Compassionate, Confident, Clean Christian Hearts

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“If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 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. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (1 John 3:17-21).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!  

You’ve probably had this experience: you learn a new word or concept or gain a new insight and suddenly see it everywhere. It has been there all along, but now it catches your attention, and it appears all over the place.

That happened to me as I prepared to present a textual study of our Epistle lesson, 1 John 3:16-24, at this month’s Circuit Winkel. I noticed the word “heart” was repeated five times in five verses. Such repetition is often an indication of a meaningful word or concept, so I did a study of the Greek word translated here as “heart.” I was surprised to see that two different Greek words were used here, both related to “the bowels” or “vital internal organs,” thought by Hebrews and Greeks to be the seat of emotions.

But there is a distinct nuance between the two words. The word used in verse 17, σπλάγχνα, seems to be used in the sense of the seat of more violent passions, such as “anger” or “love” or tender affections, such as “compassion” or “mercy.” In verse 17, it is used negatively to describe a lack of compassion, referring to the one who “closes his heart” against his brother.” John describes a willful shutting up of the heart. A brother’s neediness ought to cause a visceral reaction. When we close the door of our “heart” to our brother, there is no entry point for God’s love to abide. Compassion fails entirely.

The four instances of “heart” in verses 19-21 are more related to the center of spiritual life, the soul or mind, as it acts regarding will and character, what we call “conscience.” In verse 19, St. John encourages us to “reassure our heart” and remarks about how our “heart condemns” or “does not condemn us.”   

At times, the heart is the seat of truth-telling, keeping-you-on-the-straight-and-narrow conscience implanted by God inside us all. Although corrupted by the fall, it still may be characterized as the faculty that knows right from wrong, that prompts, that nags, that justifiably condemns us (e.g., Romans 2:15; 2 Corinthians 1:12). At other times, however, the heart is not to be trusted at all (e.g., Jeremiah 17:9; 1 Timothy 4:2) for it distracts, confounds, refuses to believe the truth, or eschews all comfort and so betrays. At times, the heart is a friend; at times, it is not. Friend or foe? How do you know? And where do you go? John’s answer is a simple one: when it calls into question or otherwise doubts the God who is greater, the heart is most certainly not your friend, leaving you with but one way to go, only one place to be—in the care of God who is greater.

The promise of the God who is greater is itself the greatest of all messages for the heart that is burdened, whatever the care. John considers this to be the normal state of affairs for the believer. Though the heart condemns, the believer knows that God, who is greater, makes a promise that none may challenge. To silence the heart, to refuse to submit to its distractions, its betrayals, its condemnations, to focus instead on the greater God and the Gospel of forgiveness is to turn the topsy-turvy turmoil of one’s trouble to joy, to confidence. It is to hear from a “clean heart” whose hope is in God, who is greater.

Our heart (or conscience) may accuse us to know or observe something through a prejudicial lens, but God knows everything. God doesn’t judge us “more” than our heart does, but knowing all things, He does judge us in a different way, in a way that takes into account the person and work of Jesus Christ. God, who knows everything, gives our hearts confidence by affirming Christ’s work on our behalf on the cross.

The Gospel produces confidence before God, the good news of God who is greater than our heart (v. 20), forgiving us all our sins for the sake of Jesus, “Confidence” leads us to prayer. Luther wrote: “God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”[i] The prayer of faith is, first and foremost, for God’s will to be done. Such prayer, as all the behavior of the believer who lives according to God’s will and Word, pleases Him because what is done through faith is done in Christ.

In addition to our sinful nature, our conscience has another enemy—Satan. The old, evil foe concentrates on attacking the two chief strongholds occupied by Christ here on earth—the holy Christian Church and the conscience of each Christian. The Church is the main enemy of the evil one, but he cannot destroy it, for it has been given a safe place by God, a place out of the Accuser’s reach. So Satan goes after the conscience of each Christian, the clear conscience of those who repent of their sin and receive the Father’s Word of pardon and cleansing. Each person with a good conscience is a stronghold of God in enemy territory, a place where Christ is present and active. Since Satan cannot abide Christ and cannot destroy the Church, he sets out to destroy its disciples.

Satan’s method of attack on Christians is this: He tempts us to sin. Then, when we have sinned, he uses God’s Law to accuse us of our sin. Since he can no longer accuse us before God, he works in our conscience by reminding us of what we have done.

