21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
21 And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God!
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
21 Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
14 And this is the confidence that we have in
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
14 And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening.
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
(Read 1 John 5:13-17)
Upon all this evidence, it is but right that we believe on the name of the Son of God. Believers have eternal life in the covenant of the gospel. Then let us thankfully receive the record of Scripture. Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. The Lord Christ invites us to come to him in all circumstances, with our supplications and requests, notwithstanding the sin that besets us. Our prayers must always be offered in submission to the will of God. In some things they are speedily answered; in others they are granted in the best manner, though not as requested. We ought to pray for others, as well as for ourselves. There are sins that war against spiritual life in the soul, and the life above. We cannot pray that the sins of the impenitent and unbelieving should, while they are such, be forgiven them; or that mercy, which supposes the forgiveness of sins, should be granted to them, while they wilfully continue such. But we may pray for their repentance, for their being enriched with faith in Christ, and thereupon for all other saving mercies. We should pray for others, as well as for ourselves, beseeching the Lord to pardon and recover the fallen, as well as to relieve the tempted and afflicted. And let us be truly thankful that no sin, of which any one truly repents, is unto death.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 John 3:21
Commentary on 1 John 3:16-21
(Read 1 John 3:16-21)
Here is the condescension, the miracle, the mystery of Divine love, that God would redeem the church with his own blood. Surely we should love those whom God has loved, and so loved. The Holy Spirit, grieved at selfishness, will leave the selfish heart without comfort, and full of darkness and terror. By what can it be known that a man has a true sense of the love of Christ for perishing sinners, or that the love of God has been planted in his heart by the Holy Spirit, if the love of the world and its good overcomes the feelings of compassion to a perishing brother? Every instance of this selfishness must weaken the evidences of a man's conversion; when habitual and allowed, it must decide against him. If conscience condemn us in known sin, or the neglect of known duty, God does so too. Let conscience therefore be well-informed, be heard, and diligently attended to.