Your heart doesn’t know everything and often forgets what it does know. God does know everything, and he doesn’t forget. He sees more than your most recent fall — the sin that breaks your heart and sheds your tears — he sees a new life and fruit (even in this contrition) that gives honor to his dear Son and indwelling Spirit. He saw what you did last night — and he sees repentance in the morning. He saw the last week of apathy, of lust, of anger, of covetousness, of resistance to his presence, but he also sees this last year of growth in purity, in evangelism, in service to the local church, in self-control, in prayer, and in knowledge of Christ Jesus.

The apostle John gives us a phrase full of angst when he writes, “whenever our heart condemns us . . .” (1 John 3:20). Has your heart ever condemned you; shut up your happiness in a coffin? Has it replayed your sin on the big screen and made you watch it on repeat?

“Whenever our heart condemns us.” You have sinned; you know it. This is not someone else playing fast and loose with the facts or maligning your motives. This is you: your own heart, your own conscience. A heart that knew your secret thoughts from the beginning of the temptation now points the finger. When you resurface from the sin, there he stands, waiting. Now that you’re sober, the night is now over, his low voice asks, How could you?

“Whenever our heart condemns us” — truly, constantly, without pity. His voice threatens curses upon us. “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. . . . Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out” (Deuteronomy 28:16, 19). He condemns us, but is he wrong? He speaks plainer than we’d like, stronger than we can bear, more exactly than we wish were true — but what can we answer? Against God — our heavenly Father, our pierced Friend, our grieved Spirit — how could we? We hear the rooster crow; we meet his eyes. Our resolves lie broken, our Savior left forgotten — what now?

How to Reassure Your Heart

Here in the deep sea, the apostle John seeks to reassure the true Christian’s heart.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:19–20)

As a caring pastor, John comes alongside the troubled soul and seeks to uplift the child’s heart before his Father. He would remove your foot from the net, if he can. He knows how often our hearts — when finally sensitive to what we’ve done — bind and abuse us. They strike repeatedly with the rod as if to make up for lost time. Zeal for our sin consumes him; his blows can leave us limp upon his knee.

John intervenes in three ways. He considers what our heart forgets, he considers the one who knows everything, and he reminds us who is greater than our heart.

1. What Our Hearts Forget

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.

Your heart condemns you because, though you have been watchful in recent months, you plunged into pornography. You committed adultery in your heart — and this, perhaps, as a married man and father. How can you look your daughter or wife or Lord in the eyes after what those eyes have looked upon? Is this really the action of a true Christian? Your heart condemns you.

Hearts sensitive to sin are gifts of God (Ezekiel 36:26), but hearts full of godly grief can fixate on the transgression, forgetting all that God is doing in our lives besides. All the heart can see is guilt, not growth; fruit of sin, not fruit of the Spirit. Overzealous, our hearts wield the rod for condemnation where the Lord intends discipline.

So John shows the panorama of what God is doing in us. “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him” (1 John 3:19) — by what? By our love for the brothers, not in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). Love for Christ’s people reminds us that God is really working in us. Serving Christ’s people, feeding them, visiting them while sick or in prison, praying for them, worshiping and weeping and rejoicing with them — all are evidence that whatever we did for the least of Christ’s brothers we did for Christ (Matthew 25:31–40). Surveying a life of love should persuade our hearts while in the mire of our most recent sin. 

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