Watching some drivel on TV while waiting for the ballgame to begin, I was amused by the drama (?) of some program I don’t remember the name of. Anyway, there was some dialogue between a man and a woman, a husband and wife, and she said to him in one of those "uh-oh" voices, "You don’t know me, really. You know who I am, but you don’t know me."

Now if I had been there to advise the character, I would have told him to get down on his knees and beg for mercy, because he is not going to win this one. Not with his charming wit, his greater brain power, not with a bazooka or an atom bomb.

I know it was just a TV program, and it was not important at all in the great scheme of things, but listen to what the woman said. "You know who I am, but you don’t know me."

In the book of Hebrews, Jeremiah is quoted as God speaks to the prophet: "And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them" (Heb. 8:11). There is a difference between knowing who somebody is, that they exist and a little something about them, and knowing them. In our passage, the "knowing" is the latter.

Knowing God is a part of being in the kingdom. Indeed it is through a knowledge of God that we enter the covenant with him. Of course we come to know God by learning what the Scriptures say about him. But there are those who know the Scriptures and all that they say about God, and still don’t know him. They know all about him, but they don’t know him.

Knowing God has to do with the intimacy of the relationship with him afforded us by the process of reconciliation. Jesus died on the cross for our sins that we might be reconciled unto God. "But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-19). It is said by Peter that we become partakers with him of his divine nature when our sins are taken away (2 Pet. 1:4). John goes so far as to describe that relationship as a Father-child relationship in 1 John 3:1: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." As God’s children we can expect all the blessings that come with that, and we may approach God as a loving Father for the things that we need (Matt. 7:7-11), and for the forgiveness vital to our soul’s salvation. "Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). "If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:6-7). With God as our Father, we have the hope of an inheritance that is indescribable (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

Now this relationship belongs to the children of God. They are his because they know him, not just about him, even all about him. They have a relationship with him, an intimacy, a fellowship. When is it that one who knows all about God finally comes to know him? "And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked" (1 John 2:3-6).

Our relationship to God depends on our obedience to his word. There are many who know more about God and Jesus than I ever will. But they don’t know them at all. John stresses then necessity of obedience, of walking in the light as he is in the light. To not obey, or to teach that obedience is not necessary is a result of not knowing him.

As we know God, and as we seek to do his will, we speak to him in prayer, and we listen to him speak to us in his word. Otherwise we would not know what was obedience and what was not. Do you know God? Have you obeyed his will as expressed in the New Testament? Do you know about God?