Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
In 1 John 3, the author gives two examples of death.
The first is when Adam and Eve’s son Cain murdered his brother Abel. John explains that Abel’s good deeds exposed Cain’s badness, motivating him to hate his brother and kill him. John says if we obey Christ’s command to love each other, the world take a lesson from Cain and will hate us. Prepare to be hated.
John warns: Don’t respond to hate by hating. If you hate someone, you’re a murderer. Stop your thoughts of murder while they are still in your heart, before you begin to act on them.
John’s second example of death is Christ. Instead of murdering his brother, Christ died for his brothers and sisters. John says we too should be ready to die for others.
Die for someone? Really? I am stunned by John’s black-and-white take on life. He says you’re either a death-dealer like Cain or a love-giver and a life-giver like Christ. Not for John the shades of emotional gray that confuse my life, or the misty flood plains on which I live.
But John doesn’t call us to introspect about our emotional lives, our loves and hates. He says, Don’t just sit there, do something. If you see someone in need, help them. Christ calls us to move beyond words and sentiments to actions and truth.
John asks,
How do we know we belong to the truth?
How can we set our hearts at rest in God’s presence,
especially if our hearts condemn us? (1 John 3:19)
His answer:
We know God is greater than our condemning hearts.
He knows everything (vv. 19-20).
Early in my Christian life, this verse left me in an agony of despair. I took John to mean: If my muddled heart knows enough of my sin to condemn me, then God, who knows everything, must have more and better reasons to condemn me.
Part of my problem was a scrupulous conscience, a conscience oversensitive to the slightest hint of sin, a conscience constantly judging my thoughts and actions. My Christian tradition complicated my confusion by teaching that conscience was God’s gift to be obeyed, not a problem to be solved.
I finally took my confusion to the New Testament to see what it says about conscience. Surprise! It taught that conscience is an unreliable judge of good and evil.
The King James Bible talks about a weak conscience, a defiled conscience, a conscience seared with a hot iron, and a conscience loaded with dead works. Hebrews says we require training to know the difference between good and evil (5:14). Watch out! An untrained conscience is a deadly trap. It’s an unruly puppy, chewing slippers and making messes. An untrained conscience needs obedience lessons!
This gives John’s words a different quality. Yes, God is greater than my heart and knows everything. God knows how flawed and self-centered my conscience is, how faulty its judgements about right and wrong.
Let’s pray.
O father, if our hearts condemn us, you are greater than our hearts. You know everything. You know more than enough to condemn us, but you choose to give mercy and healing.
Teach us not to trust the condemning judgments of our muddled conscience. Teach us to discern good and evil.
Teach us not to hate like Cain but to love like Christ.
Teach us not to overthink and overvalue our emotions, whether they are dominated by love and compassion or repugnance and hate. Teach us to respect our emotions and hear what they tell us. And teach us to act in love.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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