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When Our Hearts Condemn Us
By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.
© February 18, 2011
www.godsbreath.net
Copies of this and other homilies available by sending requests to: mikefarrar@aol.com
1 John 3:18-20
"Dear children,
let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our
hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God
is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."
The passage above covers several good truths of which we need to be
reminded. First it instructs us to put our words of love into action.
Anyone can say, "I care about you." or "I love you." But a true follower
of Christ will put these statements into action and demonstrate in
meaningful physical ways that they really do love and care for others.
Secondly this passage states that this is a benchmark to evaluate if we
are really a servant of Jesus Christ. If we are we will love in action
and walk our talk. But there is a third concept that this passage speaks
of that I want to focus on in this homily or short teaching.
The verse states, "This then is how...we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us."
There are times in our life as a follower of Christ that our hearts will
criticize or condemn how we are living our life as a Christian. Our
hearts might condemn our Christian witness, our relationship with the
Lord or our commitment level to our Heavenly Father. This verse is
saying that godly living in obedience can put at rest, the condemnation
that our hearts might bring against us. But there may be times that our
heart will condemn us despite our best efforts in obedience. John Stott
puts it this way, "However firmly grounded the Christian's assurance is,
his heart may sometimes need reassurance." There are two important
points to consider when we experience condemnation from our hearts.
First, this passage is telling us that if we love as God loves, as Jesus
did and as the Holy Spirit motivates us to, then this will be evidence
to our hearts, that we belong to God and are standing in His truth. It
will be evidence that we can set our hearts at rest when our hearts
might attempt to condemn us.
Secondly we need to realize that condemnation is a ugly judgmental
process whereby you are judged on your sinful thoughts and actions. If
we are not living Christ-like in how we treat and minister to others,
our hearts will have a tendency to condemn us because of our behavior.
This condemnation can be destructive and Satan can use this as a
foothold to accuse and torment us. The Devil would love our hearts to
dwell on all our failures and faults as a Christian. It would make his
job of hindering the work of God in our lives much easier. We might
think that it would be a good thing for our heart to condemn us for bad
behavior, but we need to be careful we see the difference between
condemnation and conviction.
As Christians we are no longer condemned. Romans 8:1-2 states,
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me
free from the law of sin and death." As a child of God we are no longer
condemned for our sins. We have been forgiven for all our past, present
and future sins. We are justified in the eyes of God and no longer
stand under His condemning judgment. We have been set free from any
condemnation. We need to remember that as believers we should be
convicted about our lack of obedience, but we should be careful not to
condemn ourselves in a degrading manner. Self-condemnation is a negative
demeaning activity that can be destructive spiritually and emotionally.
When our heart condemns us, it may be correct that we are not living or
thinking right, but it also may not be correct. Again John Stott
comments on this idea, "Often our conscience accuses us justly...But our
conscience is by no means infallible; its condemnation may often be
unjust." The heart usually condemns us out of emotion or a nebulous
feeling that something is wrong. It may draw on some ideals or morals
that we learned from our parents or society. But Christian conviction is
a positive encouragement that can hold us accountable for the godly
behavior that God desires for us to have because it is based on God's
Word and the Holy Spirit's influence. Conviction can cause positive
growth in our faith and discipline where condemnation can frustrate and
destroy our attempts to grow in our Christian life. Conviction can
motivate us, but condemnation can suppress and possibly kill any
motivation we might have towards obedience.
Condemnation depresses us while conviction challenges us. Condemnation
tears us down while conviction strives to build us up and stimulates us
to better thoughts and actions.
There are several ways we can rely upon conviction to monitor our
behavior and thought life rather than destructive self-condemnation. As
Christians when we accept Christ as our Savior we are given the Holy
Spirit to live within us. Part of His ministry in our lives is to
convict us regarding sin. In John 16:8-9 it says, "I will send him to
you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin
and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin," His ministry in our
lives is to admonish, rebuke, reprove, correct, in other words, convict
us of sin in our life. He will never condemn us for our thoughts or
actions because we are a child of God, but He will strongly convict us
and we should agree with Him when He does see unrighteous behavior or
thoughts in our life. The Holy Spirit will speak the truth to us in
love, just as we are instructed to do this when confronting others
(Ephesians 4:15). If we align our personal convictions with those of the
Holy Spirit we will live a godly obedient life. As long as we do not
quench His holy admonitions or ignore His godly corrections (1
Thessalonians 5:19) we will live as our Heavenly Father would have us.
This verse in 1 John is just stating a fact that we will have a tendency
to condemn ourselves at times if we are not loving others as a
Christian should. The way to avoid this condemnation from our hearts is
to love as Christ loved and foster an ongoing attitude of godly
conviction of how we should live rather than a fleshly condemnation of
how we act and behave at times. When we do love in godly ways, we can,
as the verse says, "set our hearts at rest in His presence." In other
words, when we are walking our talk and loving as we are living, we can
have a clear conscience before the Lord in all we do. This not only is
the right thing to do, it prevents our hearts from condemning us.
The other very precious words in this passage are, "For God is greater
than our hearts, and He knows everything." There are times when we will
stumble and fall, make a mistake or let temptation get the best of us.
When we allow our hearts to condemn us we need to remember that God is
much greater than our hearts. He is more loving, gracious and merciful
than we can understand. He knows everything about the deepest parts of
us and loves us despite our short-comings. He knows why we are failing
to obey down to the smallest detail. He knows how to minister to us and
how to help us whether we are living a life of obedience, stagnating in
apathy or disobeying His will and commands. Above all, He knows we are a
child of His and He will do everything in His power and in His timing
to help and encourage us. He will not only comfort us and instruct us,
He will also discipline us in love when necessary. It is beyond our
comprehension to understand how great our God is and how much He knows
about our heart and its spiritual condition. This should give us a very
secure feeling, that God is always appraised of where we are in our
spiritual maturity and how we are dealing, or not dealing with struggles
and temptations.
When we face a situation where we feel like we are being condemned by
our accusing heart we need to remember that God is the judge and that He
will deal with us honestly and fairly. May we seek first to always obey
His Word, listen to His Spirit and seek to foster our relationship with
Him. May we let God's Word and the Holy Spirit convict us and avoid
letting our heart condemn us in a demeaning manner. May we seek to love
at all times so that we can be assured that we are in the truth and
prevent any condemnation that might come from our heart.
I believe it should also be mentioned that one way we can love people is
to avoid condemning them in an ungodly fashion. If it is wrong for our
hearts to condemn us, then it is wrong for us to condemn people as well.
We need to love or confront them as Jesus would. Jesus had a skill in
how to confront people who were disobedient, rude, and worldly. He also
know very well how to comfort those who were hurting, depressed and felt
they were beyond hope. We need to seek to grow in our ability to help
and love, confront and convict others in a manner like Christ.
Scriptures such as Galatians 6:1, 1 John 5:16 and Matthew 18:15-20 give
instruction on this matter.
"Condemnation
of course is far different than God’s conviction. Condemnation seeks to
present us guilty and eliminate hope whereas conviction will show us
our mistakes but provide a solution. Condemnation is self-imposed but
conviction comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer. A
completely negative view of self is what produces condemnation. This
view takes away from and opposes God’s view of us."
Daniel Unger
Colossians 1:10-14
"And we pray
this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please
him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the
knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his
glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and
joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in
the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has
rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sins."
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