Knowing God versus Knowing about God

 Knowing God versus Knowing about God

 

Those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!

JEREMIAH 9.24

This is the way to have eternal life —to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

JOHN 17.3

Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

PHILIPPIANS 3.8

 

Do you know your postman? How about your grandparents? How about the Queen of England? How about your best friend? There are different ways of “knowing” people, aren’t there? Some people we actually just know about. And even among those we know personally, there are different levels of knowing — we know some more intimately than others.

The Bible says that we are made to know God. But a person can know a lot about God and not really know him. We can be interested in theology (which is a fascinating subject!) and know the books and stories of the Bible, and hardly know God at all. We can also go to church and read lots of Christian books and be up on the latest teaching and yet not know God at all.

We get to know other people through personal interaction and involvement, by sharing life with them. We listen to what they say, observe how they interact with others, see what they value, find out what they enjoy. And it is similar with God. God is so magnificent that he is worth spending the rest of our lives listening to and studying and enjoying, so that we are constantly getting to know him better. As we get to know God better, things that confused us before about how God works begin to make more sense. Knowing him better helps us trust him more.