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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 John 3:20 - 3:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater, etc.
A very difficult passage. See critical note as above. Render, as Rev., shall assure our heart before Him whereinsoever our heart condemn us, because God is greater than our heart.
For (ὅτι)
To be rendered not as a conjunction (for, because) but as a relative, in whatsoever or whereinsoever.
Condemn (καταγινώσκῃ)
The word occurs only three times in the New Testament; here, 1Jo 3:21, and Gal 2:11. It signifies (1.) To note accurately, usually in a bad sense. Hence to detect (Pro 28:11); compare Aristophanes: “Having observed (καταγνοὺς) the foibles of the old man” (“Knights,” 46). To form an unfavorable prejudice against. So Herodotus. Datis says to the Delians, “Why are ye fled, O holy men, having judged me (καταγνόντες κατ' ἐμεῦ) in so unfriendly a way?” (vi., 97). (2.) To note judicially: to accuse: to accuse one's self. So Thucydides: “No one, when venturing on a perilous enterprise, ever yet passed a sentence of failure on himself” (καταγνοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μὴ περιέσεσθαι; iii., 45). To give sentence, or condemn. To condemn to death. “Those who had fled they condemned to death” (θάνατον καταγνόντες; Thucydides, vi., 60). To decide a suit against one. So Aristophanes: “You judges have no maintenance if you will not decide against (καταγνώσεσθε) this suit” (“Knights,” 1360). In Gal 2:11, it is said of Peter that, because of his concessions to the Jewish ritualists, κατεγνωσμένος ἦν he stood condemned or self-condemned (not as A.V., he was to be blamed). His conduct was its own condemnation. This is the sense in this passage, the internal judgment of conscience.
Because (ὅτι)
This second ὅτι does not appear in the A.V. It is a conjunction.
Greater (μείζων)
Is this superior greatness to be regarded as related to God's judgment, or to His compassion? If to His judgment, the sense is: God who is greater than our heart and knows all things, must not only endorse but emphasize our self-accusation. If our heart condemn, how much more God, who is greater than our heart. If to His compassion, the sense is: when our heart condemns us we shall quiet it with the assurance that we are in the hands of a God who is greater than our heart - who surpasses man in love and compassion no less than in knowledge. This latter sense better suits the whole drift of the discussion. See critical note. There is a play of the words γινώσκει knoweth, and καταγινώσκῃ condemneth, which is untranslatable.