by Andrew Weaver

This is a question you can ask almost anyone. I have asked it of Hindus, Muslims, Hare Krishnas, Jehovah’s Witnesses, atheists, and numerous denominations of Christianity. Almost all of them say, “Oh, yes, I know Jesus.” It is clear that they mean something different than I do, or that there are different levels of knowing Jesus.

It is very important to look at these differences, for Jesus warned that there are going to be, at the Day of Judgment, many people who claim to have known Him, and He is going to tell them, “In fact, I don’t know you, and I never have.” We can read that in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus says: “Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.’”

A Historical Figure

When some people say, “Yes, I know Jesus,” they are on the most shallow level possible. They simply mean, “I know about Him,” in the same way that you and I know about certain historical figures. They have read about Him; they know at approximately what stage in history He lived. They know why He is famous, why He is included in the history books. That is all. Some believe and admit that He was no common man; He was divine. There was something unique about this Man, and yet, it is just out there in the realm of history; it is not personal. He does not affect their daily life. He certainly does not keep them from sin or make them holy. Yet, if you ask them, they will say, “Sure, I know Jesus.” But their life and what they think about Jesus make it clear that they do not.

I have a friend who is a member of an Eastern religion, worshiping a demon god. He tells me how much he admires and appreciates Jesus. He says Jesus is one of the greatest personalities to ever have impacted his life. So I asked him if he knew the claim Jesus made, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

Yes, he knew about that, but said that Jesus was not actually saying, “I am the way,” rather He was saying, “I have found the way,” and that way is to practice Yoga and meditation. He believes he knows Jesus—and is that far from the truth.

I have asked my Muslim friends and neighbors what they think about Jesus: “Well, He was a prophet, inferior to Mohammed, but He was a prophet along with Abraham and Moses.” They are claiming to know Jesus, but it is clear that this is not going to stand on the Day of Judgment.

A One-Time Meeting

Then there are other people with maybe a little more experience. They may have met Him once or heard His voice.

For example, there are people who often hear the president’s voice on radio or television. They have seen his image. Some would say: “Yes, I know the president. I’ve met him, shaken his hand, and told him my name.” Do you think the president knows them? Send them to the White House and see if they can get into the White House on the basis of one handshake with the president. They would get a rude awakening very quickly!

And yet there are so many people claiming to be Christians, so many church members whose only claim to knowing Jesus goes back to one time when they met Him at some public event. They heard His voice in their conscience. They were led to pray a prayer with no repentance and no saving faith. I would call that a handshake. And today they still claim: “Sure, I know Him.”

A Business Relationship

Maybe we want the next stage. There are people who go to church once a week to try to meet Jesus and do a little business with him.

They are just like the people that I meet in the market. Every Monday is market day in the town of Charity [in Guyana], and we go there and do our weekly shopping. I have found that certain stalls in the market provide better products, produce, and service than others, and so I have my favorites that I like to go back to. I know the people (at least by sight) and know which ones I want to go to. A lot of them I don’t know their name. I certainly don’t know where they live, and I certainly don’t have a relationship with them; I don’t see them during the week. But they have something I want, I have something they want, and so once a week I get in contact with them. I give them the money; they give me the rice, the flour, the sugar, whatever we’re buying. We’re both happy and satisfied, and that’s it for a week.

Isn’t that exactly like a lot of people who claim to know Jesus? Six days out of the week there is no contact, no communion, no connection. And on one day a week they think they’ll get together and make an exchange: “I’ll offer my prayers, a little worship, some tithes, and then I expect blessings and protection.”

A Marriage Relationship

But when we say, “I know Jesus,” we mean something completely different. The best example that I can give is the relationship that I have with my wife. You understand what I mean, those of you who are married in the Lord. This is the closest picture that we have; this is completely different. This is not like someone I’ve heard about. It is not like someone I met one time. It is not like someone I meet once a week. My wife is a person with whom I spend every day. I want to be with her; we want to spend time together. We are constantly communicating. We are learning more about each other. We are constantly growing in love for each other. That’s a relationship.

