Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Blessed Assurance (3:19-24)

Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Blessed Assurance

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)

God knows how we are.  We are going to struggle at times with assurance of our salvation.  For those with Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder it can be a constant struggle.  It is wrong to say we will never doubt.  That is why God is giving through John this letter and this particular paragraph in the letter.  He knows we need help and we can’t rely strictly on subjective measures of assurance.

If we want to reassure ourselves that we are truly God’s children, the way to do this is to apply the tests to ourselves.  Do we believe correctly about Jesus?  Do we seek to keep his commands, especially the command to love the family of faith?  If our hearts do not condemn us in this regard we can be confident of our relationship to God and thus of our prayers being answered.  At one and the same time it is the Holy Spirit who is bearing witness within us that we belong to God.  So we have this objective (more or less) test and we have this subjective internal witness of the Spirit.  God is at work to give us assurance.

I know this will not satisfy those with “the doubting disease” (Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder).  I’ve talked with enough of my brothers and sisters who suffer from this disorder to know that little will satisfy them that they can rest in assurance that they are saved.  If they do not have opportunity for medical and therapeutic interventions for this disease they may flounder quite a bit agonizing over this.  It is a false issue.  The disease (an imbalance of the proper chemicals in the brain) leads them to believe that solving this one issue will make all things right.  It won’t.  Another will take its place.  They are in God’s rescue boat but they are not enjoying the ride, unable to rest assured they are in the boat.  Perhaps they can trust the assurance another can give them, someone who sees the fruit of the Spirit in them, sees them passing the tests of obedience, love and doctrinal correctness.  I’ve seen it help tremendously.