Knowing God (Part One)

In the biblical Greek, there are two words for “to know.” One is the word which means “to have knowledge of.” The danger of that word is we can think that when we’ve come to know in the mind and know the facts, that will be enough for us. However, there is another Greek word for “to know.” It means “to know by experience.”  It basically says that we have no right to say that we’ve come to know something until we’ve experienced it. Let’s examine John 14:7-9. After announcing that He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus goes on to say to all the disciples, “If you (Greek, plural) had known Me (implication: but you didn’t), you (Greek, plural) would have known (implication: but you don’t), My Father also; and from now on you (Greek, plural) know Him, and have seen Him.” When Philip asks to see the Father, Jesus again responds, “Have I been so long with you (Greek, plural), and yet you (Greek, singular) have not come to know Me, Philip?” Obviously, there was a sense in which Philip and the other disciples did not know the Lord in whom they had believed! This text is not about the saving knowledge of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) but of the experiential knowing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Be encouraged to know God!

Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Bible teacher & expositor