“KNOWING GOD”

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

John 17:25

We live in a world that is fundamentally alienated from its Creator, constantly questioning God's goodness and rejecting His authority. People often look at the brokenness around them and conclude that if a divine being exists, He must be distant, uncaring, or unjust. This spiritual blindness prevents humanity from seeing the absolute perfection of God's character. Yet, amid this profound global ignorance, a community exists, anchored in a radically different reality.

John chapter 17 is a heartfelt prayer known as Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer.” After delivering His Farewell Discourse, Jesus now prays for Himself, the disciples, and future believers. This moment is also the start of Jesus’ “time.” In this series, we will see several important truths relating to our calling, sanctification, and witnessing. 

Today’s verse: Jesus draws a sharp contrast between the surrounding culture and His followers, revealing that while the fallen world remains spiritually blind to God’s true character, believers are granted intimate, saving knowledge of the Father exclusively through the Son's revelation.

Jesus addresses God as the "righteous Father," which is a deliberate and significant title reserved for this moment. The word for righteous is dikaios, pointing to God's absolute justice, flawless moral character, and perfect fairness. 

The world often accuses God of being unjust because of the suffering it experiences, but Jesus publicly vindicates the Father's character. He declares that the fault lies entirely with the "world"—the fallen system of human rebellion—because it does not "know" Him. The Greek word used here for know is ginosko, which goes far beyond intellectual awareness or memorizing religious facts. It describes a deep, intimate, and experiential relationship.

The world is completely devoid of this relational ginosko with the Creator. However, Jesus possesses a perfect, eternal knowledge of the Father, and He has successfully imparted this exact same relational reality to His disciples. Because they recognized that Jesus was sent by God, they entered this exclusive circle of divine intimacy.

Receiving the truth requires a heart that is truly open to hearing and applying the word of God. Through Christ, we are no longer alienated strangers; we share in the Son's own intimate understanding of a perfectly just and loving Father. This directly echoes Jesus' earlier statement in John 8:55 regarding the world's ignorance versus His divine intimacy: "But you have not known him. I know him."

Our challenge this week is to stop allowing the world's cynical view of God to influence our faith, and instead intentionally deepen our experiential knowledge of the righteous Father by spending focused, submissive time in His word.

18 "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

2 Peter 3:18

Pursue the Savior today!

Photo by Spenser Sembrat on Unsplash