Or Rather, Known by God

What is this page about?

The man who writes this site heard a sermon. A sermon is a talk given in church.

The preacher asked the same question many times: “Do you know God?”

The writer of this site made notes. This is what he says the preacher told people to do. Get to know God. Have an “intimate relationship with God”. Spend time alone with God. Hear God. Find God’s “project” for your life.

This page does not name the preacher. It has only a listener’s notes. It tests the idea. It does not judge the man. Most people who preach this way mean well.

There are two ways to think about knowing God. This page gives them short names.

Both ways tell a Christian to pray. They do not agree about two things. Where should a person look for God? And how can he tell that he knows God?

Eight points

1. In the Bible, to know God is to belong to him. It is not a measure of how close you feel.
2. God does the work. He says, “They will all know me, for I will forgive.”
3. Paul changes his own sentence. He says, “You know God, or rather, God knows you.”
4. God is known in Jesus. And Jesus came down to us. We do not climb up.
5. Jesus comes to us through outside things. A preacher speaks. Water is poured. Bread is broken.
6. The old churches agree about where to look. They do not agree about everything. But they all point to the Bible, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
7. Talk about being close to God is old. Using it as a test is new. A search has no end. So nobody can say, “I have arrived.”
8. Jesus told us to pray alone. We pray as children who already have a Father.

What “know” means in the Bible

In English, “I know him well” means “I am close to him”. A person can be a little close or very close.

The Bible uses the word in another way.

There were two priests named Hophni and Phinehas. A priest was a man who worked at God’s house. These two men knew many things about God. But the Bible says this:

Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know Yahweh.

1 Samuel 2:12 · World English Bible

In simple words: The sons of Eli were bad men. They did not know the LORD.

Then the Bible tells us how they lived. They stole from the gifts that people brought to God. They did other wicked things. So in this story, “not knowing God” is a way of living. They lived as if he was not their God.

Later God speaks about a good king named Josiah.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; so it was well, then. Wasn’t this to know me?

Jeremiah 22:16 · World English Bible

In simple words: He was fair to poor people and helped them. Is that not what it means to know me?

The king was fair to poor people. God calls that “knowing me”.

The New Testament says the same.

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.

1 John 2:3 · World English Bible

In simple words: How can we tell that we know God? We do what he tells us.

So in the Bible, to know God is to have him as your God and to live as his. Other people can see it. It is not a measure of how close a person feels.

There is one more story. A boy named Samuel worked in God’s house. He was a good boy. But the Bible says:

Now Samuel didn’t yet know Yahweh, neither was Yahweh’s word yet revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:7 · World English Bible

In simple words: Samuel did not yet know the LORD. The LORD had not yet spoken his word to him.

Samuel came to know God when God spoke to him. Samuel was asleep. He was not searching. God came to him.

God does the work

The Bible has one great promise about knowing God. It is in the book of Jeremiah.

I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:33 · World English Bible

In simple words: I will put my teaching inside them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:34 · World English Bible

In simple words: All of them will know me, from the least important person to the most important. This is because I will forgive the wrong things they have done. I will not remember their sins any more.

Count the words “I will”. God says them again and again. He makes the promise. He writes on their hearts. He forgives.

The people do one thing. They know him. And the verse gives the reason. They know him because he forgives them.

See also who is in the promise. “From their least to their greatest.” The least important person is named first. Nobody is left out because he is not holy enough.

Jesus used the words of this promise. It was at his last meal with his friends.

This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Luke 22:20 · World English Bible

In simple words: This cup is God’s new promise. It is made by my blood, which I give for you.

Jeremiah wrote about a “new covenant”. Jesus says it while he holds a cup. So God’s promise is put into people’s hands. It comes with a cup that they can drink.

The Bible also says how God gives people the knowledge of being saved. He does it “by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1:77). “Remission” means forgiveness.

“Or rather”

Paul wrote a letter to Christians in a place called Galatia. They were going back to a religion of rules. Paul reminds them who they are.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God

Galatians 4:9 · World English Bible

In simple words: But now you know God. Or it is better to say this: God knows you.

Paul says, “You know God.” That is true. Then he changes it. He says the deeper thing. God knows them.

A famous preacher named John Chrysostom explained this verse. He lived about 1,600 years ago.

It was not by your own pains that you found out God, but while you continued in error, He drew you to Himself.

John Chrysostom, about the year 390

In simple words: You did not find God by your own hard work. You were going the wrong way, and he pulled you to himself.

Martin Luther said the same about 500 years ago. He wrote: “Our knowledge of God is rather passive than active”. In simple words: knowing God is more something done to us than something we do.

