Knowing God

By Mike Demory

  ONE of the common religious questions of the day is, “Do you know God?” When asking this question do people mean, “Do you know God personally?” or “Do you know who God is?” or “Do you know God, His love, mercy and grace?” or maybe “Do you know of God’s salvation?” It could be anyone of these questions or a multiplicity of them, but the question we should be asking is, “What does the Bible say about knowing God?”

Far too many religious people are sold on what their “feelings” tell them, rather than what they can know absolutely. The very Greek word “ginosko” from which we get our English words, “know, known, and knowledge,” denotes the taking in of knowledge, to come to know, to recognize, to understand or to understand completely.

In its tenses, ginosko signifies differences in understanding, such as past tense which means, “to know in the sense of realizing.” or in the point tense (aorist) which indicates definiteness in understanding as in John 10:38; “But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may KNOW, and believe (understand), that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Notice that Jesus did not tell the Jews that their feelings would reveal to them understanding concerning His Messiahship, but rather it would be through miracles, wonders and signs. Ginosko in the passive voice means to “Become known or aware” (Matt. 10:26; Phil. 4:5). In the sense that complete and absolute understanding would come. Another form of ginosko is “epiginosko” which denotes the idea of fully perceiving, discernment, recognizing. This word is used in Romans 1:32 where Paul speaks of ungodly acts, “who KNOWING the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” Paul is saying that the individuals who practice such unrighteous behavior know full well that they will be judged and rightly so. Epiginosko gives greater weight to what is being stated such as 1 Timothy 4:3; “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and KNOW the truth.” Once again Paul uses this strong Greek word to give force to the idea that there are false teachers out there who KNOW full well that God no longer requires abstaining from certain foods as He once did under the law. However, they would rather establish their own rules, and become their own gods for people to follow.

Knowing God, His will, His love, mercy, grace and longsuffering is not something that is better felt than told. Knowing is not some burning in the bosom, or a light headed ecstatic feeling. Knowing comes from knowledge, and understanding, which can only come from learning. In Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh stated to Moses and Aaron, “who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? Then God told Moses, “I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall KNOW that I am the 

Lord your God….and the Egyptians shall KNOW that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth Mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them” (Exo. 6:7; 7:5). Once again epiginosko is used to show that complete knowledge of God and His will came to the Israelites as well as the Egyptians when they would witness the power of God.

Today many in the religious world have what Paul calls, a zeal for God, but NOT according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2). They do not truly know God themselves, even though they are asking others if they do. We are told by the apostle that those who have not obeyed the gospel of Christ — having believed, confessed, repented and been baptized—DO NOT KNOW GOD! (2 Thess. 1:8). How then do we know Him? John tells us in 1 John 2:3 that “we KNOW that we KNOW Him, IF we keep His commandments.”

Should anyone ask, “Do you know God or Jesus?” the only way for man to KNOW, and understand God, His nature and will for humanity, is to hear His inspired Word (Rom. 10:17), to study His word faithfully (2 Tim. 2:15) and to obey all its precepts until the day we die (Rev. 2:10). Let’s truly get to KNOW God as we should.