#DailyDevotion Does God Know You?
1 Corinthians 8:1–3 About the meat sacrificed to idols: We know that all of us have some knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows something, he still has something to learn. 3But if he loves God, God knows him.
Well we’ll talk more about meat sacrificed to idols tomorrow. Today we will key in on verses two and three. Now we need to remember the Corinthian congregation was very divided, much like probably your congregation. Its members often made distinctions between members for various and sundry reasons. They were very much still thinking like they were part of the world. One of those distinctions had to do with knowledge, who had it, how much did they have, what kind did they have and the like. This was very much a Greek culture town where such things were important to people of the day.
Paul will have none of it. He pretty much shoots down all the pride they may have in their knowledge by pointing out that we know all of us have some knowledge, whoopty doo. While knowledge can be a good thing and we should increase in the knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ, using it to puff yourself up and say how great you are is a misuse of it. You think you know a lot? “You still have something to learn,” Paul says. Knowledge of God and the love he has for us in Christ Jesus is limitless. Even on a mundane level, we still have a lot to learn about the world we live in and the cosmos.
If you want to know about some important knowledge it is this, that God knows you. Now I can hear the smart-alec in the room going, “well doesn’t God know everyone?” Well I know a lot of people in my congregation, but I only know my wife and she only knows me. I know some people better than others. There are some people prefer to know more than others. Yes, God does know everyone, but to be known by God here means to be in an intimate relationship with him. You are his child, that is to say, he has given you’re his Spirit and made you an heir of his.
Paul puts a qualifier on this, “But if he loves God.” Who is the one who loves God? Everyone says they love God. But which God? How do we know we love God the way he wants to be loved? John writes in his 1 John 4, 10“This is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins.” If you don’t believe this and trust this, you don’t love God. He also tells us you can’t hate your brother (fellow Christian) whom you have seen and say you love God. Of course you must love Jesus who died for you to love God. Many members of the Corinthian congregation were thinking selfishly. To love God then is to not think about yourself but rather how can you serve your neighbor and love him as yourself. Even more radical, if God knows you and you love God, you will love your enemy, have mercy on him, be kind to him and even sacrifice yourself for him because that is what God has done for you in Christ Jesus his son. You are his child and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as they say.
Heavenly Father, grant us your Spirit that we may have a right knowledge of your love for us in Christ Jesus so that we may love our fellow Christians and even our enemies and through that have a better knowledge of you and your love for us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.