Charles Spurgeon Commentary 1 John 3:20

"because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." — 1 John 3:20 (ASV)

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

If you, with your narrow knowledge of right and wrong – your imperfect understanding of your own motives – if you find reason to condemn yourself, what must be your position before the bar of the all-seeing, heart-reading God? That little flutter in your heart, my friend, that trembling, that uneasiness, what does it mean? Is this not a forewarning of the sounding of the trumpet of the great judgment, when you will have to stand before the Judge of all the earth, and answer for yourself to him? It is easy to deceive your fellow man, but it is impossible to deceive your God.

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. (1 John 3:20)

Which we do not. And, therefore, our condemnation can never be so heavy as the condemnation God will bring upon us. Let the man, whose own conscience accuses him, question himself as to how he will stand in the presence of the all-seeing God.