To know Jesus or know About him. That is the Question.

Do you know Jesus or know about Jesus? Think about that question for a minute. I recently read an article where this question was posed and it had one of those impacts that makes you hate having spent the time reading. It forced me to look at my own relationship with Jesus to determine if I was falling for the lie that simply knowing about him would be enough. Have you been there? Have you found yourself saying that if you knew more about God then you would....be a better Christian, have your life together, live the way you are supposed to, etc?

This seems to be one of Satan's most effective lies he tells Christ followers. He tells us, "You don't know enough...and since you don't know enough, don't bother with it?" It causes doubt to arise which paralyzes people's ability to actively pursue what they do know about God. And Satan has done a masterful job of infiltrating the church with this subtle, but dangerous, lie.

So what is the difference between knowing God and knowing about God? Simply put, knowing about God is passive and does not require action. Truly knowing God requires action.

The last two weeks at Ethos we have been working through Jesus' initial calling of the disciples. It is striking that in both Matthew and Luke Jesus enters into the rhythm of Peter's life and immediately calls him into significant, transformative action. Luke describes a scene where Peter and Andrew had been fishing all night with nothing to show from their effort. Jesus approaches and immediately begins calling them into action. He first tells them to put out into water to cast their nets again. He then called them into an intentional life of following where he leads. Alternatively, Matthew's gospel portrays Jesus approaching Peter and simply saying, "Come, follow me."

Both times Jesus calls them to immediate action and as a result of their obedience to this call Jesus would make them into something that they were unable to become on their own. Both Matthew and Luke give a glimpse into the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Truly knowing God implies obedience on our part which leads to our transformation at the will and power of Jesus. Knowing about God puts control in our hands and puts our transformation on our own might.

Imagine what would have happened had Peter and Andrew responded to Jesus by saying, "Jesus, I know you are asking me to follow you but first I would like to take a class or read a book which explains what it means to follow you."

I interact with a lot of people who tell me they wished they knew more about God so they can believe in him. It takes all of about 10 minutes to uncover the reality behind this kind of comment. And most of the time what they are actually saying is..."I am often made to feel bad that I don't know more about God. People at church know so much about God and make me feel inadequate because I don't know what ecclesiology, Christology, or eschatology mean. When I go to church I feel like there is a standard level of education which must be achieved before I will be fully accepted in." And as I listen to these people tell me story after story of their church experience I am drawn to the conclusion that a lot of us have misplaced the emphasis of our spiritual journey on how much we know about God. This misplaced emphasis has then created a false standard by which we measure people's abilities to enter into God's Kingdom.

Now, certainly, knowing about God is incredibly important. However, knowing about someone or something does not necessarily create a genuine lasting relationship.

Isn't this true with our dating relationships? I remember longing to be near Laura all the time when we were dating. All I cared about was being close to her. And as we grew closer and closer together we began to learn everything about each other. Now, having been married for 7 years, I know a great deal about my wife and the longing to be near her has only grown. This is typically how relationships are built. We see someone we are interested in and all we want is to be close to them. To be near them. And as the closeness grows, so grows our knowledge about personality, family history, likes and dislikes. There are few relationships, that I can think of, that are started by each person first knowing everything there is to know about the other person. Not even websites like E-Harmony can help you know everything about a person. All E-harmony does is give enough information about a person to peek interest. Then closeness and intimacy are required for learning everything else.

And this is exactly what Jesus is doing as he calls his first disciples to follow him. He enters into the natural rhythms of their lives and says, "Come, follow me. And I will make you into something that you could never accomplish on your own. Leave everything where it is and enter into this adventuress life I have planned for you."

It is amazing that Peter, Andrew, James and John didn't ask for Jesus' life story. They knew some about Jesus because he had just been at Peter's mother-in-law's house in Luke 4. However, these men saw the majesty of Jesus and it was enough for them to leave their lives behind to follow him with complete trust and faith. And since we have the rest of the Gospels, we get to see how the disciples constantly struggled to understand Jesus. It was truly a journey of discovering who Jesus was. But knowledge about Jesus came as their relationship grew closer and closer. And Jesus fulfilled his promise to them by transforming them into men who would spend their lives liberating men and women into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus never asked Peter and the others to "Go, read and learn about me and then you will be ready." He said, "Come, follow me. And I will make..." This part is really important because it is the crux of the whole matter. For much of my spiritual journey I was desperately clinging to a false reality that I could control how spiritual I was and how much God would use me. I had an idea of who I thought God should make me into and I was trying to get there on my own. I had studied, learned everything I needed to know in order to teach good classes, preach good sermons, and even lead a church if I wanted. But I was constantly met with frustration and bitterness because I was left feeling empty. And there are times where this is something I still struggle with. And let's be real...I know a lot of you struggle with this too. But there comes a moment where we begin to see Jesus for who he really is and we once again hear his calling in our lives. A calling not to know more about him, but rather a calling to actually know him in a way where we are willing to leave everything behind to follow him.

What do you need to leave behind in order to follow him? This is a question we all have to ask if we are going to actively participate in following Jesus. For me...I am choosing to leave behind the belief that if I know more about Jesus then I can somehow transform myself into his image. It can't be done. How freeing it is to follow Jesus and trust that he will do what he says he will do. He will transform me and he will make me a fisher of men!
Does this mean I will stop reading my Bible or studying to learn about Jesus? Of course not. Quite the contrary. But my study, prayer, Bible reading will be grounded in the desire to be close to my Savior. To hear his voice and to follow where he is leading. It is a change of posture from one of feeling entitled to be used by God because I know about him, to one where it is my daily goal to be in his presence because I simply love him. It is viewing my spiritual journey as a relationship and not a means to achieve a goal.

So let me ask the question again. Do you know Jesus? Or do you just know about him? I pray that we become a people who seek to know Jesus and through that intimacy with him, we will know more about him. I pray that we become a Kingdom of churches that is more interested in people knowing Jesus so they can follow him in this adventurous life he is calling us into. Knowing about him is simply not enough.