Paul writes this way in other letters too.

But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.

1 Corinthians 8:3 · World English Bible

In simple words: If a person loves God, God knows that person.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12 · World English Bible

In simple words: Now I know only a part. One day I will know fully, as God already fully knows me.

Paul was an apostle. Even he knew God only “in part”. But God knew Paul fully.

There is one more place. Jesus tells about the last day. Some people will come to him. They will say that they did great things in his name. This is his answer:

Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

Matthew 7:23 · World English Bible

In simple words: Then I will say to them, “I never knew you. Go away from me, you who do evil.”

These people were sure that they knew God. They had done wonderful things. But Jesus does not say, “You never knew me.” He says, “I never knew you.”

Here “know” does not mean “know about”. God knows about everyone. It means “you are mine”.

So this is the question that matters. Where has God said to me, “You are mine”?

God is known in Jesus

Where does God make himself known? The Bible’s answer is: in Jesus.

A man named Philip was one of the friends of Jesus. He had been with Jesus a long time. One evening he asked for something more.

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.

John 14:8–9 · World English Bible

In simple words: Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.” Jesus said, “I have been with you so long. Do you still not know me, Philip? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

Philip wanted to see God in a new way. He thought there was something more than Jesus. Jesus told him: you have been looking at it.

Nothing of God is kept back behind Jesus. Paul says that all of God lives in Jesus: “in him you are made full” (Colossians 2:9–10).

The Bible also tells us the direction. People do not go up to God. God comes down.

Long ago some people tried to build a tower up to heaven. This is the next thing the Bible says:

Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower

Genesis 11:5 · World English Bible

In simple words: The LORD came down to see the city and the tower.

Moses asked to see God’s glory. God said that no one could see his face and live. But God did this:

Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name.

Exodus 34:5 · World English Bible

In simple words: The LORD came down in the cloud. He stood there with Moses and spoke his own name.

Moses wanted to see. God gave him something to hear. And God’s name was about mercy and forgiveness.

When Jesus was born, an angel told some shepherds where to look.

you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.

Luke 2:12 · World English Bible

In simple words: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths. He is lying in a box where animals eat.

God was found low down, in a poor place.

Paul makes it a rule.

Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ … “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach

Romans 10:6–8 · World English Bible

In simple words: Do not ask, “Who will go up to heaven?” The word is near you. It is the message about faith that we preach.

Nobody needs to climb up. Jesus has come down. What is near us is a message. One person speaks it to another.

Luther said it in three words: “Begin with Christ.”

How Jesus reaches us

Jesus does not walk on the roads now. So how does he come to us? The Bible shows how the first people came to know God.

Two friends on a road

After Jesus rose from death, he walked with two of his friends. They did not know it was him. First he explained the Bible to them. Then they sat down to eat.

he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him

Luke 24:30–31 · World English Bible

In simple words: He took the bread and thanked God. He broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they knew who he was.

Later they told the others how they had known him. He was “recognized by them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35).

They did feel something. They said their hearts were burning. But they said when it happened: “while he opened the Scriptures to us”.

Jesus was standing in front of them. Yet he chose to be known in two ways. The Bible was explained. Bread was broken. Christians have these two things every Sunday.

A man who saw Jesus

A man named Saul saw a bright light from heaven. Jesus himself spoke to him. Saul asked what he should do.

But rise up and enter into the city, then you will be told what you must do.

Acts 9:6 · World English Bible

In simple words: Get up and go into the city. There someone will tell you what you must do.

Jesus did not explain everything on the road. He sent Saul to a man in the city. That man said to Saul: “Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16).

A man who saw an angel

A soldier named Cornelius saw an angel. The angel did not tell him the good news. The angel gave him a name and a town.

Send to Joppa, and get Simon, who is called Peter, who will speak to you words by which you will be saved

Acts 11:13–14 · World English Bible

In simple words: Send to the town of Joppa and bring Simon Peter. He will speak words to you. By those words you will be saved.

Peter came and preached. Then Cornelius was baptized.

A man reading alone

A man from Ethiopia was reading the Bible alone. A Christian named Philip asked him if he understood it.

He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?”

Acts 8:31 · World English Bible

In simple words: He said, “How can I understand, if nobody explains it to me?”

God sent him a preacher. Soon he was baptized too.

What the stories show

Saul saw Jesus. Cornelius saw an angel. But seeing was not enough. God sent each of them to a person who spoke his word. Then they were baptized.

God does work inside people. The Bible says so about a woman named Lydia.

The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.

Acts 16:14 · World English Bible

In simple words: The Lord opened her heart. So she listened to what Paul said.

