Know Christ

July 11, 2015



"The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ."   "The aim of the spiritual saint is "that I may know Him". -Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Our main goal as Christians is to know The Lord Jesus Christ.  How many of us have thought for years that our main objective was the "great commission":  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." -(Matthew 28:19 NASB)  But, how can you tell people about someone you don't know?  It makes perfect sense to know Him first, and know Him well.  Know Him so well in fact that we "secure the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances" [we are in] -Oswald Chambers

It sounds too simple.  How can our main objective be just to know Him?  That sounds like the lazy way.  An excuse to get out of the work.  Being a Christian is about the works, right?  It's about laboring, isn't it? "For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers." -(1 Timothy 4:10 NASB)  Yes, it is about the work and that is NOT the main objective.  Without Jesus we can do nothing.  "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5 ESV)  Without love (Jesus) the works mean nothing.  "And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." -(1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV)  If we don't take the time to know The One for whom we labor and The One that we need to tell the world about with both our words and our lives, it's all empty.  We won't really know why we're laboring and will burn out fairly quickly, and there will be nothing to tell the world.  You can't adequately share something you know nothing about.  The more you know, the more you have experienced, the better spokesperson you can be.

Foreign ambassadors are U.S. citizens who establish a concentration in the country they will be serving.  They take the time to become experts on the region's history, geography, culture, language, political structures, and its place in the global economy.  Without knowing all that they know, they could not be good ambassadors.  They are experts on both the U.S. and the foreign country they serve.  As ambassadors for Christ we need to be experts also and that takes time, discipline, and dedication.  We need to know all we can possibly know about The One we represent so that we represent Him well.  When we know Him, we know His voice.  When we know His voice, we can follow His leading to the works for which He created us.  "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." -(Ephesians 2:10 ESV)  There is a process and a plan and if we go off half-cocked, get ahead of or fall behind God by not knowing His voice and following His leading, all we do is for naught.  There is no eternal value in anything we do apart from Christ.  So take the time, believe God rather than the world that says, "If you're not busy, busy, busy you're not accomplishing anything." and accomplish something of eternal value - knowing Christ.  Amen!