For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.
What Love Does for Believers, 3:19-23 Bible Knowl Comm NT
v. 19, And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “probably refers back to verses 17-18. By practical acts of love in which the needs of others are met, Christians can have a basic assurance that they are participating experientially in the truth.”
v. 20, for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. (Bible Knowl Comm NT) “If he has been engaged in the kind of practical acts of love which John enjoined, his guilt-ridden heart can be persuaded by realizing that God is well aware of his fundamental commitment to the truth.”
(Moody) A true believer might have an overly sensitive conscience (heart) that periodically might lead to thoughts of self-condemnation. … God is greater in pronouncing a more authoritative verdict on our salvation than our heart (our conscience), which is fallible and often errs.”
(Vincent’s II) “Condemn. In Gal. ii. 11, … it is said of Peter … he stood condemned or self-condemned. His conduct was its own. Condemnation. This is the sense in this passage, the internal judgment of conscience.” “Greater. … If to His compassion, 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.”
(Life) “3:19-20 Many are afraid that they don’t love others as they should. … When we feel guilt, we should remind ourselves that God knows our motives as well as our actions.”
(ESV) “the proposition that God is greater than our heart grants us assurance that he has forgiven us through the atoning work of Christ.”
v. 21, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “Once a condemning heart has been silenced by resting on God’s knowledge of all things, there comes a new confidence before God. … As a result of active participation in the truth by real dees of love, Christian can calm their disapproving hearts and achieve boldness in prayer, and their prayers will be answered because they, as believers, are consciously subject to God’s will.”
(Moody) “Another result of a clear conscience is answered prayer.”
(Life) “If you conscience is clear, you can come to God without fear, confident that your requests will be heard.”
v. 22, and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “This presumes, of course, that the requests themselves are made in subjection to. God’s will (5:14-15).”
(Moody) “Jesus’ atonement is the ground for prayer, but obedience is the condition for answered prayer (v. 22).”
(Vincent’s II) “We keep. … Note the combination of keep and do. Watchful discernment and habitual practice.”
(Life) “You will receive if you obey and do what pleases him because you will then be asking in line with God’s will.”
(ESV) “Do what pleases him implies it is possible to do things each day that actually ‘please’ God.”
v. 23, And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “As a Christian actively engages in deeds of love (v. 18) and as he achieves boldness before God in prayer (v. 21), he is doing what God commands … living a life of confidence in the name of Christ which is undergirded by love.” This is what it looks like to obey a “commandment.”
(Moody) “Complying with divine commandments is evidence one abides in a relationship with God.”
(Life) “a person’s name … represents who he or she really is. We are to believe not only in Jesus’ words, but also in his very person as the Son of God.”
v. 24, Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “That the abiding life involves this mutuality is made plain in the Parable of the Vine and the Branches (John 15:4-5, 7). … The way a believer can verify that God lives (menei, ‘abides’) in him is by the operation of God’s Spirit in his life. … the Spirit of both faith (4:1-6) and love (4:7-16)—the two aspects of the two-part ‘command’ given in 3:23.”
(Moody) “This evidence consists in the Spirit empowering believers ‘to practice righteousness’ (2:29), persuading them to believe in . . . Jesus Christ (v. 23), and leading them to ‘love the brethren’ (3:14).”
(Vincent’s II) “Spirit. The first mention of the Spirit in the Epistle. Never found with Holy in the Epistles or Apocalypse.”
(Life) “The Spirit’s presence is not only spiritual and mystical, but it is also practical. Our conduct verifies his presence.”
(ESV) “John would have presupposed from the start of this letter the existence and importance of the ‘Helper,’ ‘the Spirit of truth’ whom Jesus promised to send” (in John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26; 16:7-14; 20:22.)
FIRST JOHN 3 MEDITATION vv. 19-23.
As a person who formerly lived life centered on me, myself, and I, I can identify with these verses. My current life bears testimony that the Spirit has been at work, since now I am other-centered—on serving the Lord and on helping people in my sphere of influence. After I believed, I started doing good to others as a sense of duty or obligation (“It’s the right thing to do”), or by peer pressure from the church body, and not because I loved them. Also, they were “projects,” not people. Fast-forward to today, decades later, and I am caring about the people I meet, even looking forward to being with them, and praying for the times together for a blessing I can bring into that person’s life (such as in the convalescent visiting ministry or children’s ministry).
The work of the Spirit is stronger now than ever before. I have received obvious direction from the Lord here and there in my earlier walk (as impressions or as words), but now more often, and I recognize those encounters as with the Spirit and not just Lord or God. I also know, walking by faith, knowing my need, that the Spirit will provide for my ministry when I ask. Not because I’m a strong prayer warrior, but because I know the kind of work He wants me to do, and I am partnering with Him in the work and taking from Him what I need to further it. I need Him and His guidance so I could do it His way. Then we are abiding instead of me going ahead and doing it myself. God is love, so it makes sense that if God is living His life through us (abiding in us), then we would do acts of love in the attitude of love with the desire to bless. We would do as He would do, and in the character of who He is. Before this, it was all practice; volunteering for the work, doing my best at being polite, and then forgetting about it when it was done and moving on to the next project.( “Fake it ‘til you make it.”) This is very different from having the genuine desire to be with them, and going out to people on my own.