God opened her heart. And her open heart listened to the words that Paul spoke. The inside work and the outside word go together.

Peter once heard God’s voice from heaven. Later he wrote about it. Then he said this:

We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it

2 Peter 1:19 · World English Bible

In simple words: We have the words of the prophets, which are even more sure. You do well to listen to them.

Peter heard the voice. But he does not tell people to look for a voice. He points them to the written word.

What the churches have said

The old churches wrote down what they believe. Here is what some of them say.

Lutheran churches. In the year 1530 they wrote this: “through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given”. In simple words: God gives his Spirit through his word and the sacraments. They are like tools in his hand.

Luther gave a name to the opposite idea. He called it “enthusiasm”. Today that word means being very keen. Luther meant something else. He meant the idea that God speaks straight into a person’s heart, without the Bible, preaching or the sacraments.

Reformed churches. Their teaching books name the same things: the word, the sacraments and prayer.

The Church of England. Its prayer book thanks God “for the means of grace”. “Means of grace” is an old name for the ways God gives his gifts.

The Catholic Church. Its teaching book says that being close to Christ comes “through the sacraments”.

Orthodox churches. After the people receive the bread and wine, they sing: “We have seen the True Light!”

John Wesley. He began the Methodist churches. He cared very much about the heart. In the year 1746 he said:

all who desire the grace of God are to wait for it in the means which he hath ordained; in using, not in laying them aside.

John Wesley, 1746

In simple words: Everyone who wants God’s grace must wait for it in the ways that God has given. He must use them. He must not put them away.

These churches do not agree about everything. They do not agree about what happens in the Lord’s Supper. They do not agree about how sure a Christian can be that God accepts him.

But on one thing they agree. None of them tells a person to look for God in his own strong feelings. They all point to the same places.

Where “intimacy” came from

The writer of this site said that talk about “intimacy” with God is new. That is partly right.

The words “intimate” and “relationship” are not in the old King James Bible. And the words “intimate relationship with God” were almost never printed before the year 1900.

But talk about being close to God is very old.

• About 1,600 years ago a teacher named Augustine wrote to God: “You were more inward to me than my most inward part”. In simple words: you were closer to me than I am to myself.
• About 600 years ago a monk wrote about Christ and his “intimacy wonderful indeed”. A monk is a man who lives with other men to pray and serve God.
• The Bible calls a man named Abraham “the friend of God” (James 2:23).

So what is new? Look at where the old writers put these words. Augustine was baptized, and he found God in Jesus. The monk’s book ends with a long part about the Lord’s Supper. The Catholic teaching book says closeness to Christ comes through the sacraments.

For them, being close to Christ grew inside the life of the church. Nobody was told to find it in another place. Nobody was tested by it.

Three things are new.

1. People now look for it away from the church’s gifts. In the year 1647 a man named George Fox said he wanted to know God “without the help of any man, book, or writing”. The churches of his time had not helped him. That is sad, and it is often how this idea begins.
2. People now aim at it with a method. So many minutes. This way of listening.
3. It is now a test for every Christian. The preacher asks all the people, “Do you have it?”

The third one does the harm. Long ago a monk wrote about the sweet friendship of Christ. He was thankful for it. He did not turn to a farmer in church and say, “Without this, you do not know God.”

Books show the change. Take English books printed in the 1830s. For every one time they say “intimacy with God”, they say “means of grace” about 235 times. In books from 2010 to 2019, the two are almost equal.

Enough?

“Do you know God?” sounds like one question. It is really two.

The first is: do I belong to God? The answer is yes or no.

The second is: how well do I know God? The answer is only “more” or “less”.

The preacher asked the first question. But he answered with the second. He said: know him more, get closer, spend more time.

The second question never ends. However close a person feels, he could feel closer. And how does he measure it? By his feelings. Feelings change with sleep, health and sadness. A man in the Bible prayed like this:

How long will you hide your face from me?

Psalm 13:1 · World English Bible

In simple words: How long will you hide from me?

By the preacher’s test, that man did not know God that week. But he was praying to God.

Jesus told a story about two men who went to pray. One was a Pharisee. He was very careful about religion. The other was a tax collector. People thought tax collectors were bad men.

But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other

Luke 18:13–14 · World English Bible

In simple words: The tax collector stood far away. He would not even look up to heaven. He hit his chest and said, “God, have mercy on me. I am a sinner.” I tell you, this man went home right with God, and the other man did not.

Ask the two men, “Are you close to God?” The Pharisee would say yes. The tax collector stood far away. But Jesus says that God accepted the tax collector.

