To Know Me IS to Love Me!
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Interestingly, verse 1 of this same Psalm says, “O Lord, You HAVE SEARCHED ME and known me.”
You even know, “when I sit down and when I rise up;”
You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all.
And still…
You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.
To Know Me IS to Love Me! Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Not because I’m so amazing to know… but because God, the Creator, made man in His image – according to His likeness; (Genesis 1:26)
The everlasting way… God’s image – God’s likeness;
It has been said that everyone (every person) – every HUMAN BEING seeks two things in life… to be loved and to be significant in his/her existence… to be known and to be gifted by love in, and with the knowing.
I would sum it up as To Know Me IS to Love Me!
To know… not just the facts/details, but the passionate pursuit (the desire/love) to know all there is to know about you/me for no other reason than we exist, with no intent to leave nor forsake “continuing to know” you/me.
To be known… not just a “position” held in this life (which is based on opinion/judgement) or the possible profit to be made, but the PERSON all of creation waits eagerly (Romans 9:19) for.
Not only do we want to be acknowledged that we exist – we want our existence to be meaningful to those who know us.
“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;”… the essence of God… TO KNOW (intimate sharing of all that we were/are/will be) and to BE KNOWN (intimate transparency to withhold nothing of who we are in order to contribute all that we are). This, in my estimation is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE – knowing and being known BECAUSE we are loved by Love Himself!
As usual, mankind screws it up with lust not love. Lust… the reason/season for everything I am and everything I do… me – me – me.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. We seek lust not love (Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise) And because lust is never satisfied, our desire to be known as the ONE who OWNS THE TREE, will never be complete. If the only love you know and recognize as “true” love is man’s version, you will always be foolishly starving to know and be known.
You ARE known and you ARE loved because you ARE the Creator’s Special Creation. Whether you believe in God and submit to His power and authority over every created person, place or thing, GOD IS!
Mankind, every man/woman/child, is made in His image, according to His likeness, but He is NOT (nor CANNOT BE) made by man.
To Know Me is to Love Me! If God, the Author and Creator of all that is to be, knows you… YOU ARE KNOWN… and therefore… SIGNIFICANT.
You are loved whether you know God or not because He KNOWS you. You are so significant to Him, He pursues you and your contribution to be part of His Kingdom. However… the only way to KNOW love is to KNOW the God who IS LOVE.
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
He knows each of us intimately (Psalm 139), so intimately there is not a cell, or hair, or thought, or action that is unknown by Him, nor any that causes Him to forsake His pursuit of us. He does not wish for any to perish!
The only way to perish is to refuse to believe, to willfully remain ignorant of the truth. Jesus said… “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32)
Free from lust… free to know others and be known by others… free to love others and be loved by others.
Free to bow our knee (together) before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name (Ephesians 3:14-15)
Free to ask for and be granted, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in our inner man, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:16-17)
Free and rooted and grounded in love, that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:17-18)
Free to be filled up to all the fullness of God! (Ephesians 3:19)
To Know Me is to Love Me… To Know You is to Love You… To Know God is to Love God!
Ephesians 3:2-21 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory…
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.