KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (1)

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the KNOWLEDGE of Christ Jesus my Lord” – Philippians 3:8a

The most excellent of all knowledge is the KNOWLEDGE of GOD: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the KNOWLEDGE of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phi.3:8). These were the words of Paul, the great apostle, who definitely was not a loser! He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him. Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. He had travelled the world and been used of God as few men ever had or ever will be. Yet here he was still seeking to know God more: “That I MAY KNOW HIM and the power…” (v.10).

All of knowledge starts with knowing God. All believers should agree that knowing God is absolutely life’s greatest and most important asset. Without that, everything else loses meaning. The Knowledge of God is the most crucial, essential, and profitable knowledge that anyone can pursue and possess! Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He admitted that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (vv.12-14). The God of Knowledge wants us to have deep and intimate Knowledge of Him!

The man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion! Certainly, there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just knowing about God and even getting saved. Paul wrote of this when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19). He said in Ephesians 3:19: “And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God.” How can we know something if it passes knowledge? Paul was speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge.

There is a dimension to knowing God that the average Believer hasn’t experienced. We’re to know Him not only as Creator and Redeemer, but also as our loving heavenly Father (not a harsh taskmaster), as Healer, Provider, Abundant Life-Giver, and in other ways He has manifested Himself in Christ. Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life: “And this is eternal life, that they might KNOW YOU, the only TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (Jh.17:3).