{"id":3211,"date":"2026-01-02T04:03:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/?p=3211"},"modified":"2025-12-24T00:19:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:19:48","slug":"meditations-on-1-john-319-23-with-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/meditations-on-1-john-319-23-with-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditations on 1 John 3:19-23, with Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Love Does for Believers, 3:19-23<\/strong> Bible Knowl Comm NT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 19, And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201cprobably 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 20,<\/strong> for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.<\/strong> (Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

(Moody) A true believer might have an overly sensitive conscience (heart<\/strong>) that periodically might lead to thoughts of self-condemnation. … God is greater in pronouncing a more authoritative verdict on our salvation than our heart<\/strong> (our conscience), which is fallible and often errs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cCondemn.<\/strong> In Gal. ii. 11, … it is said of Peter … he stood condemned<\/em> or self-condemned<\/em>. His conduct was its own. Condemnation. This is the sense in this passage, the internal judgment of conscience<\/em>.\u201d \u201cGreater<\/strong>. … If to His compassion,<\/em> 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\u2014who surpasses man in love and compassion no less than in knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Life) \u201c3:19-20<\/strong> Many are afraid that they don\u2019t love others as they should. … When we feel guilt, we should remind ourselves that God knows our motives as well as our actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ESV) \u201cthe proposition that God is greater than our heart<\/strong> grants us assurance that he has forgiven us through the atoning work of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 21,<\/strong> Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201cOnce a condemning heart has been silenced by resting on God\u2019s 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\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Moody) \u201cAnother result of a clear conscience is answered prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Life) \u201cIf you conscience is clear, you can come to God without fear, confident that your requests will be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 22,<\/strong> and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201cThis presumes, of course, that the requests themselves are made in subjection to. God\u2019s will (5:14-15).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Moody) \u201cJesus\u2019 atonement is the ground for prayer, but obedience is the condition for answered prayer (v. 22).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cWe keep<\/strong>. … Note the combination of keep<\/em> and do<\/em>. Watchful discernment and habitual practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Life) \u201cYou will receive if you obey and do what pleases him because you will then be asking in line with God\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ESV) \u201cDo what pleases him implies it is possible to do things each day that actually \u2018please\u2019 God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 23,<\/strong> 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201cAs 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.\u201d This is what it looks like to obey a \u201ccommandment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Moody) \u201cComplying with divine commandments<\/strong> is evidence one abides in<\/strong> a relationship with God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Life) \u201ca person\u2019s name … represents who he or she really is. We are to believe not only in Jesus\u2019 words, but also in his very person as the Son of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

v. 24,<\/strong> 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) \u201cThat 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<\/strong> (menei,<\/em> \u2018abides\u2019) in him is by the operation of God\u2019s Spirit<\/strong> in his life. … the Spirit of both faith (4:1-6) and love (4:7-16)\u2014the two aspects of the two-part \u2018command\u2019 given in 3:23.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Moody) \u201cThis evidence consists in the Spirit empowering believers \u2018to practice righteousness\u2019 (2:29), persuading them to believe in<\/strong> . . . Jesus Christ<\/strong> (v. 23), and leading them to \u2018love the brethren\u2019 (3:14).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Vincent\u2019s II) \u201cSpirit.<\/strong> The first mention of the Spirit in the Epistle. Never found with Holy <\/em>in the Epistles or Apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Life) \u201cThe Spirit\u2019s presence is not only spiritual and mystical, but it is also practical. Our conduct verifies his presence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ESV) \u201cJohn would have presupposed from the start of this letter the existence and importance of the \u2018Helper,\u2019 \u2018the Spirit of truth\u2019 whom Jesus promised to send\u201d (in John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26; 16:7-14; 20:22.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIRST JOHN 3 MEDITATION vv. 19-23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014on 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 (\u201cIt\u2019s the right thing to do\u201d), or by peer pressure from the church body, and not because I loved them. Also, they were \u201cprojects,\u201d 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\u2019s life (such as in the convalescent visiting ministry or children\u2019s ministry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019m 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.( \u201cFake it \u2018til you make it.\u201d) This is very different from having the genuine desire to be with them, and going out to people on my own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[593],"tags":[591],"class_list":["post-3211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-john-with-notes","tag-meditations-on-1-john"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3211"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3221,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions\/3221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/alivetogod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}