The Bible does test people who say they know God. But look at the tests. Part 1 gave one: we keep his commandments. Here is another.

He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:8 · World English Bible

In simple words: A person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

These tests are about what a person does. Other people can see it. None of them is about time alone or strong feelings.

Christians should grow in knowing God. The Bible says, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord” (2 Peter 3:18). But growing is not the test of belonging. A girl of five knows her father less than she will at thirty. She is his daughter all the same.

So what did the old churches give to a person with doubts? They gave him things that were done to him and said to him.

Nevertheless I am baptized; but if I am baptized, it is promised me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body.

Martin Luther, 1529

In simple words: But I am baptized. And if I am baptized, God has promised that I will be saved and live for ever, in soul and body.

Think about the words “I am baptized”. Someone did it to me. It happened on a day. Other people saw it. It does not change with my feelings.

Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). God’s name is put on them. That is why the church says that in baptism God tells a person, “You are mine.”

A “project” for your life

The preacher also said that God has a “project” for each person’s life. Each person must find it.

Many Christians think this today. Where does it come from?

About 70 years ago a man wrote a small book to tell people about Jesus. Its first line was: “God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.” He meant that God saves us and gives us a full life. Later, people began to use the words in another way. They meant a secret plan for each person: which job, which husband or wife, which town. And they said each person must find it.

One Bible verse is often used for this.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 · World English Bible

In simple words: I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD. They are plans for peace and not for harm, to give you hope and a future.

This verse is from a letter. Jeremiah wrote it to the Jewish people after they were taken to a far country. “You” means the whole people. The verse before it says they will be there for seventy years. God promised that the nation would have a future. He did not give each person a secret plan to find.

So what does the Bible call “the will of God”? It means what God wants.

For this is the will of God: your sanctification

1 Thessalonians 4:3 · World English Bible

In simple words: This is what God wants: that you live a holy life.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 · World English Bible

In simple words: Give thanks in everything. This is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.

These things are the same for every Christian. And God says them openly. Nothing is hidden.

What about the big choices? Here the Bible leaves people free. This is what Paul says about a woman whose husband has died:

she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:39 · World English Bible

In simple words: She is free to marry any man she wants. But he must belong to the Lord.

There is one rule. He must be a Christian. After that, she chooses.

Paul made his own plans this way. He wrote: I hope to stay with you, “if the Lord permits” (1 Corinthians 16:7).

The old churches taught something better than a “project”. They called it vocation.

Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

1 Corinthians 7:24 · World English Bible

In simple words: Brothers, each of you should stay with God in the place where he was when God called him.

God has already put you in a place. His commandments tell you what to do there. You can begin today. The people near you are where your knowing God can be seen.

Praying alone

The preacher had good Bible verses. We must listen to them.

Jesus told us to pray alone.

But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret

Matthew 6:6 · World English Bible

In simple words: When you pray, go into your room and shut the door. Pray to your Father, who is there in secret.

A Christian should do this. But see the words “your Father”. The person in the room already has a Father. He is not a stranger trying to get in.

The friends of Jesus asked him how to pray. He gave them words to say: “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven” (Luke 11:2).

Another verse says to come near to God.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners.

James 4:8 · World English Bible

In simple words: Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners.

Read the second part. James is speaking to people who are doing wrong. He tells them to turn back to God. He is not giving good Christians a way to feel closer.

The Psalms are songs and prayers in the Bible. Some of them long for God very much.

My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. So I have seen you in the sanctuary

Psalm 63:1–2 · World English Bible

In simple words: I thirst for you, like a man in a dry land with no water. I have seen you in your holy house.

The man longs for God. And he thinks of the holy house, where God’s people met. Another psalm remembers going “with the crowd” (Psalm 42:4) to God’s house.

Do feelings matter? Yes. The two friends on the road said their hearts were burning. But it happened while Jesus explained the Bible. Joy comes after God’s word. And joy comes and goes. So it cannot be the test.

Nothing good is lost. Pray alone. Read the Bible. Long for God. Grow. But do these things as a child whom God already knows. And stop counting.

Check it yourself

1. Read Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Luke 22:14-20. Who is doing things in each sentence? Where does Jesus say “new covenant”?
2. Read Galatians 4:8-9, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 and Matthew 7:21-23. In each place, who knows whom?
3. Read John 14:1-11 and Romans 10:5-17. What did Philip want? What does Paul say is near?
4. Read Luke 24:13-35 and Acts 9:1-19. What did each person see? Where was he sent?
5. Listen to one sermon, or three songs in church. Count the action words. How many times is God the one who acts? How many times is it “I”? Then find the date of your baptism, and write it down.