We see growth in intimacy in the lives of believers throughout Scripture. focus us, and brings us into a greater fellowship with our Maker.
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Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Learn more about Amazon Prime. God is great and full of mystery, but He has made it clear in His Word that He desires to know us and be known by us.
Anne Laidlaw examines 44 characteristics of God to help readers grow closer to Him and see their lives transformed by this more intimate knowledge of the Father. Relying on Scripture, biblical scholars, and with insightful questions for personal reflection, each chapter will serve as a great Bible study or devotional for individuals or small groups seeking to delve deeper into the Creator.
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Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. We are who we are, the foolish and weak of the world. We believe because God has appointed us to eternal life. We have faith because of His grace, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts because the Father loves us. If we understand the Scriptures correctly, God has chosen the most unlikely people upon which to pour out His grace and love and so become holy and without blame before Him.
Do not be misled by the limited Strong's definition of the word translated "eternal" in this verse.
A more complete lexicon like Spiros Zodhiates' Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament gives a more precise usage—how the word is used in the Bible rather than merely in classical Greek. Zodhiates says that the word refers to the "life which is God's" p. The life of God is more than endless, and that is what is important here. He adds, "It is to be understood as referring not only to duration, but more so to quality.
That is, it is not merely life that is eternal in duration, but is primarily something different from the natural life of man, i. The Daily Bible Study Commentary: John Volume 2 by William Barclay contains this comment:. There is another important thought in this passage, for it contains the great New Testament definition of eternal life. It is eternal life to know God and to know Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
Let us remind ourselves of what eternal means. In Greek, it is aionis. This word has to do, not so much with duration of life, for life which went on forever would not necessarily be a boon. Its main meaning is quality of life. There is only one person to whom the aionis can properly be applied, and that is God. Eternal life is, therefore, nothing other than the life of God. To possess it, to enter into it, is to experience here and now something of the splendor and the majesty, and the joy , and the peace , and the holiness, which are characteristic of the life of God.
It undoubtedly contains elements of intellectual knowledge, understanding, discernment, information, and familiarity. However, this word suggests more than this because the Old Testament regularly uses "know" to describe sexual knowledge. Sexual knowledge between a husband and wife is the most intimate of knowledge. Husband and wife are no longer two but one flesh. In this regard, in John To know God, therefore, is not merely to have intellectual knowledge of Him, but it is having an intimate, personal relationship with Him like the nearest and dearest relationship between two people.
Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. If they had possessed knowledge of God, they would have had the power to avoid being destroyed. Nobody in his right mind wants to be destroyed. Ignorance might be bliss, but this verse shows it can be dangerously life-threatening. Consider the implications of a lack of knowledge in the area of physical law. A person who does not know the power of electricity, nitroglycerin, carbon monoxide, drugs, or certain medications could pay for his ignorance with his life.
Or, even if a person's ignorance of these things does not kill him, he might have the quality of his life severely impaired through a maiming, debilitating injury. However, when they are used with knowledge, they can do worthwhile things. Similarly, knowing God opens to men the freest and most rewarding expressions of an abundant life.
What if a person does not know of God's righteousness? This is what will make the Millennium so wonderful! Eternal life is more than just endless life. The biblical eternal life includes power to produce quality living superabundantly far beyond merely existing forever. We should touch briefly on its sexual aspect. It has a wide variety of possible applications, one of which is "to lie by man. The Hebrews used it to describe the sexual part of the relationship between husband and wife; thus, it suggests intimacy. When applied to God, it highlights not merely being acquainted with Him but, as we would say today, being "inside His head.
To know God thus includes a wide range of mental, emotional, and experiential knowledge. The fruit of this intimacy includes love, reverence, obedience, honor, gratitude, and deep affection. We would never know this mixture of admirable qualities and authority without getting close to Him. They compel us to yield to Him with all of our heart while we strive to obey and glorify Him.
In sum, this points to Jesus indicating that eternal life is not merely endless, though that is its dominant sense, but that those who have it live intimately with God and conduct their lives as God does—otherwise, there would be no close intimacy with Him. Jesus Christ suggests that having an intimate relationship with the Father and Son causes us to become one with them.
The only way we can do that is by living the way God does by faith. He walks—lives life—with those who agree with Him. The One who already had this unique relationship with God reveals to us the knowledge of how to do that. Originally given to a spiritually faltering people, Amos 5: Instead, it conveys the sense of "turn to Me," "seek to live as I do," "turn to My way of life," "seek to know Me in intimate detail. Here, it deals not so much with duration of life, since by itself living forever would not necessarily be good. Rather, it implies "quality.
