Morning!

Sorry I didn’t update yesterday- I was a little lazy.

This last Monday we were going over 1 John 3:19-24, and after the study a phrase caught my eye in verse 20. John is telling his readers how they can be reassured, and he says, “whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20, emphasis added). How does the phrase “he knows everything” fit in here? Don’t worry; if your heart condemns you for your sins, just remember that God remembers even the ones that you forgot. Doesn’t sound very reassuring, John.

But of course that isn’t the sense of the text at all. It’s the other way around. Does your heart condemn you? God doesn’t, and he’s greater than your heart. And no, he hasn’t forgotten about your many sins; rather, he has forgiven them. I think John is being straight up pastoral here. He’s telling his people not to fear that God knows their deepest secrets- it isn’t a stumbling block to him, and it shouldn’t be a stumbling block to us.

Do you ever get antsy when thinking about God’s omniscience? Like that horrifying feeling you get when you realize you didn’t press “end” before complaining about whomever you were just speaking with on the phone? Rather than thinking, Yikes, the Lord knows all my sins!, perhaps we should look at it like this: He hasn’t forgotten to forgive a single one.

-Daniel