John tells us that love is very important in the testing of our relationship with God. If we have no love for either God the Father or God the Son, obviously, our hearts are still dead in sin. But that doesn’t mean that even Christians couldn’t love the Lord more fervently and consistently. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind, and with ALL thy strength: this is the first commandment.” But additionally, if you have little love for your brethren in Christ, you are at very least spiritually emaciated. In fact, THIS lack of love may prove that you aren’t a child of God. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” “And hereby (in this) we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him” (verse 19). Genuine, practical, sacrificial love for the brethren gives us confidence that we are sons of God.
At this point John inserts a little parenthesis, bringing out a short lesson about confidence and assurance. Let’s examine what he says about this assurance, and what it means in regard to prayer. Following that I will give you an extended illustration from the life of Paul.
Exposition.
Look at verse 21: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, THEN have we confidence toward God.” Don’t let the words “if our heart condemn us not” blow your mind. If you are half the Christian God wants you to be, your heart will condemn you from time to time. When you sin, the Holy Spirit will stab your heart, and it will condemn you. This verse is not demanding sinless perfection – an idea which John has condemned already. This is referring to a potential reality where the Christian is quite sure he has no unconfessed sin in his life. There is nothing between his soul and the Saviour, because he deals with sin when it arises.
The word “confidence” in verse 21 is particularly interesting (at least to me). Usually we think of that word as something like self-assurance, and that is not incorrect. But this Greek word has a specific reference to speech. This is referring to verbal confidence. Just a couple examples should show you what I mean: In John 18:20 when the high priest was ranting, “Jesus answered him, I SPAKE OPENLY to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.” Christ’s “speaking openly” was this same word: speaking with confidence. And in Acts 4 as the priests were investigating the apostles, “when they saw the BOLDNESS of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” This is referring first to the bold preaching of the apostles, and it is the same confidence of our text. And when Paul was in Rome in Acts 28 he stayed busy “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, WITH ALL CONFIDENCE, no man forbidding him.” This“confidence” is a divine gift which enables God’s people to boldly speak to the lost about Christ.
But John is not talking about preaching the gospel. He says, “then have we CONFIDENCE (boldness of speech) TOWARD GOD.” “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” We can face God, bringing requests to Him in prayer, because we are in His will, obeying His precepts. And the specific commandment given to us in the context is “love toward the brethren.” Simply put, we may have confidence and boldness in prayer because we love the brethren. It shouldn’t surprise us to find the same word John uses here in Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore COME BOLDLY unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
If practical, sacrificial, genuine love for your brethren in the Lord is essential to prayer, should the Lord ever listen to anything you ask Him?
In Acts 23, Paul begins a defense and explanation of the great change in his life: his conversion.
We are told that Claudius Lysias, the Roman Captain, “commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.” When Paul stood to speak, he addressed, not Claudius, but the “counsel,” or as it is in Greek – the “sunedrion” (soon-ed’-ree-on). The Sanhedrin was like the Jewish Senate, but with a very definite religious overtone. Paul had never had the opportunity to speak to such an assemblage before. He was ready to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the creme-de-la-creme of Israel. And he did so with boldness; with confidence.
He intended to show that he had, and still was, doing his best to serve God as he understood his responsibility. As he said in I Corinthians 13: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” No one can become an adult without first being a child. And children do really childish things. But Paul had become one of the Lord’s mature sons. And now he understood the grace and responsibilities which the Lord had given him.
So Paul spoke that day with CONFIDENCE.
“Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” There are hints throughout the New Testament which suggest that Paul had serious eye-problems. There is no proof – only circumstantial evidence – but it seems to pop up from time to time. Even if that was true, he “earnestly beheld” the counsel, but he apparently failed to see the high priest. It looked to the Sanhedrin that he was scrutinizing them.
Whether anyone knew how well, or how poorly Paul could see, they saw him looking earnestly at them. This tells us something about the intensity and posture with which Paul was looking at them. “Earnestly beholding” is a fairly common term in the New Testament. For example have it in Acts 1: “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they LOOKED STEDFASTLY toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.” Acts 3:12 – “And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why LOOK YE SO EARNESTLY on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?” For those of you who like this sort of thing, the Greek word is “atenizo” (at-en-id’-zo). One of the definitions of “to attend” is to pay close attention to something – really close attention.
So Paul was diligently looking at his accusers. And I would guess that look exuded confidence and fearlessness. If any of 98% of the people of Israel had been in Paul’s sandals that day, standing before this august assembly, they would have cowering in fear. Their knees would have been buckling or smiting each other, and their palms would have been sweaty. Their heads would have been swimming, and their eyes would have been cast to the floor. But Paul, as best he could, looked them in the eye, each and everyone of them. It wasn’t in anger or arrogance; it wasn’t with defiance or deprecation. It was with a confidence and composure that these people were not used to seeing in the common people. Just as Paul said, he was there in his integrity, with nothing to be ashamed of before them.
