1 John 3:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If during sin we cannot hide from our own conscience, which is limited, as man too is a limited being, then all the more we cannot hide from God, who is boundless and present everywhere. The meaning of this saying is this: children, let us not be liars to one another, loving only with the tongue, but let us prove love by deed. By this we know that we are of the truth, that is, of God. And whatever we say, let us say as if before God. Who, even if he were more shameless than demons, would dare to lie before God as witness? But if we do not do so, and when we say that we love, our heart condemns us of falsehood, then we sin. How so? Because we think we can hide from the God who is present everywhere.

The meaning is this: by speaking the truth, and we shall speak the truth when our deeds correspond to our words, we shall persuade our conscience. This is what the Apostle wishes to express by the word “heart.” And how shall we persuade it? By imagining that we speak before God as witness.

The more a man remembers this rule, and the more he strives to bring his words into agreement with his feelings and deeds, the more rightly he may be called a true Christian. He may say of himself with David: “I foresaw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand” (Ps 14:8). But if a man’s state is such that his own conscience cries out against him, accusing his words and deeds, then he is wretched, for he is far from the path of salvation. Already condemned by his own conscience, he will be condemned sevenfold by Him before Whom all things are naked and exposed (Heb 4:13).

"If our heart reproaches us." This is a parenthetical thought, which in connection with what precedes and follows may be expressed in this way. Being conscious of true love within ourselves, we calm our hearts before God. Thus, even if our heart reproaches us for certain vices, we hope that God, who is all-knowing and knows more than our heart, does not condemn us. Understood in this sense, the following verse only strengthens this verse. The Russian translation, however, views this verse in contrast to verse 21 and ascribes condemnation to God: "If our heart condemns us, how much more God, because God is greater than our heart." But there are no grounds for such a rendering.

"For if our heart," or our conscience, "condemns us," and so forth. This saying is difficult to understand and interpret, and therefore it is not translated and interpreted by all in the same way. According to the Russian translation and interpretation, the meaning is clear and correct. Yet the original text is somewhat altered by it, or more precisely, modified. The original text is not as clear, and the same is true of the Slavonic translation, but its meaning is deeper than in the Russian translation. The meaning of the Russian translation, in connection with the preceding verse, may be paraphrased as follows. Awareness of true and sincere love for one's neighbor calms our heart, or our conscience.

The consequences of our sonship before God. The first consequence is peace of conscience (1 Jn 3:19-22). If we love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth, as befits the children of God, then we are children not merely in name and Christian title, but in truth itself. Or, as the Apostle says, if “we are of the truth,” then “we shall assure our hearts before Him,” before God (1 Jn 3:19). By the word “hearts” the Apostle means the conscience (Theophylact). To explain the greatness of this great inward good of the children of God, the Apostle, as usual, uses a comparative contrast. He compares the judgment of our conscience with the judgment of God. If the first judgment is heavy, then the second is, of course, incomparably heavier.

Looking at the matter from another side, namely from the side of our conscience, the Apostle says that our conscience also condemns us for evil, but praises us for good. From this the Apostle concludes that God too will condemn us for evil and reward us for good. Therefore we may have firm confidence that our petitions to God will be fulfilled when we feel calm before Him and devoted to Him as children. Indeed, if our own heart, a judge not wholly impartial or sinless, condemns our sinfulness, then it is clear that God, the most righteous and most holy Judge, will condemn us for our sins. Conversely, if our conscience, that unceasing requiter of all our deeds, not only does not condemn us, but even approves us for works of love, then all the more will the good God not condemn us.