What does it mean to "know" God?

Christianity, summed up in a very simple statement is this: the knowledge of God.


I want to fully elaborate upon this statement, as there is almost no other phrase in the world packed more with meaning than this one. In our days, the word "know" has been largely stripped down to a bare-bones definition which means to simply be intellectually aware of something. "I know what New York is." "I know that this is a cat." "I know that Julius Caesar existed." And, it is assumed, that closes the door on this little word which is used so often in our language.


However, the people of the Bible had a different viewpoint on the word "know." And, applied to God, this view is so deep and profound that it can be used to summarize Christianity, as I have done above. That is because there were two main languages that the Bible was written in: Hebrew and Greek (with a little Aramaic as well). Both languages assigned a much deeper level of meaning to the word "know." I will give the main words in these two languages that signify "know" and explain them.



ידע in Hebrew signifies "yada," and it has a wide range of connotations. It can mean to know intellectually, but most of the time the meaning is much more complex. The word has the idea of experiencing, discriminating, searching, making acquaintance with something. It is even a common Hebrew euphemism for sexual relations: "Adam knew his wife" (Genesis 4:1). Therefore, to "know" something means to explore intimately, to find out the intrinsic nature or meaning of the thing/circumstance. There was definitely a reason the above euphemism was formed from this particular word!



In Greek, "know" is derived from the word γινώσκω, "ginosko." There are actually a couple other words for "know" in Greek, but "ginosko" is especially applied to the explorative, intimate aspect of knowledge, much like its Hebrew counterpart above. It is even used in the sexual euphemism meaning in the New Testament a few times, and is the word used to translate "yada" in the Greek translation of the Old Testament when that word refers to sexual relations. So, for most practical reasons, "yada" and "ginosko" are the same word in 2 different languages.


Now let's apply the meaning of these words. What does it mean to know God, now? Obviously it's not a bare intellectual agreement that He exists, or that He is such and such. No, for the believer it is the very description of a close relationship with Him, where one is seeking to constantly explore more and more of His wondrous qualities.

There are a myriad of verses in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, that refer to God in a "knowing" fashion." Sometimes, the "knowing" may be particularly painful, as is illustrated in Exodus 14:18 when God drowns the Egyptian army in the Red Sea: "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen." Obviously, it is much more than just merely knowing that He exists - this is a painful knowledge, that He is so great and powerful and mighty and merciless against sinners. This is personally experienced! The entire nation of Egypt trembles, knowing intimately the terror and magnificence of the Almighty God in His plagues and judgments! So, clearly, "knowing God" is not always in a pleasant way, and unbelievers far too often "know" Him in only this manner. The book of Ezekiel is also a big fan of this phrase, "You shall know that I am the LORD," using it dozens of times in reference to judgments and chastisements.

However, I want to focus more on the positive use of this phrase, for obvious reasons. I want to show that "knowing God" is one of the most wondrous things that happens for a human being who has been redeemed by Him. Jesus offers perhaps the most illuminating definition of the word "know" in His prayer to God after the Last Supper:

"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).

I routinely use this verse in evangelism, for one particular reason: It offers one of the best definitions of eternal life in the Bible, and if one knows the full meaning of "ginosko" here, it can be an eye-opener. We Christians are spending eternal life in heaven exploring all the wonderful, beautiful attributes of our Sovereign God, and will be marveling at all that He does for all of eternity. And, since God is infinite, it will take all of eternity to know Him! That's why we need eternal life - so that we can keep on KNOWING Him for ever and for ever. We will never get tired of our Father and our Savior, for they will always have something new about themselves up their sleeves to show us, His redeemed creatures. Heaven will never get boring, even after a million years, for God will still be as fresh to us then as He was at the beginning. I know, this is difficult to comprehend - but isn't that wonderful, all the same?

Here is another foundational passage, from the Apostle Paul, about knowing God:


"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:7-11).

Paul desired to count everything else as little worth - indeed, as excrement to be flushed down the toilet (that's the meaning of "rubbish" in the Greek!) - as compared to the infinite value of knowing Jesus Christ. He looked over his many achievements as a scholar and as a Jew of first rank in the Jewish Sanhedrin court prior to his salvation and then dismissed all of that as completely worthless once Jesus Christ was in the eye of his heart. Now, all that Paul desires is to intimately know God and to experience Him. So it must be with us. We need to cast away everything that does not contribute to our ultimate goal of enjoying our Savior. Here's another passage from Ephesians 3:17-19:

"that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Paul is so amazed at how wonderful God is that he prays for our hearts to be overflowed with the same admiration he has for the Lord!

So, how do we know that we know God? Simple:

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3)

And what are His commandments? To trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. To live a life worthy of a saint of God in gratitude for our salvation. To read the Word, and to enjoy Him through it. It is no surprise that loving God, and then our neighbor, are the 2 greatest commandments. For these are outflows of knowing Him. Trusting in Christ is equal to loving God, and living the good life so that others notice it is loving our neighbors. We love our neighbors because we love God, and we desire Him to be known to them, hopefully to their salvation. "Knowing God" is not about a mystical experience that we can create on our own at all. The Bible contains all we need to know in order to be on a personal level with Him. It shows us Who He is, how He wants us to be saved, what He has done in this world, and how we are to act in this world. Refer to my very first post in this blog about how merciful He was in letting us know about Him and to know Him. Just wait till the time when we'll actually see Him face-to-face in the person of Jesus Christ! Now, THAT will be knowledge at its ultimate!

I urge all of you to consider what "knowing" means in a different sense from now on. A great exercise is to look over every verse in where "yada" and "ginosko" appear (in a Bible concordance) and think about the contextual meaning of these verses. You'll find out that many times when you come to the English word "know" in the translation, you will stop and marvel at how profound such a simple word can be. It was powerful enough that I preached a little message on it a few years ago. Such joys can only be found by reading God's Word and asking the Holy Spirit to show you the meaning of what is being said while being diligent to study the context and intent of the passage.

So, come on and join me in knowing my great God and Savior, Jesus Christ! :)