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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ Knowledge, Knowing, Known

          I have travelled through enough years that I now see the work of God in relation to certain patterns in my life. One of these patterns has revolved around the experience of walking with adults through unresolved childhood issues, and contributing to the lives of children in the hope of minimizing unresolved heartaches in their adult years. How good this has been for the adults and children in my life, I cannot say. However, it has been very good for me.
          Living sandwiched between adults and children has given me some good lessons regarding the differences between knowledge, knowing, and being known. Knowledge is about facts and information. As we grow up, at least in western culture, testing how much we know is typically based on writing down information in response to questions. Grades are given based on our ability to remember facts.
          Knowing refers to our experience towards that information, or towards people. I may have knowledge of a certain person, but knowing them requires a personal relationship. I may have knowledge of an event, but those facts mean something to me because I went through the experience, and know for myself what it was like.
          Being known is our experience of someone else’s experience of knowing us. It cannot be limited to people knowing facts about our lives, but requires that people know us in a personal way, and we have that feeling of knowing they know us.
          One of the characteristics of adult-mindedness is that it focuses on knowledge. Many people even seem to think it is a good thing to live in the “information age”, which just happens to correspond to some of the lowest experience of personal relationships. This is characterized by the now stereotypical picture of a group of friends sitting in a room with each person lost in their technological device. Knowledge clearly does not equate with knowing.
          On the other hand, one of the characteristics of child-mindedness is that it focuses on knowing. Children want hugs and cuddles with people they know, not people they know about. They have not first developed a character description of a person, assessed the safety level, and decided to trust. They simply know, and act accordingly.
          Behind the scenes of a child’s knowing is the whole world of how they are known. They don’t realize it, but they know who they like to be with mainly by how well those people know them. Long before they understand this in knowledge-terms, they already find themselves responding to the people who know them, who care about them, who have already directed love, concern, interest, and attention towards them. The child’s knowing is a response to the caregivers knowing of them.
          I do not present this as the complete story on these three words and concepts. Giving knowledge does not create knowing, or make people feel known. I share this only to encourage us to seek the knowing and being known that the knowledge of God’s word is pointing to. One beautiful expression of these things is stated like this:
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”[1]
          I love the way God distinguishes between us understanding him, and knowing him. Understanding is based primarily on knowledge, while knowing is based on experience. God wants us to understand him accurately, according to his revealed words in the Bible. But he also wants us to know him. He wants us to understand that he is filled with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness. He was us to believe the facts that God delights in these things. But he also wants us to know him in these ways. In the New Testament it is recorded as, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[2]
          This is also seen in the way Jesus described the kind of worshipers the Father was looking for. He told the Samaritan woman, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”[3]
          To worship the Father in spirit, we must know him. To worship him in truth, we must understand him the way the Bible reveals him. Both are required, understanding God, and knowing God.
          Another beautiful expression of the way knowledge, knowing, and being known, all come together, is in a revelation of hope for our life with God in heaven. It is described like this: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”[4]
          The apostle Paul was all for giving true knowledge of God. His epistles are full of truth, written in love.[5] However, he acknowledged that, in this lifetime, we can only know in part. Too many things about living in a sinful world hinder us.
          However, the certain hope of every believer in Jesus Christ is that one day we shall “know fully,” even as, in this present time, we are already “fully known.” God knows us fully now; he leads us to know him in part now; one day we will know him just as fully as he knows us.
          Obviously, such things lead us way beyond what knowledge and information can be written into words. However, I hope that this awakens some sense of the childlike hunger to know the God who knows us. His mercies are new every morning, meaning that our experience of knowing him better today than ever before is ours for the receiving.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”[6]

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)




[1] Jeremiah 9:23-24
[2] John 17:3
[3] John 4:23-24
[4] I Corinthians 13:12
[5] Ephesians 4:15
[6] Lamentations 3:22-24

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