ONE PURSUIT: If the purpose of man is to bring glory to God by acknowledging and reproducing His character, it becomes incumbent upon us to pursue the knowledge of God’s character. If we are to judge our actions by what God would do or according to what action most reflects His character, we must know His character, His ways, His thoughts. If we are to follow the commandment to love him fully, we must know him.
It seems clear that the one pursuit that every Christian should pursue is coming to a personal knowledge of God. All else is rubbish. (Phil 3:8) One does not know another person’s character by looking at a snap shot or even a description of his activities. Knowing God does not come by looking at one event or a list of some of things he has done. It is not enough to know all the rules or principles of scripture, even though these are certainly a strong beginning. We will be a failure in knowing God if we only know what he does or did.
We are told to pursue holiness, we are to pursue evangelism, we are to pursue social justice. Each of these is admirable and reflect the character of God. However, if any of these things become the focus of our energy, we substitute a part of God’s character for the whole. It is possible to pursue one of these in a way that does not honor the whole character of God. It becomes a temptation to substitute the activity for the foundational relationship. This most often happens in conservative circles when we are told to keep the main thing the main thing—usually referring to evangelism. Evangelism is a derivative of glorifying God—acknowledging and reproducing his character. Evangelism is to be a result of my knowing and loving Jesus. Evangelism can quickly become an activity substitute for personal knowledge and relationship.
Moses is a great example. Moses was not looking for a road map to follow in order to please God. He was not looking for things to do. He wanted to have an ungoing discussion with God so that he might know Him and His ways. It was in knowing Him that Moses wanted to find grace. It was in knowing God that he expected to know how to conduct himself. (Ex 33:12,13) The one thing we are to be pursuing above all others then is to know God/Jesus to the fullest extent possible.
So, how does one come to know God? A future blog.
So, how does one come to know God? A future blog.
This reminds me of the most influential advice you ever gave me. I was graduating high school and trying to figure out what to do the following year. I was so concerned about where I could serve God best or where I could this or that. You told me something along the lines of: it's not about the ministry you can do or how you can help others, it's about where you can draw closest to God. It's about where and how you can come to know and love God more. It's about YOUR relationship with God, not anyone else's. When you first told me this I thought it sound self-centerd. But it took very little time for me to see that you were right. It's not really self-centerd, because in the end you will glorify God most when you love and know Him most.... I make all my decisions based off that little piece of advice. Thanks for being a great dad! I love you!
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