My life changed when I met her. My priorities changed. Some of my friendships changed. I had to start neglecting some other friends that I used to have, because there just wasn’t enough time to reach around to everyone. But I had a new priority, a new friend—and this one took top priority.

When she would write me a letter, I would immediately read it as soon as I got my hands on it. I would fold it, carry it in my pocket, and take it out many times to re-read it. Nobody ever had to tell me to discipline myself to read her love letters to me. I wanted to do it because this person was important to me, and what she had to say was important to me. I would not knowingly disappoint or displease her in any way.

Looking Through His Eyes

I remember a time when we were eating out at a restaurant together. My wife was away from the table for a moment when the waitress came to take our order. I looked over the menu, and I tried to look through her eyes. I thought, “What would she want to eat?” And I told the waitress: “I believe she’s going to choose this for supper, and I believe she’s going to want this to drink. But come back and check just to be sure.” So the waitress came back, and of course, she said exactly what I had ordered for her. We hadn’t talked about it before, but I knew her. And as I looked at the list of options, I thought, “This is what is going to be attractive to her, and this is what is going to appeal to her.”

It is no different with the Lord Jesus. When we know Him, we don’t have to have heard a specific commandment on every detail of our life. When we know Him and we are confronted with a situation, we look through His eyes. We let His mind think through us, and we have a pretty clear idea of what He would do.

I believe this is the level of knowing that Paul was talking about in Philippians 3:10. He expresses an incredible, intense longing to know Christ: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

There are two sides to it. I don’t abandon my wife whenever she gets sick, just because she is not providing me with the usual things. There is a commitment that goes way beyond just what she does and what she provides, to who she is.

It is the same way in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to share the fellowship of His sufferings as well as the power of His resurrection. This is the level of knowing Him that Paul is talking about. It was for this level of knowing that he was willing to forsake all of his past life.

I would not be willing to forsake everything to keep a good relationship with one of the vendors at the market. There is not enough relationship there that, in order to help them out with something, I would forsake everything else I have. But I would do that for my wife, because there is a foundation of a solid growing relationship with her.

Partaking of the Divine Nature

There are people who claim that if a married couple lives together enough years, they actually start to resemble each other physically a little more than they did at the beginning. I definitely know that they do become more alike in other ways, in characteristics and personality.

As we spend time with Jesus, and as His sanctifying power is working in us, we begin to resemble Him. But it goes even further than it ever can in a marriage. Check out these verses in 2 Peter 1:2-4: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” There it is, the experiential knowledge of God, really knowing Him, and Jesus our Lord. “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” How? Again, “Through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” As we know Him, all of these things are opened to us. All of these blessings are being poured out upon us, for the simple reason that we know Him. It is through knowing Him in a real and a deep way that these things come.

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” As this relationship with Jesus continues and grows, we don’t just become more like Him. This says we actually begin to partake of His nature. It would be like a couple being able to somehow share their DNA, really becoming very, very much like each other. That is what Jesus is saying: “I will make you one with Myself. You are actually going to receive some of My DNA, some of My genes. You are going to be My offspring, not just adopted, but adopted in a sense that you really are Mine, that you resemble Me—an adopted child who looks just like his Father.”

This is the miracle of this divine nature being transplanted into us. Paul expressed it this way: “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Christ was the passion, the guiding force of his life. It was all that he cared about. When that is our testimony, we are going to find that we are experiencing all of these things in these few verses in 2 Peter, all of this grace and peace being multiplied unto us. We are being given everything that is needed for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him and through the miracle of His knowing us and working through us, granting us His nature, transforming us into His image. Let us not settle for any one of the other classes of knowing, but let us make it a lifelong commitment, a daily relationship, a moment-by-moment communication, growing in love and growing in knowledge with Him.