“No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.”
John 1:18 NLT
In essence, as we have learned, knowing God is eternal life. What does knowing God mean?
The Hebrew word for knowing in the context of knowing God is “yada”. Among many uses in its context, “yada” means knowing as in sexual intimacy.
“Now Adam had sexual relations (yada) with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!”
Genesis 4:1 NLT
To know God, then, is to be in spiritually intimate union with Him. Love is the core of this union.
How can we know the love of God?
I have expanded the answer to this question in a longer meditation to be posted.
Let me summarise here. Both Paul, in Ephesians 3 and John in 1 John 4, have thrown some light on knowing God through experiencing God’s love. Paul explains both the role of faith and the work of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to know and experience God’s love which is revealed in Jesus.
John shows us how God’s love, made known to us through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, is the root from which the fruit, our love in response to His love, grows.
However, the real fruit of knowing God in Christ is about loving one another. We cannot show our love to God in any way because we cannot add anything to who He is, not even by loving Him. Jesus said that the only way we can love Him is by obeying His commandments.
“Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
John 14:21 NLT
Jesus gave His disciples only one new commandment.
“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:34-35 NLT
Throughout the New Testament, this commandment to love one another is repeated and fleshed out in detail and included in the greatest commandments of the New Covenant.
“And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.”
1 John 3:23 NLT
So, John concludes…!
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God….Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”
1 John 4:7, 11-12 NLT
God made knowing Him simple…Love His children, and He will continue to reveal His love to you.
Jesus prayed…
“I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me…I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”
John 17:23, 26 NLT