Does Your Heart Condemn You?
- davidwperk
- May 5
- 6 min read
Devotional Reflection, Monday, May 5, 2025
Monday of the third week of Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase s for reflection from today’s epistle reading:
19And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him
20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
(You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 960)
AM Psalm 25; PM Psalm 9, 15
Daniel4:19-27; 1 John 3:19-4:6; Luke 4:14-30
Today we celebrate the Feast of Martyrs of the Reformation Era. (See below.)
David's Reflections
Why would our hearts condemn us? And what would that look like? For the Epistle writer, there were those within the church claiming the possession of secret mysteries from God that others lacked. They treated with contempt and condescension those outside this "circle of light" in which they believed they walked.
They understood the Christ to be a heavenly visitor who was not really a human being and they understood salvation in terms of knowledge of the secrets necessary to escape entrapment in this world and its physical existence. Thus they were liable to the accusation: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world." (vv. 2-3).
This passage tells me that God desires us to live with full assurance that we are children of God, beloved, forgiven, and safe in the love of God. If our souls are fluttering with anxiety and self-condemnation like butterfly wings in a breeze, we are responding to something other than the nature of God and to some form of teaching other than that of Jesus and New Testament passages like this one and Paul’s majestic words in Romans 8.
If being sure that we are beloved and have a home with God now that endures beyond death depends on knowing the right secrets and truths or on doing the right things in the right amount, our hearts always will have work to do in the shop of self condemnation. Our hearts will have sense enough to know that there is no measuring cup for how much knowledge or how much obedience is enough to add to the recipe to bake a salvation cake. We will never know if we've added enough of either. So, we will endure ongoing anxiety about being beloved by God. Only trusting God's loving grace will set our hearts at peace and still the fluttering within.
Frederick Buechner in his novel about Jacob, The Son of Laughter, has that Genesis patriarch reflect on God's nature in these words (In the novel, the characters call God "The Fear."):
The Fear comes when he comes. It is the Fear who summons. The gods give in return for your gifts to them: the strangled dove, the burnt ox, the first fruit. There are those who give their firstborn even, the child bound to the altar for knifing as Abraham bound Isaac till the Fear of his mercy bade the urine-soaked old man unbind him. The fear gives to the empty-handed, the empty hearted, as to me from the stone stair he gave promise and blessing, and gave them also to Isaac before me, to Abraham before Isaac, all of us wandering only, herdsmen and planters moving with the seasons as gales of dry sand move with the wind. In return it is only the heart's trust that the Fear asks. Trust him though you cannot see him and he has no silver hand to hold. Trust him though you have no name to call him by, though out of the black night he leaps like a stranger to cripple and bless. *
* Frederick Buechner, The Son of Laughter, New York: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 184.
Collect of the Day, the third Sunday of Easter
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 224-225)
Collect for the Weekdays of Easter
O Lord, you have saved us through the Paschal mystery of Christ: Continue to support your people with heavenly gifts, that we may attain true liberty, and enjoy the happiness of heaven which we have begun to taste on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Weekday Eucharistic Propers, p. 61)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Martyrs of the Reformation Era
Collect of the Feast of Martyrs of the Reformation Era
Almighty and Most Merciful God, give to your Church that peace which the world cannot give, and grant that those who have been divided on earth may be reconciled in heaven, and share together in the vision of your glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for the Renewal of Life
O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
For the Departed
Almighty God, we remember before you today your faithful servant N.; and we pray that, having opened to him the gates of larger life, you will receive him more and more into your joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served you in the past, he may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)
A Prayer for Light
Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of thy faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Epistle, 1 John 3:19-4:6
19And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him
20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
4:1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.
4 Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common PrayerMorning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common PrayerNoonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common PrayerOrder of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
Comments