What If Jesus Doesn’t Know You?

Have you ever come across a verse and said to yourself: “Hmm…this verse can’t mean what it says because that goes against what I’ve been told to believe”?

If we’re honest, we probably come across verses like that all the time – if we’re reading the Bible on a semi-regular basis.

The other day I came across this verse and it stumped me for a second:

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?” (Gal. 4:9)

Hmm…well, I can see that Paul starts to say that we have come to know God [which sorta lines up with my theology], but then he does something kinda strange: he backtracks and corrects himself and then says, “or rather to be known by God”, which is a little odd.

I mean, how can God not already know everyone and everything, right? Isn’t God omnipotent? Doesn’t God already know everything that could ever be known?

So, if that’s true, then what does Paul mean when he stops himself from describing our faith as “knowing God” and clarifies that what he actually means to say is that we are “known by God”?

Well, before you answer that, maybe you should look at this other verse where Paul sort of does it again:

“If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” (1 Cor. 8:2)

Look at that. Paul, once more, emphasizes that the one who “supposes that he knows” actually “has not yet known as he ought to know” – which kinda starts to sound like Paul isn’t all that impressed by “knowing” God, or theology, or information.

However, Paul goes further to say that those who love God are “known by Him.”

Wow.

Maybe this does make sense, especially if you start to look at other places where Paul says that he considers all the religious knowledge and learning he once had as a Pharisee to be rubbish, or dung, compared to knowing Christ. He even went so far as to say that he resolved to know nothing other than Christ.

So, maybe what Paul has in mind is closer to a relationship with another person – where you know them and they know you.

See, nowadays, Christians tend to have an idea that their faith is more about knowing stuff about God and that usually means they tend to downplay knowing God.

Now, before you get upset at me for saying this, let me assure you that I have been told many, many times by dozens (maybe hundreds) of Christians over the last few years that it is more important to know the right stuff about God than to know God. Not only that, they usually go the extra mile to assure me that it is pretty much impossible to know God in any actual, intimate, relational way other than knowing the information about God that is printed in their Bible.

But Paul totally contradicts this notion. He actually says the exact opposite: Knowing God is not what it’s all about. Allowing God to know you is what really matters.

What’s the difference? Well, for example, I could know all sorts of trivia about Rick Warren. I could find out his favorite color, his birthdate, the name of his first dog, what elementary school he went to, his favorite ice cream, etc. and eventually I could become the world’s leading authority on Rick Warren. But, even if I did all of that, if Rick Warren bumped into me at the grocery store, he would not say, “Oh, hey Keith! How are you doing?”

Why?  Because even though I know all sorts of information about Rick Warren, I do not know Rick Warren.

It’s the same with Jesus. I could know all sorts of info about Jesus, but that does not mean that I know Jesus, or that Jesus knows me.

Want proof? Try this:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matt. 7:21-23)

See? It is more than possible to not only know all sorts of stuff about Jesus but to even do amazing works for Jesus and in the name of Jesus, without really allowing Jesus to know you.

Please understand me: I’m not saying that we need to get right with God or get our doctrine straight. Just the opposite. I’m saying that we need to sit down in a quiet place and close our eyes and listen for the still, small voice of God. I’m saying we need to learn how to talk to God, and more importantly, to listen to God’s voice.

I want us to go back and look again at the verse where Paul says:

“If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” (1 Cor. 8:2)

Notice that Paul emphasizes the need to love God? It’s not about knowing stuff. That has nothing to do with love, does it? As I said earlier, I could know everything about Rick Warren but not love Rick Warren – especially if I had never met him.

We need to meet the object of our love.

We need to spend time with the one we love.

We need to learn to fall in love with God, truly and sincerely.

Let go of your doctrines. Let go of your information. Stop trying to know God and start allowing God to know you.

Go back and read that verse one last time: “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know” – does that describe you? Do you suppose that you know things about God? Are you the wise teacher who feels the need to instruct everyone else around you? If so, please consider Paul’s words here: Maybe you have not yet known as you ought to know. Maybe the kind of “knowing” you have achieved so far is just the ordinary “knowing” of information? Maybe it’s time to re-think what it means to “know” and to embrace the wisdom of “being known by Him”?

Does God know you?

Does Jesus know your name?

Let’s start by learning to love God. Why? Because God is love, and because “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal. 5:6)

Also, because Jesus says that “if anyone loves me…my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home in him.” (John 14:23)

That sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

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Keith Giles new book “Jesus Unbound: Liberating the Word of God from the Bible”, is available now on Amazon and features a Foreword by author Brian Zahnd.

He is also the author of the Amazon best-seller, “Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb”.

Keith also co-hosts the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean. He and his wife live in Orange, CA with their two sons.

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