Tuesday

Related Verses
1 John 3:19-21
19 And in this we will know that we are of the truth, and we will persuade our heart before Him,
20 Because if our heart blames us, it is because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not blame us, we have boldness toward God;

Heb. 8:10-11
10 For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.
11 And they shall by no means each teach his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all will know Me from the little one to the great one among them.

Heb. 10:16
16 “This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will inscribe them,”

Matt. 28:19
19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Eph. 3:16
16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man,

Rev. 1:4-5
4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
5 And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood

Related Reading
John’s word [in 1 John 3:21] is about knowing God in a very subjective way. Some may speak about the almighty God who rules the universe, but here John speaks concerning the God who is in our heart. He does not talk about the mighty God, about the great God; instead, he speaks concerning the practical God. Not only is God infinite, unlimited, and beyond our ability to comprehend; He is also small enough to be in our heart. When God becomes our experience, He is not only the One on the throne who is universally vast, but He is the One in our heart. 

According to the teaching of the New Testament, we need to know God in the personal realm of our heart. God is known by us not in the vastness of the universe but in the smallness of our heart. 

The concern of the New Testament is that we know the God who has come into our being, the One who dwells in our spirit and desires to spread into all the inward parts of our heart [cf. Eph. 3:17]. Therefore, we need to know God in our heart. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 253-254) 

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In 1 John 3:20 John does not say that God is greater than the universe…[but] that God is greater than our heart. This way of writing indicates that our knowledge of God must be experiential…Is your heart at peace? Is your heart tranquil?…Some may say that they know God. But they may know Him in a religious way, in an objective way. We need to know God in our heart, in our conscience. To know God in this way is for the great, almighty, infinite God to become practical to us in our conscience. If our conscience bothers us, this means that God also has a problem with us…Often in my Christian life I have wondered why God cares for all the details in my daily life. For example,…if I give my wife a “long face,” He will trouble me in my conscience. If I argue with Him about matters like this, the God who is in my conscience will not agree with me. This is an example of the experiential way to know God. 

In being known by us experientially, God is small, not infinite. A brother may argue with God; he may think that it is not right for Him to trouble his conscience regarding a certain matter. Suppose the brother says to Him, “Why does my conscience bother me concerning my wife? She is wrong, and I am right. She caused the problem, and I have been trying to avoid an argument…Why, then, does my conscience bother me about the way I feel? This isn’t fair!” But no matter how much the brother may argue with Him, God will not rule in his favor. 

The New Testament way for us to know God is personal, detailed, and experiential. The New Testament way is to know God as the One who is in our heart. How precious is this experiential way of knowing God! 

Sometimes we may wonder why God, who has billions of matters to take care of, would be concerned with a small detail in our daily living. Although God is infinite and almighty, He cares even for the small things in our life. For example, He may care about a brother’s inward attitude toward his wife, something so small that it may seem it takes a divine magnifying glass to see it. Nevertheless, God cares for such a matter. We know God cares for such things because our conscience bothers us concerning them. Whenever our conscience is not tranquil, we know that we need to take care of the feeling of our conscience, which is the representative of the divine government. In this way we know God not in great matters but in small things. This way of knowing God is experiential and practical. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 254-256) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” chs. 5, 13