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When we look out on our world, a joyful community is not what we see. Nations are at each other’s throats. Within the nation, there is severe polarization. The church often seems hopelessly divided and unable to work together. Churches themselves can be nasty places. People get hurt, and they don’t come back. Families are ripped apart. Those who should be the greatest support become alienated from one another or do terrible things to one another. What hope is there for such situations?
We have the answer in this verse. It is prayer. We can “receive from him anything we ask” (1 John 3:22). There are endless resources in prayer. We should not look upon any situation outside of us and think, this is hopeless. God is greater than our challenges and is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even imagine.
So, we are not helpless victims in the face of the evils and divisions of this world. We can ask and “receive from him anything we ask” (1 John 3:22). In this passage, there are two conditions that need to be fulfilled in order to have confidence before God. One is a heart of love for other people. The other is faith in Jesus Christ. Each present their own unique challenge, and we will consider the internal challenge to love and then the external challenge to faith. Finally, we will consider the goal of having a clear conscience before God.
The Internal Challenge
The internal challenge is to have a clear conscience before God. As we approach God, we need to remember that He is holy and righteous and pure. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we are to go before God, then our heart needs to be one that flees the darkness and pursues the light.
Verse 19 connects this section with the previous one. Love of our brothers and sisters is a sure sign that we are part of the light and have passed from death to life. “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.” When we have a heart of love toward others, we can also have confidence before God. On the other hand, if we harbor hatred or contempt or unforgiveness towards others, then we cannot have confidence before God.
This is exactly what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift” (Mt. 5:23–24). It is also why He said, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. We cannot enter into prayer with a heart of love for God harboring hatred and contempt for human beings. We can’t praise God and curse men at the same time. We cannot divorce the horizontal from the vertical.
We may sometimes not think about where we are in our relationships with human beings, but we need to remember that God sees our hearts. “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). People have taken this verse two ways. One is negatively: God knows the truth, and so we should be completely honest before Him. The second is positively: God will show grace, even if our hearts condemn us. Both of these present some truth, but I think the former fits better here because it is about testing our hearts. The goal is that our hearts would not condemn us and so we would have confidence before God.
There are two key things we are looking for. “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23). Do we have faith in Jesus Christ? Do we love our brothers? Without faith in Christ, it is impossible to please God. It is only through Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice that we can enter into God’s presence. We must actively believe this and enter through Him. However, God does not want us to ignore our relationships with others either. See how important love for one another is for our Lord?
If we have love for our brothers and sisters and faith in Jesus Christ, then we should have confidence before God and ask of Him what we need expecting to receive all things from Him. Living in faith and obedience is the way we live in communion with Him. “The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them” (1 John 5:23).
Now, note, that this is precisely what Jesus said in John 15. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you . . . If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. . . . My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (7, 10, 12). Read the whole section, and I think you will gain quite a bit of clarity on the meaning of this passage in 1 John 3.
Now, there are several questions that come up here. First, what if our heart does condemn us? Then, what are we to do? Do we have to obey for a certain amount of time in order to be able to go confidently before God? No. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” A heart that does not condemn us is a mere confession of sin away. Nothing should keep us from approaching God. If we have sin, let us confess and forsake it.
A second question is, what about other people? What if they don’t want to be reconciled to us? Do we have to wait before them before we can go before God? Distinguish here between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is being open to being reconciled. It means we are open to others. We cannot control them. In our hearts, we should let go of the wrong and be ready to be reconciled when they are ready.
Now, as we think about knowing that we belong to Christ, we should not think that this just our own mental exercise. The Spirit of God Himself will lead us. “And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us” (1 John 3:24). As Paul puts, the Spirit of God witnesses with our Spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16). The Spirit enables us to be sure that we are children of God.
The External Challenge
As soon as John speaks of the Spirit, he tells them that they should not believe “every spirit.” Not everything that is religious is necessarily good. Instead, he says, “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). He warns them against that which would lead them away from faith in Jesus Christ as the one true God and eternal life.
According to John, there is one key test of the true and false prophet. What do they say about Jesus? “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world” (1 John 4:2–3). They may say something about Jesus, but they deny that He is the true God come in the flesh. They deny the truth of the faith. We should recognize that many people will like what they say, “They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them” (1 John 4:5). False teaching is powerful because it is seductive. It is not always immediately repulsive. We have to be on our guard.
