In verse 20 John continues, “Because if our heart blames us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” Actually it is our conscience, which is a part not only of our spirit but also of our heart, that blames us or condemns us. The conscience in our heart is the representative of God’s ruling within us. If our conscience condemns us, surely God, who is greater than His representative and knows all things, will condemn us. The consciousness of such condemnation in our conscience alerts us to the danger of breaking our fellowship with God. If we attend to this, it will be a help to our fellowship with God and will keep us abiding in the Lord.
By reading the context, we can see that in verse 20 the heart actually refers to the conscience. The conscience is one of the four parts of the heart, which is composed of the mind, the emotion, the will (the three parts of the soul), and the conscience, which is part of our spirit. Our heart is influenced, directed, and controlled to a great extent by our conscience.
When our heart blames us, this means that our conscience condemns us. If we do not live by the divine reality, our conscience will check, blame, and condemn us. As a result, our heart will protest.
In verse 20 John says that God is greater than our heart; that is, God is greater than our conscience. God has a government, and this government has a local administration within us. This local administration of God’s government is our conscience. Our conscience, therefore, is the local government of God within us. In a sense, our conscience is both a “law court” and “police station.” Often our conscience “arrests” us. The police station of our conscience, which knows the law very well, may issue an order for our “arrest.” Then the police station knows when to turn us over to the law court. We know from experience that many times we are arrested and taken to the law court, where we are judged and condemned. When this happens, we need the cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus, the Son of God. This indicates that the condemnation of the conscience spoken of in chapter three will take us back to the cleansing mentioned in chapter one.
If our conscience blames us, arresting us and condemning us, certainly God will also condemn us, for He is greater than our conscience and knows all things.
The Epistle of 1 John is not only on the divine fellowship, but is also on the details of this fellowship. Here in 3:20 we have one of the details related to the divine fellowship. John’s writing regarding this matter is profound, mysterious, divine, and detailed. In no other portion of the holy Word do we have as many details about the divine fellowship as we have in these verses in chapter three of 1 John. These verses are crucial to our fellowship with God.
In chapter one much is unveiled regarding the fellowship of the divine life. But in chapter three this fellowship is viewed from another angle. In chapter one the angle is that of the divine light shining within us. As a result of this shining, we are exposed and realize that we have sinned. But here in chapter three we have the angle of living by the divine reality. If we do not live by the divine reality, our conscience will protest and condemn us. That condemnation is a sign of God’s condemnation. Therefore, we must do something to conciliate the situation, to calm the turmoil in our heart, to cause our conscience to be at peace with God. In order for our heart to be quiet and calm in this way, we need to live, behave, and act in the divine reality.
If our heart condemns us for not living in the divine reality, this is a sign that God also condemns us. Therefore, we need to have an improvement in our inward condition. This does not mean, however, that we should try to improve our character or outward behavior. It means that we need to deal with our inward situation so that we may be willing to live by the divine life and in the divine reality. If we do this, we shall have the assurance that we are in the divine reality. Then we shall be able to persuade our heart, cause it to be tranquil, and enjoy peace in our conscience with God. This is related to the divine fellowship.
What John says concerning fellowship in chapter one involves the confessing of sins under the shining of the divine light and the cleansing of our sins by the blood of Christ. But in chapter three we have the protesting and blaming of our conscience within us. This is not only a matter of the divine light shining in us, upon us, and through us; it is also a matter of a cleansed, purified, and purged conscience giving us a sign that we are not right in our living, that we are not living in the divine reality. When we do not live by the divine reality, our conscience will protest and condemn us. This is a sign that God is not pleased with us and that we need an improvement of our inward condition.