What does it mean to know God?
Many Christians would be offended by the suggestion that they don’t know God very well, if at all. Their offense is only possible if they use a completely different definition of what it means to “know” God than they do when referring to others. The differences between knowing God and knowing others consists only of how much there is to know—not the process of coming to know it. God is more complex and more intelligent than anyone.5 There is so much more to know about God than any human.6
Knowing God consists of much more than knowing some things about him. Knowing of God or just knowing about him is not the same as knowing God. You would never say you knew a fellow human if you knew as little about him or her as most Christians actually know about God. To know God requires more than what knowing another person does, not less.
Knowing that God exists isn’t the same as knowing God. You could never say that you know another person simply because you know they exist; why would your criteria for knowing God—who is deeper than any person—consist of anything less? You can know very little about God and still believe in him.
Seeing God is not the same as knowing him. After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to two of his disciples along the road to Emmaus as an unrecognized man, walking and talking about the events of his ministry and the scriptures that pertained to it.832 If you can see him and yet not recognize him, you can obviously see him without knowing him. To know God, you must learn more about him. You can learn more about God without seeing him, and you can see him without learning more about him.
To know someone is to know their character: what they do, why they do it, and how they feel in doing so. When you know someone’s character, you can accurately predict how they will think, act, and feel in different situations. Knowing God is a question of knowing how he thinks, feels, and acts.833 The more accurately you can anticipate how God would think, feel, or act, and the more situations across which you can accurately do so, the better you know him.
Footnotes
- 1. Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. (Job 36:26) ↩
- 2. And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. (Mosiah 4:11) ↩
- 3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3) ↩
- 4. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20) ↩
- 5. And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. (Abraham 3:19) ↩
- 6. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. (Psalms 145:3) ↩