By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 3:19-24 (ESV)

I want to discuss a very common American phrase. A phrase that gets used to excuse all sorts of behavior. A phrase that leads people to justify many bad decisions. A phrase that guides many people every day. A phrase that is well intended, well-meaning and dangerous. Of course if used properly it can be very beneficial. But I am afraid that without the right understanding it can be superficial, and very few understand it.

The phrase is “follow your heart”. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

John does talk about the heart here. It can be a problem when we pick up a biblical passage in the middle of a chapter in the middle of a book. Digging into scripture has an extremely important requirement. CONTEXT.

1 john 3 has to be taken in context. I want us to see what John means when he talks about the heart. And I want to be careful how we handle these types of clichés, phrases, and oh so attractive Facebook pictures.

They always seem put these phrases on a pretty background. Phrases like don’t surround yourself with negative people who don’t appreciate you. Walk away from them and walk towards those who appreciate you and live a blessed life. Sounds good. Might even hear something like that in some churches today. Now what if Jesus walked away from all those negative, unappreciative people and followed this advice. Where would we be?

Buying a house, what does your heart say? Adopting a puppy. What does your heart say? Choosing a mate? What does your heart say? Leaving your mate for someone who appreciates you more? What does your heart say? See. You have to be careful with those phrases no matter how pretty the background picture is.

CONTEXT
This is the same John of the gospel of John and the book of Revelation. John has a main purpose in this book. How can I be convinced I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He has certain tests of belief, obedience and love. Right in the middle he specifically deals with the issue of the heart. Can I trust my heart?

THE LYING HEART 19-22
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) says The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?. The NIV says who can cure it. Jeremiah might say don’t follow your heart.

There are two major lies of the heart
You’re not that bad. This is the typical American, pop psychology self-help we hear a lot of today even in churches. It includes those ideas of you are great. You are worth it. You deserve it. You are special. We have built such a culture of narcissism.

I am not advocating a morose, morbid. self-deprecating attitude. But most people have a very inflated sense of themselves.

You’re Way Too Bad This is just the opposite and it too can be wrapped in religion. You are too far gone, way too bad and there is no hope for you.

As Christians, we find that our hearts do often condemn us. And this is not a bad thing if we know what to do with this. Like a judge who discerns something in the prisoner which he must expose and sentence, our hearts judge us. Our hearts know things about ourselves that are unknown to others, and sometimes their accusations, unlike the accusations of Satan, is not false.

John does not encourage us to deny these things, or to shrug them off, but to meet their challenge by seeing that God knows more. God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. It is not that God minimizes or disregards our failures. In fact, He knows them better than we do, for He sees and understands us even more deeply than we can ever know ourselves. He knows exactly where our hearts are. He does not revel the issues to punish us but to heal us.

So what do we do when our heart condemns us.

Where we only know our sins in a very limited way, God knows them fully and absolutely. He knows all that there is to blame in us, where we only know it in part. By God’s grace we acknowledge there is something in us that needs correction.

Secondly, if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart in the sense that He is greater in compassion. While we may have intense feelings of unworthiness, yet God knows if we love Him and if we love His people. He knows that we are His in spite of all our failures and sins. He knows the sincerity of our faith.

All through this book John insists that our assurance is based not on our subjective feelings, on listening to our heart but on knowing God’s word, God’s truth, and God’s  love at work within us. Look at what God has said concerning you.

What is the result of this? Confidence. John says this confidence is shown in prayer. Here is the attitude of one who has a clear conscience before God. It is not that this person has been living sinless, but rather that he has been quick to confess and forsake his sins. By doing this, he has confidence before God and boldness in prayer. Thus, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

WHAT IS A CONFIDENT HEART 22-24

A Heart In Tune With God’s Heart The first advantage of an uncondemning heart is what John calls “confidence before God.” But this must be understood, not in the sense of confidence in myself, but in the sense of confidence of one’s standing before God and therefore of access to Him.

It is a mistake to make God’s answers to prayer conditional on our obedience. Clearly these great promises about prayer do not give us carte blanche to get anything we want from God.

Prayer is not a sort of quid pro quo, by which God rewards us, answering our prayers according to what we have ‘put in’ and how pleased he is with us. Prayer is the expression of our requests to a loving, heavenly Father who loves both to hear and to answer his children, according to his wisdom as to what is best. We want his will in our lives and the lives of others, rather than pursuing our own selfish desires. No longer do we say God this is what I would like and I hope you agree with me.

HOW DO WE GET A CONFIDENT HEART
The Holy Spirit takes the historical life, death and resurrection of the Word made flesh, in the pages of the written Word of Scripture, and so awakens our minds to its truth and our wills to its priorities that we are brought to repent and to believe the good news, as we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To this John adds the objective evidence of a changed life, with a new concern to live righteously in obedience to Christ’s commands

‘The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children’ (Rom. 8:16). How good it is to know that all this is the gift of God, (its not a reward for proper behavior) in the Holy Spirit.

In all this we remember the great promise of 1 John 3:20: when we feel accused and condemned, we can look to Christ and know that all sin is forgiven. God’s sentence of acquittal overrules our heart’s sentence of condemnation. And that is not because God does not see all the facts or has overlooked some of our failures; quite the contrary, “he knows everything” (v. 20) but forgives us anyway!

So, don’t follow your heart, it is a liar and a deceiver. It will tell you how good you are and that you don’t need to be forgiven because you’re not that bad. Or it will tell you you’re so bad you could never be forgiven.

I believe it was Tim Keller who said something to the affect you are a worse sinner than you imagine and God loves you more than you can imagine.

Don’t follow your heart. Follow God’s heart as He revealed it in His Word, in His Son and by His Spirit.