Knowing Jesus changes the way we live.

In this post, we’ll take a look at what it means to know Jesus and then see how a knowledge of Jesus should affect us.  The first question I want to answer is this:

What does it mean to “know” Jesus?

“³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” – 1 John 2:3

The Greek word for “know” in 1 John 2:3 is the word “ginōskō.”  Ginōskō refers to a personal and intimate knowledge of something based on experience.

Take my Dad’s experience with tanks in the Army.  My dad served in the army as a tank mechanic in the 1960’s.  He has told me some stories about what it was like to drive in the tank and fire off the rounds and fly off of sand dunes at 45 miles per hour in a machine that weighs several tons.

I have some head knowledge about what it is like to be in a tank, but I don’t have ginōskō because I never really experienced it for myself.  My dad, however, has ginōskō knowledge of Vietnam-era tanks.  He has ridden in the tank and he’s busted his knuckles taking a tank engine apart – He has a personal and intimate knowledge of that tank based on his experiences.

In the same way, there is a difference between knowing the fact that Jesus existed and having a ginōskō knowledge of Jesus.  Knowing about Jesus, isn’t the same as knowing Jesus.  Consider these examples:

• Judas knew who Jesus was. He even hung out with Him every day for a while, but he didn’t ginōskō Jesus.  In fact, Judas was more concerned with using Jesus to accomplish his own personal agenda than he was concerned with really knowing Christ.
• In the same way, many secular scholars today know a lot of facts about Jesus and his Word, but they don’t know Him.  Their academic knowledge is not the same as ginōskō knowledge of Jesus.

When someone really knows Jesus, it always changes their life!   Knowing Jesus changes the way we live.  1 John 2:3 indicates that a knowledge of Jesus results in a whole new respect for the things that Jesus says.  ““³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” – 1 John 2:3

In fact, John is so certain that an intimate knowledge of Christ will produce obedience that he calls anyone a liar who claims to know Jesus and then disobeys His word.  Listen to what he says in 1 John 2:4-6

⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Knowing Jesus changes the way we live.  Jesus said it this way in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

A great example of a man who had a ginōskō knowledge of Jesus was the apostle Paul.  Listen to how Paul talked about his knowledge of Jesus in Philippians 3:

⁸ 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 ⁹ 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— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul was a man who knew Jesus.  He was a man who was propelled from the depths of where he was once living and was brought to new heights through a relationship with the living God.  Once Paul knew Jesus, it changed the way he lived – it changed everything about him!

When you are brought from the filthy slums of sin into the glorious courts of the eternal righteous King, you never want to return to live in the slums again.  Knowing Jesus changes the way we live.

Look again at Verse 4:

⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him – 1 John 2:4

John’s entire argument hangs on the certainty that a knowledge of God produces a new desire for the blessings that result from obedience to God’s commands.  There is a discontentment with sin in the heart of a disciple.  The discontentment with sin exists because the disciple knows that:

1. Sin separates the disciple from God’s very best for his life and it robs him of joy.  A disciple of Christ pursues joy in the Lord at all costs!
2. Sin separates us from a closer, intimate fellowship with God.  The person who wants to know God more, intentionally pulls down anything that might be interrupting his fellowship with God.

A disciple knows that Jesus never steers us in the wrong direction.  Consider what God’s word says in 1 John 4:16a.

¹⁶ So we have come to know (ginōskō) and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

If we know God, then we know that God is love.  If you know God is love, then you and I can trust in that love.  God’s commandments are loving and perfect instructions from a loving and perfect God that have been carefully crafted for the best interest of the disciple.

If we know God and believe in God’s love for us, then His commands are not a burden to us but they produce joy.  David says in Ps 119:16, “I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”

It’s like we were stranded and lost in the middle of the desert.  Hot and tired and dying from thirst.  God’s commands are like a map leading to water and to food.

We’d be foolish not to follow God’s road map for life!  Knowing Jesus (and trusting in God’s love) changes the way we live.

Preaching about Jesus is good, but a church that lives for Jesus is much better!  Preaching the gospel with our lives and in our shops and in the kitchen and in the office and on the streets is the proclamation that will really show the masses the true glory of our Savior.

Our every-day-lives are the proving ground to show whether or not our faith is real.  It is the opportunity we have to show our knowledge and love for God by the way we love others around us. Because: Knowing Jesus changes the way we live.