Knowing and Knowing

There are different kinds of "knowing." Did you know that?

Look, you can know and understand everything, maybe even explain it, but still miss the point. Losing sight of the "purpose." It's knowledge in your head then, but it gets you nowhere.

In this episode of The Chosen, you come across the phrase "No amount of learning can bring you any closer." No matter how much you learn, it doesn't bring you any closer to God.

There it is about Matthew who wants to learn - memorize - write everything down, but who may learn that really understanding is something else. Of course, our "head" has something to do with it, but the goal lies elsewhere. In the section from 1 Corinthians, we are given a warning. Beware because knowledge makes one bloated or conceited. So beware!

The Bible also gives you the direction you may go. Knowledge may make one conceited, but love builds up. In Ephesians you read that it is not about knowing "things," but about knowing the love of Christ (which surpasses all knowledge). That is a knowing to which we may reach out.

In both 1 Corinthians and Ephesians you find the word love. Love builds up! And it's all about knowing the love of Christ. Love changes everything!

Think about the love of Jesus. How He knows you. How He gave Himself on the cross. How He is involved in your life. That is love! When you look at Jesus like that, what does it do to you?

In the conversation between the disciples, the idea also comes along that we must first be holy, and – in my own words – have our affairs in good order before the Messiah can come.

Mary then says, "I don't think He is waiting for us to be holy. I think He's here because we can't be holy without Him." What a powerful sentence.

If we had to figure it all out ourselves, think it through and get it done, if we had to understand it all before Jesus could come, then we had – to put it mildly – a serious problem.

How cool is it to know that Jesus didn't come because we got it all figured out and in order. He came precisely because it was never going to work without Him.

Jesus came.

He is.

You may be - in Him.

Take the following questions to think about:

• What do you think of when you think of the love of Jesus?
• What does that do to you?
• How might you grow in "knowledge," especially knowing Jesus himself?
• Are you mainly trying to get your life in order, or are you inviting Jesus into the disorder of your life?

Prayer: "Lord, You are on the one hand unfathomable, incomprehensible. Your ways are always higher than mine, and yet You invite me to know You. You show Yourself. Thank You for that Lord!

I want to know You better. And will You help me that that is not just intellectually, but that I may know You better with my heart. Amen."