And here is one point which takes us back to I John 3. Paul had nothing about which to be ashamed – not before men, not before the Sanhedrin and not before God. There are a great many preachers who should sit down and shut up because there is unconfessed sin in their lives. They should be ashamed before God even if no other person is aware of their sin. And there are a great many general Christians who have no business praying – for the same reason. I am not telling anyone to stop praying; I am telling them to repent and honor God with their lives. “Confidence” is the word John uses, and it is the first word epitomizing Paul in Acts 23.
And the second word is CONSONANCE.
“Consonance” is a word that I first learned while playing in our school band, although it has other contexts. It speaks about an agreement of sounds: harmony, accord and a close correspondence between instruments. “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I HAVE LIVED in all good conscience before God until this day.”
That little comment “I have lived” is a little more complex that what we might first imagine. That is the single Greek word – “politeuomai” (pol-it-yoo’-om-ahee). Our English word “politics” come from this. And politics, of course, is the art or science of governing. Isn’t that what Paul was saying in this statement? “Men and brethren, I have GOVERNED my life, from my youth until today, in such a way that my conscience is clean before God.” That word is also used in Phil. 1:27 – “Let your conversation be as it BECOMETH the gospel of Christ.”
So Paul was saying that his life was in harmony with his Heavenly citizenship. He had lived his life – since the time of his conversion – just as God intended for him to live it. He was no traitor, despite what some people might have been saying. He certainly loved his Christian brethren, but he also loved his brethren according to the flesh. In love he was willing to sacrifice his life that other Jews like himself could hear of the Messiah.
And once again, we need to ask ourselves: Is my life being spent in harmony with the Lord? Am I doing His will? Am I breaking any of His commandments? Am I bringing glory to His name? Our Christian lives contain a Heavenly citizenship, and not to live in that light is treason. A traitor has no business petitioning the lawful King.
The third word tying these two scriptures together is CONSCIENCE.
According to the dictionary: “conscience is that faculty of the mind, or that inborn sense, of right and wrong, by which we judge of the moral character of human conduct.” Everyone has a conscience; it is common to all men. But like all our other natural faculties, it has been perverted by Adam’s fall into sin. Generally speaking the human conscience has been polluted and tainted. Titus 1:15 – “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and CONSCIENCE is DEFILED.” And it can be “seared” – that is, it can be burned and made hard, tough, calloused and unresponsive. I Timothy 4:1-2 – “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their CONSCIENCE SEARED with a hot iron.” Everyone has a conscience. But the sin in us works very hard to poison, calcify and ruin it, distorting what the conscience has to say. And so much of the world system around us is designed to cover, mollify and silence the conscience.
Paul knew that his part in the murder of Stephen was morally reprehensible. And earlier he had used all kinds of excuses to silence what his conscience was telling him. But then one day the Lord broke through the darkness, and his conscience instantly responded as it should have. It is not that way with the conscience of everyone, but it was with him.
It is sometimes foolishly said, “Let your conscience be your guide.” That can be as bad as letting “the Devil be your guide,” because it is basically the same thing. There are many ways to see and study the effects of the fall of man into sin, but one of the obvious places to start is with the conscience. It is as corrupted by sin as any other part of our human being.
An obviously related word to “conscience” is “consciousness.” And you’ll notice that they are both made up of a prefix and the word “science,” which refers to knowledge. Sometimes the Bible uses the word “consciousness.” simply to refer to an awareness of our own thoughts. Hebrews 10:1-2 – “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more CONSCIENCE of sins.” Romans 2:14-15 – “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their CONSCIENCE also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.”
What Paul said to the priests was that he persecuted the Christians as a conscientious (though mistaken) Jew. And now he was following his God-empowered conscience in turning from Judaism to living like a Christian – a believer in and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was being accused of being a renegade, an opponent of the law, a defector from the people, a hater of the temple, but none of this was true. His only desire was to have a clear conscience toward the Lord.
So Paul addressed the Sanhedrin with no “apologies” to make. The golden thread of consistency ran through his life as a good citizen in God’s kingdom. He had the consolation of a good conscience. That didn’t nullify or justify his earlier sins, but at least before these counselors, his conscience was clean. And before God, who is greater than our hearts, Paul was not condemned.
Now, returning to John, this is the same sort of confidence we are to have, and which we can have, before God. “Because we keep his commandment, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Do you want it be true in your life: “whatsoever we ask, we receive of him?” Then live in repentance before the Lord, and strive to do His will in all things, as illustrated in Paul. And keep in mind that John was specifically talking about love toward the brethren. Our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is a very important subject: just ask John. And it is also one which is often overlooked. Do you love the brethren as you should?