What Does It Mean to Know God?

When Jesus spoke about eternal life, He did not describe it simply as life that continues forever. He gave it a much more personal meaning: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

The Meaning of Eternal Life

These words bring us to the centre of what God is doing in the life He gives. Eternal life is not only about escaping death or receiving a future that never ends. It is about knowing God. The life that comes from God brings a person into a relationship in which God Himself becomes the One to be known.

This is important because it is possible to think about eternal life mainly in terms of what it gives us. We may think about forgiveness, peace, answered prayer, protection, provision, healing, or the hope of heaven. These are real gifts, but Jesus directs our attention beyond the gifts to the Giver. At the heart of eternal life is God Himself.

The question, then, is not simply whether a person has received life from God. The question is what that life is bringing the person into. Jesus' answer is clear: into the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He sent.

Knowing God Is Personal Knowledge

The Bible uses the language of knowing God in a way that is more personal than simply knowing facts about Him. A person can learn many things about someone without having a real relationship with that person. In the same way, a person can become familiar with biblical information without that knowledge becoming a true knowledge of God.

This is why Scripture can speak of people who know about God but do not truly know Him. Jeremiah says, “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” (Jeremiah 9:24). The emphasis is not merely on possessing correct information but on knowing God Himself.

This does not make biblical knowledge unimportant. We cannot know God by ignoring what He has said. But there is a difference between receiving information about God and knowing the God whom that information reveals. Scripture is not given merely to make us informed people. It introduces us to the God who speaks through it.

Knowing God, therefore, is personal. It involves more than being able to describe His attributes or repeat statements about Him. It means that God is no longer merely a subject we study. He is the One with whom we are dealing, the One we are learning to trust, obey, worship, and walk with.

This is why a growing knowledge of God changes the way a person relates to Him. If we know Him as He truly is, we cannot remain indifferent to Him. What we know about God begins to affect what we believe about Him, how we respond to Him, and how we live before Him.

Knowing God Involves Recognising Who He Is

There is another reason the biblical idea of knowing God is deeper than information. To know God is to recognise Him for who He has revealed Himself to be.

People may use the same word—God—while holding very different ideas about who God is. One person may think of God mainly as a source of blessings. Another may think of Him only as a judge. Someone else may reduce Him to an idea, a force, or whatever agrees with personal experience.

But knowing God requires more than attaching the right name to our own idea of Him.

God is God whether our understanding agrees with Him or not. Therefore, genuine knowledge of God begins with receiving Him as He has made Himself known. We do not get to define God before we know Him. We must allow God to define Himself.

This also means that our experiences must not become the final authority for deciding who God is. Experiences can be real and important, but they must be understood in the light of what God has revealed. Otherwise, we may end up using our experience to create an image of God rather than allowing God's revelation to correct our understanding.

Knowing God therefore requires humility. We come to Him not as people who have already decided what He must be like, but as people willing to hear what He has said about Himself.

Knowing God Changes the Way We Walk

If knowing God is at the centre of eternal life, then it cannot remain an idea that has no effect on the way we live.

The Scriptures repeatedly connect the knowledge of God with the way a person walks before Him. To know God is to become increasingly familiar with His character, His ways, His will, and His dealings with His people. That knowledge calls for a response.

We trust the person we know to be trustworthy. We listen to the person whose voice we recognise. We take seriously the will of the person we have come to know. In the same way, our knowledge of God should affect our trust, our obedience, our worship, and our decisions.

A believer does not respond perfectly in every situation. Receiving new life does not mean that a person has reached maturity. But it does mean that the Christian life has a direction. As our knowledge of God grows, that knowledge should increasingly shape the way we understand and live our lives.

This is one reason the knowledge of God cannot be separated from walking with God. The goal is not simply to be able to say more things about Him. The goal is to know Him well enough that what we know of Him becomes part of the way we live before Him.

Knowing God Is a Lifelong Pursuit

The knowledge of God is real, but it is never exhausted. A believer can genuinely know God and still have much more of Him to know.

Paul's words in Philippians show this clearly. After years of following Christ, he could still say, “That I may know him” (Philippians 3:10). Paul was not saying that he had never known Christ. His words reveal that knowing Christ had become a continuing pursuit.

This helps us understand the Christian life differently. We are not moving from ignorance to complete knowledge in a short period. We are learning to know the God who has made Himself known to us, and that knowledge continues to deepen as we walk with Him.

There is also an important difference between knowing God truly and knowing Him completely. We can know Him truly because He has revealed Himself, while still recognising that our understanding remains limited. The greatness of God means that there is always more for us to learn, understand, and experience in walking with Him.

The desire to know God more is therefore not a sign that what we already know is false. It is one of the marks of a living relationship with Him.

But How Can We Know God?

We have seen that eternal life is knowing God, that this knowledge is personal rather than merely informational, that it requires us to receive God as He has revealed Himself, and that it should shape the way we walk before Him.

But this brings us to an important question. If we are to know God, where does that knowledge come from?

We cannot discover God simply by examining our own thoughts. We cannot create a reliable knowledge of Him from personal preference, culture, tradition, or experience. If God is to be known truly, then God must make Himself known.

The Bible presents God as a God who speaks. He has not left humanity without witness, and He has not required us to construct Him from our imagination. He has revealed Himself.

The next question, therefore, is not whether God can be known, but how God has chosen to make Himself known.

That is where we must turn next.