9. Relationship Words in the Word: Knowledge
- Relationship Words in the Word: Knowledge.
“My will, my desire, is that you show mercy and you grow in knowledge of Me” (Hosea 6:6).
Knowledge: The Hebraic-Christian understanding of “know” is not at all limited to an intellectual or mental knowledge. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to experience that person in a deeply intimate way. “Know,” whether with ‘yadah’ (Hebrew) or ‘ginosko’ (Greek), is a relationship word, and involves knowledge that comes from personal experience. To know involves a deeply personal union with a truth or a person. In the Hebrew and Christian mind, we don’t really know something until it becomes a part of us, something that changes us in some way. To truly know something is to be able to live it out, to experience participation with that which is known. Knowing something involves a heartfelt focus, an intense investment. To know something is to care for it, to give oneself over to it. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to literally participate in a profound relationship with that person, to establish an ongoing union with someone, to be personally invested to an intimate degree with a person. Limiting our knowledge to the abstract, religious principles, doctrinal statements or theological propositions doesn’t even come close to approaching the biblical ideal of knowledge. Too many of us seem to talk about God theoretically, instead of talking to God heart to heart. Intellectual knowledge is a worthless dead end if disconnected from a personal relationship with God.
“On that Day of Judgment, many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophecy in Your name? Didn’t we expel demons in Your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in Your name?’ And then I will tell them to their faces, ‘Get away from Me! I never knew you!” (Matthew 7:23-24).
I never knew you! In this rather scary closing scene of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7), Jesus has just finished saying that whoever does what His Father in heaven wants, whoever does His will, will sure enough be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But then at the Judgment throne came many powerful miracle-workers to claim that they have indeed expelled many demons, spoken profound prophecies, and demonstrated other miracles, all in God’s name. They assumed that those powerful deeds were what Jesus meant by doing God’s will. But Jesus told them in no uncertain terms… But I was never a part of those miracles. We never had a relationship together. So I had nothing to do with any of those powerful works. Those works were counterfeit, because my power was not used in them. My awesome power comes out of a personal relationship. You knew about Me, but you didn’t know Me! You didn’t understand that the first order of business in doing my Father’s will is to establish union with me, that we join together intimately and engage in a personal, spiritual friendship with each other. That is my Father’s starting point in doing His will. It is impossible to do His will without personally knowing Me! We were not familiar with each other in the slightest, and in fact I don’t even recognize you at a meaningful level. So, go away from Me! I never actually knew you!
Truly knowing Jesus means going way beneath a surface level with Him. It is doing a deep-dive into Him through His Holy Spirit and personally experiencing His character. To know God is to read His mind by soaking in His Word. To know the Lord is significantly more than a passing acquaintanceship with Him, it is not half-hearted. To know God is not abstract head knowledge. To know God means one has a life-changing relationship with the Lord, a friendship that involves reliance, obedience, submission, trust, devotion, commitment. To know God is to experience Him, to participate in His life and allow Him to change your life direction and purpose.
Surface Knowledge. The Bible has a lot to say about the meaning of know, including the usual suspects: memory of a fact or event; possession of a technical skill; a perception of a piece of reality; an intuitive awareness; a mastery of a particular subject; an understanding of something; a personal familiarity with something. That’s all good. Nothing new there. But now the fun begins…
Intimacy. A spiritual relationship with God seems best understood in the context of “knowledge” in the biblical sense, a deep union involving spiritual relations between God and the believer. In the same way that Adam and Eve “knew” each other physically, God wants to “know” us spiritually, and for us to know Him at that same level. To walk with the Lord is to grow in our “knowledge” of Him, to experience spiritual relations with Him in an intimate way. The biblical view of knowing includes images of intimacy, of union with something, of personal commitment and intense focus, of a literal participation and involvement in something. In fact, to know means to have intercourse, sex, “carnal knowledge.” Check out Genesis 4:1, “Adam knew Eve,” and Matthew 1:25, Joseph did not know Mary until she gave birth to a son, Jesus.”
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge?” (Hosea 4:6).
If we accept the definition of knowledge above, here’s a pop quiz question: What did Hosea mean when he quoted the Lord as saying that His people will not survive, simply because they don’t have adequate knowledge? It would be tempting to give answers that would include memory; information; skill; factual data. Instead, the biblical meaning is closer to: a profound devotion to Me; intimate involvement with Me; a heartfelt focus on Me; a life-changing union with Me; a committed understanding of Me. True knowledge is a relationship word involving personal experience, not only with truth, but also with The Truth. “If you live and dwell in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32).
“All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death.” (Philippians 3:10).