Let me ask you, “Who really knows you? Have you ever let another human being see into your soul?” On the other hand, do you really want anyone to know you that well? Do you really trust that if someone truly knows you that he or she would not expose you, reject you, shame you?
What is the adage, knowledge is power? You share, you open your life to someone, and now that person knows something intimate about you. What will they do with that knowledge? I am sure I am not the only person who has had such an experience of mistrust when someone shares such knowledge in a way that is not appropriate.
And yet, when we speak of the knowledge of God, we are speaking of something different, for when we are speaking of the knowledge of God, we are also speaking of the love of God – at the same time. Unfortunately, in our modern era, knowing and loving have become separate, disjoined, and there is the fear that if others really knew us, they would have power over us, or they would see through us and cease to love us.
But God’s knowing is not like that: with God, knowing and loving are identical. There is, for example, never a moment when God knows us but does not love us or loves us but does not know us. Indeed, God wholly knows us because God wholly loves us; and God wholly loves us even though God wholly knows us.
That’s the power of the gospel – love and knowledge united in God, in Christ; it is what I believe the apostle Paul says in Ephesians about how God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, as God works in us his grace, all because God knows us and loves us (3:20). Such knowledge is indeed too vast to attain, even contain.
So let me ask you: looking back on your life, have you made knowing and loving separate? If so, write this Psalm in your heart. In fact, tell your family to read this Psalm to you, even on your deathbed. Because when your life ends, it will be time for love and knowledge to reunite, just as they are in Christ, just as they are when God raises you to eternal life, as when God will say to you: “I know you. And I love you.” Love and knowledge reunited in you.
Dear friends, that’s indeed the joy of heaven!
Pastor Andy Kinsey
What is the adage, knowledge is power? You share, you open your life to someone, and now that person knows something intimate about you. What will they do with that knowledge? I am sure I am not the only person who has had such an experience of mistrust when someone shares such knowledge in a way that is not appropriate.
And yet, when we speak of the knowledge of God, we are speaking of something different, for when we are speaking of the knowledge of God, we are also speaking of the love of God – at the same time. Unfortunately, in our modern era, knowing and loving have become separate, disjoined, and there is the fear that if others really knew us, they would have power over us, or they would see through us and cease to love us.
But God’s knowing is not like that: with God, knowing and loving are identical. There is, for example, never a moment when God knows us but does not love us or loves us but does not know us. Indeed, God wholly knows us because God wholly loves us; and God wholly loves us even though God wholly knows us.
That’s the power of the gospel – love and knowledge united in God, in Christ; it is what I believe the apostle Paul says in Ephesians about how God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, as God works in us his grace, all because God knows us and loves us (3:20). Such knowledge is indeed too vast to attain, even contain.
So let me ask you: looking back on your life, have you made knowing and loving separate? If so, write this Psalm in your heart. In fact, tell your family to read this Psalm to you, even on your deathbed. Because when your life ends, it will be time for love and knowledge to reunite, just as they are in Christ, just as they are when God raises you to eternal life, as when God will say to you: “I know you. And I love you.” Love and knowledge reunited in you.
Dear friends, that’s indeed the joy of heaven!
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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