When Our Hearts Condemn Us

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

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.”