• Known by God?

What does it mean to know someone, or to be known by someone? Imagine a short conversation. Your friend Joan stops by for coffee and a chat. She asks, Do you know Mike? You answer, You mean Mike at church? Yes, I've met him a couple times, and I know where he works, but I don't really know him. Not as a friend.

Knowing about someone is not the same as knowing him as a friend. We may know some things about God. God knows everything about us. That does not automatically make us friends. So what's missing?

Jesus used metaphors to explain the kingdom of God. He used things His audience understood well, like tending sheep, growing grapes, or seeding a field. Jesus explained what it means to be His friend like this:

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 10:27—29 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

I find that comforting. Jesus knows His sheep. He knows about everyone, but He knows His sheep as friends. Only His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.

Ego, pride, and ambition cut us off from God. We cannot hear Him when we are filled with ourselves. I think that is why He called us sheep of His flock. Whoever heard of a prideful sheep? Jesus warned us what happens if we go our own way:

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name? Then I will declare to them, I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.

Matthew 7:21—23 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

Good deeds, even good deeds done in the name of the Lord, don't mean we can enter heaven. Who can enter heaven? Jesus told us, only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Doesn't God want us to do good deeds? Yes, but only those deeds that He asks us, personally, to do. Something similar happens at work sometimes. I once had an employee who was doing lots of good work. But, he was not doing the work assigned to him. His job was not getting done.

If we truly give our lives to Jesus, He will change us:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:1—5 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

Some of the branches He removes from our lives will make us very happy. Those might include drug abuse, pride, envy, anger, and other destructive impulses. Other times the pruning will hurt. What if He prunes out some of our good deeds; projects that we enjoy and feel happy about? That can hurt. Only He knows what He will do if we let Him.

I do know He will not tell us, Go, find all the good works you can, and keep busy. He may give us specific and large tasks involving many other people, say building a new hospital in some impoverished corner of the world. More likely, He will show us how we have been mean to our spouse, that we should apologize, and get His help to improve. God specializes in what we think of as little things. He cares how we treat our neighbors. Why? Because they are God's children, the same as we are. They are capable of entering eternal life in glory and splendor, the same as we are.

Will He tell us to change the way we earn money? He might. He did ask each of His twelve disciples to abandon their professions, and follow Him through the local towns and country. However, that is not what He told the centurion who asked Him to heal a servant:

When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith ... And to the centurion Jesus said, Go; let it be done for you according to your faith. And the servant was healed in that hour.

Matthew 8:10—13 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989

This shocked everyone who heard it. The centurion was a commander in the Roman occupation army. It controlled people with brutal punishment, including crucifixion. And yet, Jesus did not tell the centurion to abandon his post.

Who is worthy to be a follower of Jesus and enter eternal life with Him in glory? Saint Paul persecuted Christians, putting them in chains and dragging them to prison. He encountered Jesus in a vision, and was turned into one of His best known disciples. Jesus, hanging on the cross, forgave the Roman soldiers and Jewish religious authorities who crucified Him. How do we, unworthy as we are, become members of Jesus' flock? He told us to ask:

So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Luke 11:9—13 [NRSV]New Revised Standard Version Bible by National Council of Churches USA, 1989, emphasis is mine.

Once the Holy Spirit is living inside us, He will transform us, gradually, into the person God made each of us to be. The reward is infinite. What is the cost? It will change our lives. Some of those changes may be painful.

Are you a Christian, but have trouble hearing Jesus' voice? It can be hard to quiet our own thoughts so we can listen to Him. It takes time and patience to deepen any friendship, including this one.

What do you think? Your comments are always welcome. They may encourage others.