By Todd Paetznick, December 28, 2023

In business, we are encouraged to know about our customers and the people we interact with to support their business and ambitions better.  There are information service providers that make a lot of money by providing information about companies and people to help us fill in our knowledge gaps with useful facts.  While it is a good thing to know all about a company or all about another person, it is a completely different thing to know a person or a company.  What’s the difference?

Knowing About

Knowing about a company is having a list of facts.  Facts are good to know and are helpful in our interactions.  Useful knowledge about a company includes the basics of what it does, who it employs, how it does financially, what it plans for the future, and much more.  Facts cannot tell us the entire picture of a company or what it may do in the face of new competition or government regulation.  Why not?  Two reasons.  First, companies are run by people who are unpredictable and whose decisions may seem random.  Second, because so many outside forces affect companies, making accurate predictions and models is difficult, if not impossible.  

Knowing about a person is superficial knowledge.  The type of information we might find out about a person from their LinkedIn or other social media profiles will help us learn about a person but will not lead to a deeper understanding of how the person thinks or how they will likely respond in certain circumstances.  Those of us in relationships know there is more complexity to other people than what they reveal in a social media profile. 

Knowing about God.  Knowing about God does not lead a person to understand God or how he operates.  I have been surprised by the number of non-Christians actively teaching religious-related studies at major universities and even seminaries.  They may learn and teach about Jesus, what he did, what he said, and what others have said about him.  But what they know and teach has not changed their lives and will not likely change other people’s lives.  Limited to one’s knowledge of God to facts is not a relationship.  Many who attend church know all about God and Jesus and even memorize the scriptures.  But they do not know God.  Relationships are life-changing.

In one of the most frightening scripture passages, Jesus explains that some people will be excluded from his presence despite prophesying in his name, casting out demons, performing miracles, etc. (Matthew 7:21-23).  I have not done any of those things; where does this leave me?  But Jesus excludes them from his presence and says he never knew them.  What does this even mean?

Knowing

Knowing takes place at a much deeper level than knowing about.  Knowing individual people requires an actual relationship that takes time to understand how the other person thinks and what they do.  This is not a casual or superficial relationship based on facts but one built on familiarity.  We get to know people by spending time with them, not by studying their social media posts or profiles.  We can observe knowing relationships when people have been married for a long time and know what the other will likely do in a given situation.  In business, too, we get to know others by spending time, working, solving problems, and sharing experiences together.  Through all of this, we understand how the other person thinks, how they are likely to respond in a given set of circumstances, and how they make decisions. 

Knowing God.  How does God think and behave?  What is important to God?  What is not important to God?  There are three ways that we can better know God. 

1.  Study.  God has revealed many of the things he wants us to know about him in the Bible.  But people often read the Bible in the way they want.  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount sought to correct the human desire to find loopholes in laws and biblical requirements to suit their own purposes.  As an example, Jesus said, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER,’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be answerable to the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty [enough to go] into the fiery hell” (Mat 5:21-22 NASB20).  Study the Bible the way that God intended it to be understood and not from the perspective of what we want to hear. 

2.  Prayer.  More than facts about God or even understanding the commands and requirements he gives to people, we get to know God through a personal relationship.  Prayer is more than asking God for things we want; prayer is about aligning our hearts and minds with his.  Prayer is not a one-way conversation with God; through the Holy Spirit, we are reminded of all we know about God through our study and understanding of how he works in our world.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we become aware of the needs of other people and the opportunities we have to do good.  Through prayer, God will act on our behalf and on behalf of others.  God can be glorified by answering our prayers when we cannot do anything.  God does not change, but we can.

3.  Trust.  We speak of having faith in God; faith is always about the future.  Faith is about trusting that God will act in directing circumstances for the good, even when we cannot foresee what will happen.  We act in ways that are right according to God; that is our part.  God works out the details.  We get to know God much better when we learn to trust that what he says is right and good.