Known by God

Galatians 4:9 “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?”

Apostle Paul in this verse explains that if we had known God, we are now actually known by God Himself and so, the expectations on us are very higher. The problem Paul is raising here is that our status now is we have a mutual understanding with God and even then we try to please God by worldly elements. God takes these as insults and that’s why Paul is positioning this as a serious deviation from the plan of God on mankind. The actual requirement of God is that we have to turn away from sin and love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This is the progress we need to give to God and not in terms of anything of this world.

We are now in pursuit of a stronger and richer element after receiving grace. This is actual freedom. This is the best encouragement we can ever have in this world. But we still seek more mercy from God through deeds and this is pathetic. That is why Paul uses the word “beggarly”. As in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, the opposite of knowing God is lust. We need to note that knowledge removes lust and not power or wealth. If knowledge could remove lust, then the knowledge should be about something richer and much better. This understanding of God is needed to us. Whatever He has provided till now is nothing when compared to what He is.

As per John 17:3, knowing God is eternal life. This is the prize given to us. The previous verse explains that Jesus came to this earth with authority over all flesh so that we, people who were given to Jesus by the Father would know God and Jesus. We can read this as we’ll want to live forever with Him if we know Him. This knowledge of God that He loves us so much happened only when Christ came into this world. If we know more of Him, we would not just receive eternal life, but love inside us would overflow into eternal life as in the dialogue with Samaritan lady (John 4:13, 14). This is why God has sent His spirit to enable us call Him as “Abba Father”. This knowledge to make us lovingly call Him is eternal life. We are not called to live for ourselves in heaven, but are called there to love Him. 1 John 4:7, 8 says the basic quality of knowing God is to love Him.

Based on 1 Cor 8:3, God knows us through our love. The previous verse says that if we think we know a lot, we actually do not as there are ways in which we need to know things. And that sole way is love. Paul expects us to use this method of discernment in things like what to eat and what not. This is a wonderful encouragement to us where love rules over knowledge. Even if we do not know a lot about Christ and yet we love Him, He knows us completely.

If our knowledge about Him is so strongly focused on His love, then God expects to know how much we love Him. In reality, He already knows and is worried that our love isn’t maturing well in time.

To many of our questions during our Christian maturity like why there are problems, starvation or what is right or wrong, a clear answer is that we know God and God knows us. Based on Psalm 139:1, God has searched our real motives and knows us by them.  And since God does not just want us to prosper here, but prosper in heavenly riches, it requires Him to discipline us towards perfection. He looks at every motive (Proverbs 16:2) behind our deeds. If we do good for self-exclamation, it is immediately ignored by Him. This is the reason the Holy Spirit has come to live inside us and not as a physical companion. We need cleansing from within and not outwardly. Also, Christ hated hypocrisy more than any other sin as this leads to deception that we are right because the world sees us as righteous and then we land in hell. We have to listen to the Holy Spirit and change our inner thoughts first before showing off charity.

When raising children (1 Samuel 16:7), it is required that we ask them to develop the right motives because that is the actual weight that is valued. More than training them into wise or talented, we should want their hearts to be pure.