Once his accusation has produced a guilty conscience, he chooses two different lines of attack depending on the person's character. If the person is unscrupulous and self-confident, he will use the Gospel to excuse the sin so that his victim will not admit the sin and repent of it. In this way, he desensitizes and deadens the conscience. Then, faith gives way to pride and self-justification. His victim is trapped in impenitence (2 Timothy 2:25-26). If a person is spiritually scrupulous and low in self-esteem, he takes over the role of God the Judge. Although he has no authority to pass judgment, he declares his victim guilty and uses God’s Law to threaten him or her with condemnation and death. He demoralizes that guilt-stricken person and holds him or her captive by the fear of death and damnation (cf. Hebrews 2:14-15). In both cases, Satan tries to dislodge believers from Christ and to undo their trust in Him and His Word.

We Christians have two primary weapons to combat this attack (Revelation 12:11). With these seemingly insignificant weapons, we use the authority and power of Christ Himself to overcome Satan.

The first of these weapons is “the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11). Jesus is the Lamb that was slain for the world's sins. By His blood, He atones for the sins of all people. With His blood, He purchased people from all nations on earth for God the Father as His royal priesthood (Revelation 5:11). That blood cleanses us from the stain of sin and abuse and gives us a good conscience. The blood washes our priestly robes to be white and holy, like the blood-sprinkled vestments of the priests in the old covenant.

When we drink the holy blood of the Lamb in Holy Communion, it does not just sprinkle our bodies, like the priests at the temple; it sprinkles our hearts and our consciences so that we are holy through and through. It covers us with Christ’s righteousness, purity, and holiness.

The second weapon against Satan is our “word of testimony” (Revelation 12:11). By using this term, St. John refers to the witness of Jesus to Himself and the witness of the apostles to that self-witness of Jesus. That testimony is now contained in the books of the New Testament. Our word of testimony is our confession of faith in Jesus as the Lamb of God. That is our chief weapon against Satan and all the powers of darkness. By our testimony and the blood of Jesus, Satan is undone, and our spiritual warfare is won.

Let’s consider how someone with a guilty conscience operates compared with someone with a clean conscience.

The water drips from Pilate’s hands as he washes himself clean: “See, my hands are innocent of this Man’s blood! I refuse to take the fall for this one.” And the crowd answers, “Let His blood be on our hands, on our heads! We accept the blame! Let Him be crucified! His blood be on us and our children!” So where is the fault? Where is the blame? Can you wash your hands of all the responsibility just by passing the blame?

Where is the blame? Jesus is the guilty one! Jesus is the one who is condemned! But we know that He isn’t really guilty. We know, as we hear the passion narrative, that a travesty of justice has been committed, that the Law has condemned an innocent Man. So, if we should speak honestly, where does the condemnation lie? Where is Jesus’ blood? On Pilate’s washed hands? On the crowd? It is on your hands. It is on your head. It is for your sins and my sins that the Lord laid down His life, for our hands that engage in the same game of pass-the-buck that Pilate played, that drip with greed, selfishness, murder, lust, even as we might protest our innocence; that drip with stains that condemn us because we know we are to blame for Christ’s death.

Our hearts condemn us! And like Lady Macbeth, we find nothing we can do to remove the spot. No works, no privilege, no excuse, no reparation—our hearts condemn us, and our God condemns us, too, because that stain of sin on us is a spot that damns us, that shows us that we are the ones under judgment. It’s the tell-tale heart thumping under the floorboards, reminding us we face the sentence of eternal wrath, eternal death, eternal separation from the holy, just God.

We are the ones who stand condemned, but for Jesus’ blood, pouring forth with the water from His side on the cross. Jesus’ blood is a cleansing that washes away injustice from the world as surely as the floodwaters of Noah’s day when God said I will punish, but I will not simply wash My hands of you. I will wash you clean, pouring out the drops of My very lifeblood for you. I will wash you clean, pouring water that drips over you, cleansing you of every stain of sin, cleansing the very heart that condemns you.

Our God pours Himself out for us in reassuring love, just as He did that night with the basin and the towel, washing His disciples and saying, “Because I have so served you, you must serve one another.” Open your heart to your brother in need. Fear not the evil foe who accuses you who have been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. This God, greater than your heart, promises no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This God, greater than your heart, gives you confidence, reassuring you in love towards Him and love for your fellow Christians. This God, greater than your heart, gives you a clean heart and renews a right Spirit within you.

You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Go in the peace of the Lord and serve your neighbor with joy. You are forgiven for all your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[i] Martin Luther, Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1991).