Saturday, May 2, 2009

Knowing God

I have a saying that goes something like this, "in this world it should be not who you know, but what you know, that gives you the advantage; in the world to come it is not what you know, but Who, that saves you." I don't think this saying is anything special, and I'm sure I'm not the first person to think or say things this way. As a matter of fact, others have thought and said (or written) far better words than mine, and I acknowledge my debt to them. But above all is the Lord, who alone gives us utterance of those things that please Him. To Him be the glory.

Fr Stephen has another excellent short post on his blog that spoke mightily to me, and I want to share it.

He calls his post What Matters—Still True, but I call it Knowing God. Here's an excerpt that I especially liked. To read the entire post, just go back and click on the hyperlinked title above. Now, read this…

It matters that we know God because knowledge of God is life itself. “This is eternal life,” Jesus said, “to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

The Orthodox way of life is only about knowing God. Everything we do, whether it is prayer, communion, confession, forgiveness, fasting - all of it is about knowing God. If it is about something else, then it is delusion and a distraction from our life’s only purpose.

1 comment:

Jim Swindle said...

"in this world it should be not who you know, but what you know, that gives you the advantage; in the world to come it is not what you know, but Who, that saves you."

Thank you for saying this so concisely. It's so much easier to be a theological scholar than to know God, but the only kind of scholarship that will count in the end is knowing God.