Your Head and Your Heart

We opened 1 John 3 this Sunday, and Turan started with a chainsaw. When he was about twelve, he and his older cousin Sam decided to trim a tree with a Jonsered saw, the best there is, and neither of them knew how to use it.

It took forever to start. The chain came off. And when it was Turan’s turn up in the tree, the saw fell, and on the way down the chain flipped up and cut his arm. He still has the scars over his veins.

A powerful tool, used without knowledge and understanding, is not just less effective. It is dangerous.

That is the picture for the whole chapter. The heart is a powerful tool God gives us. Without the right knowledge in our heads, it can be ineffective, even catastrophic.

We need both. The tool and the knowledge that goes with it. Neither one is enough alone.

John walks us through a transformation. It starts with becoming a child. See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. God adores us the way a parent adores a small child, not counting the faults.

The journey ends when he appears and we become like him. Pure reflections of his light. Along the way, two things change: our righteousness and our love.

From sin to righteousness. John draws a line between committing a sin and making a practice of sinning. We asked what the difference is. It comes down to the heart.

The head holds the facts: sin is lawlessness, Jesus came to take sin away, there is no sin in him, the devil is real. But knowing the facts is not enough. The heart is what feels sorrow over sin, what refuses to grow indifferent, what drives us back to Jesus to abide in him.

From hate to love. John ties the two together. Cain hated his brother because his own deeds were evil. As long as we are slaves to sin, we cannot love the way God loves.

Love is a matter of the heart. But the same heart that loves can also murder, and Jesus said there is no difference. So we do what we know is right, even when the heart does not feel it.

Then John names the interplay directly. Our heart can condemn us. It tells us we are not good enough to be loved by God.

And here is the mercy: God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. When we rest on what we know is true, the heart stops condemning, and we have confidence before him.

It comes full circle. The commandment is to believe in the name of Jesus and to love one another. Faith and love. Head and heart. One is not enough without the other.

The Christian life is not easy. Turan reminded us it is worth it.

Something to sit with this week:

Where is your heart condemning you right now? What truth about Jesus do you need to hold in your head to answer it?