In our own day, we can see the same thing. It is still the key mark of false teaching. Those who lead people astray try to say that Jesus is something different. He is not the true God. He is just a man. He shows the way, but he is not the way. This is what the false teachers will say. It’s easy to be religious and miss the true religion. There are many false prophets gone out into the world. That’s why we can’t just accept whatever sounds good or appears religious. We cannot believe every spirit. We have to test the spirits. There are things that could lead us astray.
Without Christ, we have no access to the father. It is our faith that is foundational to our relationship. Without it, we have no hope. So, we have to be on our guard.
Now, John’s expectation is that his readers have not followed false teaching. They have overcome the world through faith in Christ. “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). This is what John will say in the next chapter: “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).
So, we need to guard our faith. We need to know and understand what we believe and why over against what we do not believe and why. A good place to think through this is in our confession of faith. It is not infallible, but it is a helpful guide that helps us think through how the church has avoided false teaching through the ages. I recommend them to your study. These are tools that will help keep you in the faith. This will help us think through what lines up and does not line up with the Apostles’ teaching.
The Goal of Fellowship with God
Now, some people can get interested in theology for its own sake. They have a curiosity that drives them to study these things. We must remember, though, that the goal of all theology is piety, joyful fellowship with God and man. Any study of theology that does not lead to joyful fellowship with God and man has missed the point. “The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them” (1 John 3:24).
In addition, when we have faith in Jesus Christ and love for our brothers and sisters, God invites us to ask anything in His name. He invites us to seek from Him joyful fellowship with God and man. This is what He is willing to give. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15). John probably heard in His ears what Jesus said to them just before He died. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).
Now, why, then does it seem that our prayers are so often unanswered? Well, probably more are answered than we think. We just often forget and don’t know them.
However, faith in Christ and love for our brethren is going to push is in a certain direction. We often pray for things that we don’t really need to make our joy complete. We often think that our joy will be complete if we can live in the right place or the right house or have the right job or have the right friends or have the right things or have the right vacation. None of these things are true. What we need to experience joy is faith in God, hope of eternal life, and a love for God and for our neighbor. What we need is wisdom that understands the right way to live, courage to live it out, temperance to say “yes” to the best, and a heart that seeks the blessing of our community. That’s what we need to make our joy complete. Now, sometimes God gives us those other things, too, but we really need to complete our joy is faith, hope, and love.
Second, our requests aren’t often aligned with love. Love is a desire for other’s fellowship and well-being. When we get a vision for the well-being of those around us, then God will answer our prayers. He will open doors. He will change lives. I remember when our church in Spearfish had a moment of repentance. We realized that we had not loved our community in the way God had called us to, and we began to confess our sins and pray together regularly. God began to move. He brought people to our church who needed to experience that love. He brought people who would help us show that love. It was an experience I will always treasure and remember. Ask anyone who’s gotten that sort of a vision what happened when they prayed. Ask our ministry partners about it.
That’s what he can do on an individual level. What happens when we really start to pray for the people around us? What would happen if we interceded for the people in our community? God would open up doors. Let me challenge you to have at least one person outside your family that you are praying for regularly. Think of one person who needs the love of God and His people, and pray that God would open the door. That’s one thing you could do. See what God does when you start to pray.
Conclusion
In this passage, God challenges us to keep our faith pure and our consciences clear. However, there is a reason for that. He wants to fellowship with us and use us in the world. That’s the goal that is open to us. If that is not where you are, then there is nothing keeping you from it. Confess your sins to Christ. Seek His grace. There is forgiveness and there is cleansing! A clear conscience is available.
If you are there, then use what He has given to you to enjoy fellowship with Him. Start asking Him to do work through you in the community. Start interceding for the people around you. This is the amazing resource that we have. “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:22–23).
Benediction: Dear friends, you are the ones who keep the commands of the Lord and do what pleases Him. Let me encourage you to ask your heavenly Father for the things you need with full expectation that you will receive from Him all that you need.
May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desire of your hear and make all your plans succeed.
May you shout for joy over your victory and lift up your banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests. Amen.
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