Knowing about God or knowing God: what is the difference?

You can know the Bible stories well and still feel that God is far away. Plenty of people who grew up around church know that feeling. They know the songs and the language. They are less sure they know the person the songs are about.

The Bible treats these as two different things. Knowing about someone means you have information. Knowing them means you have a relationship. You can read everything a famous person has said and never once talk to them.

What Paul wanted most

Paul had every religious reason to feel confident. In Philippians 3 he lists them, from his family line to his record as a Pharisee (Philippians 3:4-6). Then he says he now counts all of it as loss, because knowing Christ Jesus his Lord is far better (Philippians 3:7-8). He sums up what he wants like this:

“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10, NKJV)

He wants to know Christ himself. That means knowing the power of his resurrection, and also sharing in his sufferings. That is the language of a relationship. It includes the hard parts.

Paul does not write as someone who has arrived. He says plainly that he has not yet attained it all, and that he keeps pressing on (Philippians 3:12-14).

You can study the Bible and miss the point

Jesus said something similar to people who knew the Scriptures well. He told them they searched the Scriptures because they thought eternal life was found there. Those same Scriptures spoke about him, and still they were not willing to come to him to have life (John 5:39-40).

That is a sobering thought for anyone who loves Bible study. Reading is good. The aim is to meet the one the Bible is about.

Jesus also described eternal life as knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent (John 17:3). Through Jeremiah, God says that anyone who glories should glory in this: that they understand and know him (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

Information and revelation

In the first episode of Tea Time With Thandie, That I May Know Him, Thandie talks about the difference between information and revelation. She also looks at the question Jesus asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi.

In Matthew 16, Jesus asks the disciples what people are saying about him. They pass on a few popular opinions. Then he asks what they themselves believe. Peter answers that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus tells him that this was revealed to him by his Father in heaven (Matthew 16:13-17). There is more on that conversation in But who do you say that I am?

Information usually comes from other people. Parents, pastors, books and podcasts all pass it on, and it matters. Revelation is when God makes himself known to you. The episode also talks about moving beyond borrowed faith: the kind you hold because someone you trust holds it.

Some honest questions

These are worth asking slowly, with no one watching:

• When did you last talk to God about something that really mattered to you, outside a church service?
• When you read the Bible, are you looking for facts or looking for him?
• If the people around you stopped believing, would your faith still stand?
• Do you know what God is like from your own time with him, or only from what others have said?

These questions are there to show you where to start. Nobody is marking your answers.

How to start knowing God for yourself

1. Read slowly and talk back. Take a short passage. Read it twice, then tell God what you noticed and what you found hard. Our guide on how to start reading the Bible has a simple plan.
2. Ask him to show you. One psalm asks God to open the writer’s eyes to see wondrous things from his law (Psalm 119:18). You can pray the same.
3. Bring your real life. Psalm 62 tells God’s people to trust him at all times and pour out their hearts before him (Psalm 62:8). That includes the parts you would rather tidy up first.
4. Seek him with your whole heart. God told his people that they would find him when they looked for him with all their heart (Jeremiah 29:13).
5. Give it time. You get to know a friend over months and years. Knowing God works the same way.

Hunger for God

Thandie’s spoken word film That I May Know You / As The Deer is on the watch page. The film’s description on YouTube sums up the idea in one line: “Knowing God is more than knowing about Him.”

The words “As the deer” come from the opening of Psalm 42, a prayer from someone who is thirsty for God. You can read about that psalm in What does “As the deer pants for the water” mean?

For the full conversation, listen to episode 1 of Tea Time With Thandie.