Question on Bible Reading -Says What It Means Mean What it Says

QUESTION RECEIVED:

What does this verse mean..?

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:  If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:19, 20 NIV)

MY ANSWER: 

Here is a lesson on Bible study we all need to heed to when examining Scripture–

1)      Who is the author writing to? (God ordained the human author with an eternal message.)

(Here it is John writing to new Christians.)

2)      Why is he writing?

(At the beginning in chapter 1:3-4 says “3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.”)

3)      What is the whole theme of the message of that paragraph or chapter.  Check the proceeding and following chapters to see if they affect the understanding of the authors message.

The message is

1)      Christians have the love of Christ in there heart.

2)      Humans have evil naturally in their heart.

3)      There is conflict with the love of Christ and our natural evil heart.

4)       Do not trust our emotions of the heart as it is fickle.  

5)      When we are saved, the text is talking to Christians, we dwell in Christ and he dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.

When we repent of our sins and call on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation he sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.  We Christians have now a helper or counselor to turn to examine our disturbed heart.   We can know our emotions need to be checked with the loving Holy Spirit’s witness and respond to God humbly and correctly.

Below is the entire passage from 1 John 3: 11-24

11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.