We are raised to know many things. To learn, to be educated, and to be filled with knowledge. From the time we are youths we are taught oration, writing, arithmetic, and science. We apply rules, learn the gravity that is in all subjects and seek to master how far we can fall before hitting the pavement. Education is a gift, to learn a lovely boon from the Lord. However, not all we learn or know is profitable. There is much that sullies our souls.
The Apostle Paul said a very polarizing statement. While amongst the most learned of Greeks, whose knowledge of poetry, philosophy, and the powerful forces of Science was unparalleled, St. Paul said this, "When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence of speech or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:1-2, NET/NIV Hybrid).
The Apostle choose to "know nothing except Christ and Him Crucified." What a statement. The Pharisee of Pharisees, the Student of Gamaliel (Philippians 3:5, Acts 23:6) decided not to woe anyone to the Gospel through articulate speech, eloquence, persuasive arguments, or the wisdom of men, but to simply "know Christ and him Crucified." What does the word know mean in this sentence? Does it mean to know, as in personally know and have relationship with Jesus Christ? or to know only about Christ and His teaching? The Greek Word Paul used gnosis which means "mystical, religion of knowledge, enlightenment, and insight."
If we read carefully Paul's words in His epistles we find that this knowledge is both wisdom and insight and power. For the Apostle said, "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24). Here there is a distinction; that Christ is the power of God, which is felt, you can't just know power, it has a force behind it that is felt either emotionally or physically as in someone's power bends you to their will or set you free. But Wisdom is more akin to knowledge, as in knowing something, however, wisdom transcends knowledge and is more akin to insight and enlightenment. From Paul's words we deduce that knowing Christ is both in relationship which has power, and an intellectual transcendent wisdom.
Paul's preaching of Christ is not a philosophy. It is not just a teaching passed down from Rabbi Jesus. No, the Apostle says, "And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you." (Romans 8:10-11). God lives within all who believe the Gospel. We have not just been given a teaching from the Most High as Moses received at Mount Sinai. No, we have received God who is Jesus Christ in our person; that is our body, spirit, and soul (mind and emotions). God now dwells in us and is alive and working inside our being. He is not just some idea or historical teaching.
Jesus Christ himself used the word "know" many times in His teaching. He said, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep." (John 10:14-15). The know here is not intellect, that "I know about my sheep, that they exist and what they are like," but rather "I know them personally, and they know me personally." Shepherds in 33 A.D. were close to their flocks and treated them like family. In fact, shepherding was a religious position. A priest before he could govern and tend to the flock of human souls, had to prove He could care for, nature, and love a lesser creation in form of sheep.
This use of the word "know" becomes increasingly important in Immanuel's words to His disciples near the end of His ministry. He says,
"At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." (Matthew 25:6-13)
This knowing cannot be simply knowing the teaching of Christ. If it were so these virgins would have been spared. For they knew the Bridegroom was coming and where to knock, but their knowledge of these things did not save them. Thus it becomes abundantly clear that knowing about Jesus and His Coming will not save you. One must know, as in personally have a relationship with Jesus Christ and keep watch for Him to be admitted into the wedding banquet.
How do we know that we know Christ? How may we test ourselves to discern that we will be ready to meet our Bridegroom and Lord upon His Return? The Apostle John says, "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." (1 John 2:3). The Beloved Disciple gives us a picture of how to know we know Christ; "That we keep His commandments." Are we to then obey the Words of Christ and form a new Christos Law in fashion of the Mosaic Law? I argue no. The Commandments of Christ are not the Beatitudes, but these, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40).
To keep the Commandments of Christ as the Apostle John declares is to follow these commands, "Love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself." Here again it is relational. Through loving the Lord God who is Christ Jesus, you come to Know Him, for If you love Him, He will reveal Himself to you and you will Know Him!
This knowing Christ begins with believing and declaring. The Apostle Paul says, "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9). The Apostle John says the same, "All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God." (1 John 4:15). This is how we come to know Christ who is God. (Colossians 2:9). However, the knowing does not stop there. Jesus Christ Himself said, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35). This harkens back to the Second Commandment of "love your neighbor as yourself." In point of fact it actually clarifies who our neighbor is. Many think neighbor is all people, saved and unsaved. But Jesus' words make it clearer by saying "if you have love for one another." Jesus is speaking to the Disciples. Thus the Second Commandment is really in regards to the Church, your neighbor is another Christian believer.
Knowing Christ should be paramount to a Christian believer. Not just knowing about Him. Theology, Eschatology, Missiology, and all Christian studies are useful and helpful. We should learn and have more means to explain, speak about, and share Christ Jesus. However, we must be careful that we do not simply ginkso (know of) Christ, but that we gnosis (know, have a relationship) with Christ. (Kurt Rudolph, Harper & Row, 1987, p.2).
To summarize the whole message, I refer to the words of the Apostle Paul, who said, "What is more, I consider everything a loss (worthless) because of the surpassing worth of knowing (gnosis) Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8, parentheses by Jeffrey Gassler).
Note: gnosis is used in word gnostic. The Gnostic Gospels are false and untrue teachings. The word gnosis is used in the New Testament. The Gnostics took the word and made their own doctrine and use of it. I do not support the Gnostics, for they are in heretical error and falsehood.
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