There is only one true God, but what is He like?
Indeed in light of the infinite glory and majesty of His Being is it possible to know God? Is He not incomprehensible, how can we know the unknowable? The answer is that the infinite God declares that finite man can know Him since He has made Himself known – and that not with resulting frustration, but rather with abiding joy, satisfaction and fulfilment.
When Paul writes in Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,” he assumes two things. First, that those who he is addressing are true, regenerate children of God, and second, that these believers have a true understanding of the God of the Bible.
This accords with Jeremiah 9:24 which we will consider today: “But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the LORD.”
The great tragedy of the modern surrender to subjectivity is that people tend to conceive of their own god, and respond in accord with this distorted image or mental idol by postulating, ‘I think God is …’. Rather, we must return to the God who has revealed himself in the Bible and the person of His eternal Son.
Such study is also immensely practical. Daniel 11:32 tells us that “the people who know their God will display strength and take action.” That is, as one knows God so they will proportionately reflect real virtue and righteous behaviour.
Peter indicates that the knowledge of God is productive of “grace and peace”, and “all that pertains to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:2-3). The deeper and wider the knowledge of the Lord, the more these things are multiplied. Throughout this letter he also shows how this true knowledge of God protects against the errors and heresies that assail the church. No wonder he calls Christians to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
If you claim to know and love God without entertaining rivals in your heart, surely nothing would take precedence over plunging yourself into the depths of His person.