To Know Him

- This week's edition is by Caroline Munnik -

A question that’s been sitting with me:

Do we read the Word to make sense of the world, or to know the One who created it?

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”
John 5:39 (ESV)

We all come to Scripture with questions.

Why is this happening?
What does God say about suffering?
Relationships?
Purpose?
Identity?
The future?
Right and wrong?

And there’s nothing wrong with asking questions. God isn’t threatened by them.

But somewhere along the way, it’s possible to make the Bible about understanding everything except God Himself.

We can study prophecy without becoming more surrendered.

Debate doctrine without becoming more loving.

Defend truth without becoming more truthful.

Know what the Bible says while never really getting to know the God who speaks through it.

The religious leaders Jesus was speaking to knew the Scriptures. They searched them. They studied them. And yet Jesus told them they were missing the very thing the Scriptures were pointing them toward:

Him.

Jesus went on to say:

“yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
John 5:40 (ESV)

Because Scripture isn’t just there to give us information about God. It reveals who God is, what He has done, what He desires and how we are to live, and it points us to Christ.

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
John 17:3 (ESV)

That changes how we read the Word.

Not just:

“What does this mean?”

But:

“What does this show me about You?”

“What are You asking of me?”

“Where am I resisting You?”

“What needs to change in me?”

Maybe the goal isn’t simply to know the Word better.

Maybe it’s to know Him better.

And the more we truly know Him, the more His Word should change the way we live.