God purifies our heart
This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things. 1 John 3:19-20 CSB
“This is how we will know that we belong to the truth,” refers back to the previous section of verses 13-18. By being transformed by the love of Jesus Christ, believers put that love into action out of obedience to Jesus. John 13:35, Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” As a reminder, the believers that John was addressing were having doubts about their assurance of salvation due to the deception of the false teachers. They claimed that knowledge of God was only attainable through special revelations, and that obedience to God’s commands were unnecessary. John, writing about how the love of Jesus being enacted by these believers is a proof of salvation and “will reassure our hearts before Him.” But no matter how hard we try, there will be times that we will sin. When believers commit sin, “our hearts condemn us.” Thankfully, “God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.” In order for us to be victorious over sin, we need to practice the presence of God. We do this by constantly reminding ourselves that Christ is in our hearts and His eyes are on us. As Biblical commentator David Walls writes, “He (God) knows that we believe in Christ, that we strive to love our brothers, and that we regret falling short. God does not look only at the outer facts of imperfect love, but at the inner fact of having been born of God.” If you are a believer, when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s blood that made us right before Him and cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Our fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ is the result of Christ cleansing us from sin. “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Not only that Jesus Christ cleansed us, He is also the One who intercedes on our behalf, as Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” We can have confidence in our salvation, knowing that once we are saved, God sees our hearts, purified and made us right before Him.
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
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