse” us when we err and to “excuse us” when we do right. But there is a higher court than that.<\/p>\n The apostle Paul wrote, “Here, moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord<\/em>” (I Corinthians 4:2-4). God is the supreme judge of us all. Other people may judge us, but that is not all-important. We may judge ourselves — either to condemn or to justify — and that is not all-important. But the judgment of God is perfect, final, and absolute.<\/p>\n You can know you are saved, by looking at the Scriptures and your own life. As John wrote later in this book, “These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God<\/em>” (I John 5:13). You cannot depend on your conscience to save you, nor the approval of other people. Your goodness will not save you, for you can never be “good enough” on your own. You must be saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. And if you are “in Christ” then you are in fellowship with God and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth you from all sin. (I John 1:7).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes, Vol. 58, No. 8, Feb. 20, 2009. QUESTION: Would you please explain I John 3:20,21? ANSWER: John wrote: “Because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, we have boldness toward God” (I John 3:20,21).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[757,1569,47],"class_list":["post-56005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-assurance","tag-doubts","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/assurance-of-our-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":56005,"position":0},"title":"Assurance of Our Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Sharp \"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58525,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-john-319-24-our-assurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":56005,"position":1},"title":"I John 3:19-24: Our Assurance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan R. Longhenry \"Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him: because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59522,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-search-for-assurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":56005,"position":2},"title":"The Search for Assurance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Earnhart It was a discussion between preacher friends.\u00a0 We were wrestling with the question of how confident Christians ought to be, moment by moment, about their salvation. Some were arguing for absolute assurance, others for a more cautious one. There is perhaps no concern that weaves its way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-security-of-the-believer\/","url_meta":{"origin":56005,"position":3},"title":"The Security of the Believer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner via\u00a0Guardian of Truth, October 1985 There seems to be a resurgence of interest in \"security\" perhaps due to emphasis upon \"grace\" and both subjects are worthy of our consideration. Because of earlier battles with Calvinists on grace, faith only, and \"once saved, always saved,\" certain prejudices\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-i-do-for-my-daughter-who-fears-she-might-have-done-something-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":56005,"position":4},"title":"What can I do for my daughter who fears she might have done something wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My daughter was recently baptized.\u00a0 Since then, she has been sad and crying every day, feeling so guilty and questioning her every decision or thought or word out of her mouth as to whether it is sin.\u00a0 She knows even just one small sin, even a little lie, can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-was-manifest-in-the-flesh\/","url_meta":{"origin":56005,"position":5},"title":"God Was Manifest in the Flesh","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tim Coffey via Guardian of Truth XL: 5 p. 8-9, March 7, 1996 Paul proclaimed, \"Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh\" (I Timothy 3:16). For those who saw Jesus in the flesh, the difficulty was not in believing that he was man, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}