I heard a saying a while back that caused me to think about my relationship to God. The speaker told his audience that one may say that they know a particular person and yet the person they claim to know may in fact not know them. Suppose I say that I know the king of the land where I live and based on this claim, I walk to the gate Of the king’s palace. I tell the guards that I know the king and would like to speak to him. The king has never met me and therefore does not know me. What do you suppose the king will tell the guards regarding my request to see him? Does he let me in or does he send me away? Of course he will send me away. We have no relationship with each other and no other basis for him to grant the request.
Now let’s argue that I make the same claim but the king does know of me but does not know me personally. Does he grant me access? Perhaps. But would he pardon me of a crime if he did not know me? Why would he? What reason would their be to do such a thing?
So the saying I spoke of before is this:
“it doesn’t matter who you know, it matters who knows you”.
Now you may say that God knows everybody. And in one sense you would be correct. God knows all because he is omniscient. But that isn’t the kind of knowing that we are talking about here. The kind of knowledge in question is one of relationship and love. Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church said:
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
1 Corinthians 8:3
Ok, so if we love God, we are known by God. Great! Don’t we all love God…those of us who believe and call upon his name? But do we really love God appropriately, according to the way of truth? Jesus said:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:15 (ESV)
And he also said:
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
John 14:21 (ESV)
Therefore, we must ask ourselves tough questions and give honest answers about the way we are living relative to the way Jesus commands us to live. The Proverbs gives us a clue that we cannot trust our own way. We cannot trust our own path. They say:
“There is a way that seems right to a man,
Proverbs 14:12 (ESV)
but its end is the way to death.” (in the Hebrew language it says it’s end is the ways of death)
Jesus tells us that the easy path is the path that leads away from him. That path is the part of least resistance. It is the way of the world and it leads to spiritual death. The difficult path, the narrow path, is hard because it goes against the world and it’s way. However, it leads to eternal life.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV)
Do we keep his commandments? Do we live in a way that honors him? What about what we watch on TV or on the computer alone? How about the way that we treat those who we disagree with? Do we have hate and contempt in our heart for certain leaders?
Of course we are not perfect but that cannot be a shelter for continuing to live in sin. The apostle Paul was perplexed by the Christians of Galatia and he admonished them to walk on the narrow and difficult way. He said:
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Galatians 5:16-26
To know Christ or to be known by him requires us to live according to his ways and his commands. Now please do not confuse me here. I am not talking about works based salvation. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. However, we must continue our relationship with Christ by ceasing to practice sin and instead practicing righteousness.
Paul continued to say in the letter to the Galatians:
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”
Galatians 4:8-9
So if we call on the name of Jesus and if we depart from the practices of the world, then he will know us because we will be his. 2 Timothy says:
“But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
2 Timothy 2:19
Finally, we have this comfort from Jesus in the gospel of John:
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
John 10:14-15
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
John 10:27
I hope this will be a blessing to you. I hope it encourages you who are strong in faith to remain so. To those without faith or weak on faith, I hope it pushes you to think deeply. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will awaken you who are asleep spiritually and take your faith with much more urgency.
I leave you with this final hope. Jesus and his promise of salvation and eternal life is attainable. It is a gift to receive. But you must turn and walk with him.
He knows me alright. He knows my thoughts from afar off. He knows my words before I utter them. He knows my prayers of need and guidance before I ever ask him. Yet his Grace covers my inability to be sinless as I am human. But I run the race no matter when I fall, I get up again seeking his forgiveness and his Grace always abounds.
If I was to knock on the door I think the guard would say come in Tim. He has been expecting you. 😉. Good article.
Thanks for your comments brother!
Why should we read the Bible. I have been told all my Christian life this is what your supposed to do. I was taught in Christian academy to do this daily to strengthen my walk with God and look and listen for his discernment. I have had fleeting moments of successful Bible reading over the past 40 yrs. But it eventually falls by the wayside of other demands of life. It was about two years ago that Payton forwarded a link to me called the Chosen. It was at that point that God sparked an interest in my heart and I became infectiously curious about what I had seen on TV and begin to read and look these things up. Between the chosen series and the constant reading and looking in the Bible for answers it begin to affect my daily life. So now the reason that I was told in high school Bible class to read and study the Bible daily after 40 years has come to fruition. So now for the first time in my life I read the Bible when I first awake. Many mornings I am awaken early maybe an hours or two!!! before my 6 am alarm. I used to wrestle and toss and turn trying to go back to sleep to get another 45 minutes or an hour and a half of sleep until I finally realized my Lord wants to talk to me!!!!
And there is no getting out of it. Get up!!!! Its usually something that I have been wrestling with or haven’t understood and he has a scripture in mind for me to look up. But sometimes its just lay there and be still and Listen to his spirit. Those early morning conversations have become detrimental to my walk with Christ.
Why do I read the Bible?
Its my Armor. Its my battle plan to walking in the Light. It is the salt that makes me apart from this world. It is my living waters. It is the very air that I breathe. It forms the moral and spiritual compass that I must have to live. For without his word I am a useless Christian with a mil-stone cast about my neck. Making a mockery of the Christian status that I claim. A not so good place that I have been to in the past. Grace has taken on a whole new meaning for me now.
I READ THE BIBLE !!!! I have too.