To possess it is to experience a small measure of its splendor now. Four times in this chapter verses 6, 11, 12, and 26 , Jesus uses the word "name" in reference to God. God's name keeps, guards, and sustains us, both by our trusting what it signifies and then, through obedience, expressing what it means.
We can trust what He is. This has marvelous implications for us. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit , teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
How to Grow in Intimacy with God
The word "in" in verse 19 can just as correctly be translated as "into," meaning that we are immersed into the name of the Father and Son. We now bear that name! They are God, and we are children of God. Baptism and the receipt of the Holy Spirit are the entrance into that name and all it implies! We have entered into the Family of God!
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Just as a son bears his father's name, God's name is our spiritual family name. Ritenbaugh The Third Commandment. After all, they have been working together side-by-side for literally countless years—all eternity—in perfect harmony. Relatively few couples are blessed with outstanding marriages that last fifty years or more. After so long, the depth of their relationship must be close and intimate. If that happens between two human beings in fifty years, what would it be like after a few billion? It would be intimate beyond our comprehension.
Such is the depth of God's love for Christ—far beyond our comprehension. In this verse, Jesus is asking God to reveal two things to the world: Understanding the full impact of this verse hinges on a little, two-letter word "as. This definition makes Jesus' request staggering in its implications! It means we can truthfully say that there is not a being in the universe—including Jesus Christ—whom God loves more than us.
Each individual whom God has called can say the same thing. God loves us all at the same incredible, beyond-our-comprehension level. This statement also shows Christ's unbelievable love for us. He has been with God forever, yet the Son feels no animosity that our Father loves us just as much, unlike the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
God's Call for Intimacy
In fact, in His prayer Christ is asking God to broadcast this fact to the world! Christ is preeminent in position and responsibility—but not in the Father's love. As the perfect Parent, He does not love any one child more than the others. To underscore this equality of love, notice how other Bible translations handle the word "as. On the authority of Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who has been with God forever, we know the Father loves us as much as He loves Jesus—no more, no less. If we consider how much He must love Christ after spending billions of years working together in perfect harmony, that is exactly how much He loves us.
The true depth of that love is definitely beyond our comprehension. It takes faith to believe this simple statement of fact.
Our fellowship is with Christ , or our fellowship is in Christ. It can go either way. The case is both subjective and objective in I Corinthians 1: Fellowship means "sharing," "communion with," "companionship with," or "association with. All these words are synonyms.
The only difference might be the degree of the intimacy that is expressed. In addition, fellowship indicates people having things in common—they do things together because they share common interests. What we have in common is our love for Christ. We are drawn to the brethren because of the common tie—the common love for the same Person. Even when we meet people in the church for the very first time, we do not feel as though they are perfect strangers to us because of that commonality. We recognize the spirit or attitude that emanates from them. It is almost something that we can feel or see because our senses seem to be attuned to it.
This is why world travelers with the church say that they can go into another congregation and know that it is of the same Spirit as the one that they traveled from. There is a bond or union between us because we love the same Person. To the Christian, then, Christ's friend is our friend. We are members of the same body.
We are children in the same Family. We are soldiers in the same army. We are pilgrims on the same road. These same analogies are used many places in the Bible. Unity, then, will vary from person to person. With some, it will be tenuous because the relationships and experiences together are just not that strong.
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He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Through almost a century of following the Lord, they learned His views and His way of thinking. He talked to them about what was most important to Him and how they were to respond to the various challenges around them.
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Not only was He continuously watchful and present, but God showed Himself as an engaged Father who desired for His children to not just follow Him, but to know Him intimately. Through the ups and downs of following the Lord, Jonah gains greater intimacy with God.
Abraham was in the midst of living his life, when the Lord spoke to Him and began to lead him into His divine plan to make him into a great nation. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. The Lord is excellent at pursuing and winning those He has made. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
God's Call for Intimacy
Salvation is our open door for encountering God. The truth we need to remember is that Almighty God, who made Heaven and Earth, wants to be in relationship with us and wants us to know Him the way He knows us. He sees every effort we make to grow in intimacy with Him. And we can trust that when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. In the Bible we see how God interacts with man, how He communicates, and the topics He sees as priorities. One way Jesus refers to Himself is as the living water and as the Word.