Knowing God in 2008: The People Who Know Their God

We're going through J.I. Packer's modern classic Knowing God, and have just finished the second chapter. We will try to cover one chapter per week, and you are invited to join in the reading or simply "overhear" the discussions here and at the New Covenant blog.

In the second chapter of Knowing God, Packer once again stresses the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Knowing God is not just knowing the facts, but radically applying such knowledge to our lives. Those who know God "count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus...and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him...that I may know him" (Philippians 3:7). Counting things as loss or dung, Packer says, means that one "does not live with them constantly in his mind: what normal person spends his time nostalgically dreaming of manure? Yet this, in effect, is what many of us do. It shows how little we have in the way of true knowledge of God."

That statement reminded me of the sexual purity conference at church several months ago at which the speaker likened wallowing in sin to going back to a dead skunk. How much more should we yearn to have joyous thoughts of God than thoughts turned to a dead skunk? This knowledge of God and not merely about God is evident in the book of Daniel and summarized by Packer in four points. As I read through each of these four, I realized how much I fall short of truly knowing God though I know about God.

1. Those who know God have great energy for God: They react to the anti-God culture around them. This reaction is not only through public actions, but it starts with fervent prayer. "Men who know their God are before anything else men who pray, and the first point where their zeal and energy for God's glory come to expression is in their prayers...If, however, there is in us little energy for such prayer, and little consequent practice of it, this is a sure sign that as yet we scarcely know our God."

2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God: The central truth proclaimed by Daniel is that "the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men." Packer asks if this is how we think of God. Do our prayers reflect this perspective? "Does this tremendous sense of His holy majesty, His moral perfection, and His gracious faithfulness keep us humble and dependent, awed and obedient, as it did Daniel?"

3. Those who know God show great boldness for God: "They may find the determination of the right course to take agonisingly difficult, but once they are clear on it, they embrace it boldly without hesitation. It does not worry them that others of God's people see the matter differently, and do not stand with them."

4. Those who know God have great contentment in God: This is reflected throughout the book of Daniel, as well as in Paul's epistles: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ" (Romans 8:38-39).

So if we desire such knowledge of God, two things must follow: we must recognize how much knowledge we lack of God, and we must seek Christ. The next chapter focuses on "Knowing and Being Known."

photo source: Erwin C. Nielsen/Painet Inc., Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Blogging Bridges: Moral High Ground?

In ch.11 of Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges discusses pride.

While some kinds of pride are far from respectable, there are a variety of subtle forms. Bridges discusses pride of correct doctrine, pride of achievement, pride of an independent spirit, and one that I'd like to discuss here - pride of moral superiority.

This is an election year. In fact, we've already had over a year of election coverage and by the time November rolls around the election cycle will have been nearly two years long. That's a lot of political news, and that's a lot of division between red and blue, Republican and Democrat, conservative and progressive. As "values voters" are courted by politicians, religious divisions are also exploited.

This is the perfect environment to grow pride. Especially the pride of moral superiority.

To understand how blinding pride can be, I point you to this earlier post. Here, I'd like to instead just paint an "election year picture" of someone who remarkably avoided the pride of moral superiority. That person is the prophet Daniel -- someone who was, in fact, morally superior to those around him! And yet this did not produce pride, but grace.

I've always been amazed by Daniel. In Daniel chapter 2, you'll see that Nebuchadnezzar was on the verge of killing all the magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers of the land. They could not solve the puzzle of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. However, Daniel was given the interpretation by God.

Think about it: To have all these pagans executed by the king would have been a tremendous boon to the "religious right." And their hands were clean - it was the king's decision, not theirs. Daniel and his friends would have complete hegemony in all things religious.

And yet...

Here's what Daniel says: "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation" (Daniel 2:24).

What was he thinking? Why didn't he let them go down in flames so that the truth could march on, unhindered?

Well, that's a good question, so let me ask you: what do you think gave Daniel this attitude? Why didn't he let the "wise men" (a technical term for these soothsayers) be killed, given that they were the religious opponents of the day?

If we can answer these questions, we'll be on our way to being positive representatives for the gospel during this election season. Our mindset should be one of love toward those with whom we disagree, and a desire to witness to the truth through lives marked by mercy.