To Know vs. To Have Known

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We all have friends and some are closer than others, but I want you to think of your closest friend of years gone by. Do you remember the good and bad times together living through those experiences that made you friends for life? I have just visited such a friend and so enjoyed getting reacquainted. We laughed and cried as we rehearsed many of those stories, and laughed even harder now with our new perspectives as adults. Throughout all these years, I always felt just as close. I thought nothing would be different as “friends.”

Are you still friends?

However, within minutes, and to my surprise, I saw how much forty years changes things. By the time I went to bed that night my heart was broken and I cried again over the disagreements and different personal values that were shared. I cried because I thought I lost my friend as I realized that I no longer knew him. I still call him my friend, he always will be, but now I can measure the “to have known” in light of the current “to know.” I am sure you can relate. We become aware of these feelings as we visit with many we have known years ago, even among family members.

 "I thought I lost my friend."

I have been thinking about this for some time and have been reminded of these same feelings when talking with brothers and sisters in Christ.  In my book, “Maybe It’s Good We Don’t Know,” I comment about our religion and how there is “nothing” we can do or say to earn salvation, even the “sinners prayer.” I am not suggesting that the Word of God is not true when it says, “For whosoever shall called upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Romans 10:13. But I am concerned for those who live in the realm of “to have known.”  In other words, in these conversations I only hear, “I’ve said the prayer.” So many of us are very comfortable and confident with that prayer. So many of us live in the “to have known.”

Well, the Bible also says, “...work out your salvation in fear and trembling,” Phil. 2:12. What does this mean? Paul is challenging us to understand what it means to be a Christian, how we are to live, act and love each other. Earlier in this chapter he says in verse 5, “Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus...” How can we have the mind of Christ Jesus if we keep Him in the “to have known?”

Are we seeking “to know” Him better daily?

It is so easy to slip into the comfort of “to have known” and begin to forfeit our many blessings in Christ. In fact, many of us have been there so long that Christ warns us of lukewarmness. Revelation 3:16 But with His rebuke He also gives us an invitation “to know” Him fully. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me,” Rev. 3:20. Folks do you hear Him?

Have coffee with Jesus today, and get “to know” Him.