1 John 3:19–24

“How to Send Your Guilt Trip Packing” 

NOTE: These notes are mostly exegetical/content oriented. For the full sermon with illustrations and application, see my 1-3 John: Fellowship in the Family in Preaching the Word (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 163-174

The center of this passage is John’s appeal in v. 23: we should believe in Jesus and love one another.

This appeal is flanked on both sides with a motivational basis. Verses 19–22 provide the first motivation: when our conscience condemns us, God is greater than our conscience, giving us assurance that we receive what we ask from him in prayer. Verse 24 constitutes the second motivation: we can be assured that God lives in us and we abide in him.

The topic of this paragraph is confidence. Notice John’s use of words like “know,” “reassure,” and “confidence.”

I. God Gives Us Assurance for Our Unsure Heart – (vv. 19–22).

“By this” at the beginning of v. 19 refers back to the previous paragraph where the topic is love for fellow believers. By means of our truly loving our Christian brothers we know that “we are of the truth,” that is, that we are truly Christians and are behaving according to the truth of the gospel.

Notice that this identical phrase “by this we know” occurs again at the end of v. 24, bracketing the paragraph. John places the phrase “we are of the truth” at the beginning of the clause in Greek to give it prominence and focus. As a result, this knowledge allows us to reassure our hearts. Here the word “heart” actually refers to the conscience. A clear conscience provides us confidence to approach God at any time in prayer and worship.

There is some question as to whether “reassure” means “to be persuaded” or “to be certain.” The latter is contextually best. The word means “to exhibit confidence and assurance in a situation which might otherwise cause dismay or fear.” The tense of the verb is future and applies to any future prayer situation. To stand “before him,” refers to our position of living under God’s continual observation, including when we address him in prayer.

Conscience, left to itself, is not an adequate guide. John continues in v. 20 to say that our conscience might condemn us when we are praying.

But sometimes our conscience may condemn us when we are not guilty of overt sin. We sometimes become keenly aware of our unworthiness before God, especially at times of prayer.

Yet God is greater than our conscience and knows everything concerning us, including our deepest motives.

Because God knows everything about us, God is sometimes more merciful with us than we are with ourselves. Since God is greater than our accusing conscience in the sense that he has greater knowledge of it than we do, we can be confident he understands our weaknesses and loves us in spite of them.

What is the relationship between the phrases “keeping his commandments” and “doing what pleases him”? (v. 22) This may simply be two ways of expressing the same thing. On the other hand, John could be laying out two conditions for receiving answers to our prayers: 1) obedience to his commands; 2) spontaneous obedience to God’s will whenever that is discerned in our lives.

1 John 3:19–20 functions as the reason for vv. 21–22. There are two reasons that assure us we are truly believers.

The first is our awareness of the love God has placed in us (3:19a).

The second is our awareness of the grace of God that accepts our humanness because Christ knows our motives (3:20b).

In v. 22, John gives two reasons for why we have confidence in prayer and thus receive what we ask of God.

First, we have confidence because we obey God’s commands.

Second, we have this confidence in prayer because we “do what pleases him.”

II. Faith and Obedience are the Grounds of Our Assurance – (vv. 23–24).

The heart of Paul’s appeal is v. 23. We are given a two-fold command: believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love fellow believers. Here is the first use of “believe” in the letter.

“This” refers to the “commandment” and is placed first in the clause for emphasis.

The phrase “His commands” in vv. 22c and 24a are forefronted in the clause for emphasis.

The content of the command contains the full name “Son,” and “Jesus Christ.” Since the word “commandment” is singular, a shift from the plural “commandments” in the previous verse, John is combining both the concept of believing in Jesus and loving the brothers into a single action. One command with two parts: believe and love.

John closes his trajectory of thought with verse 24.

The implied subject of “has given” in v. 24 is Jesus as evidenced by John 13:34, and 15:12, 17. The means of our assuring knowledge is the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is the first direct mention of the Holy Spirit in the letter.

Verse 24 serves as John’s second motivation for his appeal in verse 23. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to his children. In this gift of the Holy Spirit, God gives himself to us. This is that precious truth of our union with Christ.

In v. 24 it is the indwelling Holy Spirit that serves as the means of our knowing that he abides in us, yet John does not say that the presence of the Holy Spirit is the means of our knowing that we abide in God. Our keeping God’s commandments is the evidence that we are abiding in him. Obedience is the key here.

Sanctification is a two-fold work. First, it is a work of God. Second, it is the work of the believer.

In 1 John 3:19–24, John teaches us four vital truths.

1. Christians should not treat sin lightly.

2. John is not teaching that we somehow earn the right to have our prayers answered by means of loving fellow believers. On the contrary, loving fellow believers, in obedience to God’s command, shows you are in the will of God and thus in a place where God can and will answer your prayers.

3. We learn that our prayer life cannot be divorced from our relationship to fellow Christians.

4. Although your conscience is a God-given faculty to help you determine right from wrong, it is not infallible. If our conscience condemns us, the probability is that God the all-knowing judge will confirm the sentence! But your conscience can put you on a guilt trip. If the trial in the court of conscience leads to an acquittal, that acquittal brings confidence before God, especially in our prayer life.

Sometimes we need the Lord to say to our conscience “At ease!” Whenever your conscience puts you on trial, remember, God is in your corner! He knows you better than you know yourself. Your case goes to his Supreme Court for his final ruling.