When We Don’t Know God
Philippians 3:4b-14
Saul of Tarsus who became the Apostle Paul , before his conversion on the road to Damascus, was on a quest of more. His quest was for more religion.
Saul was the epitome of religiosity. “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh,” he writes, “I have more . . .” Then he goes on to list his superlative religious qualifications: Circumcised on the eighth day as a part of the people of Israel, the most religious people on earth, God’s own people. And of the Israelites Paul was the most religious of the religious. In his own words, “a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting Christians; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Saul was super-religious. Do super-religious people ever persecute people who don’t think as they think? We know the answer to that question from our experience in today’s world! Saul was super-religious. But it is clear, something important, indeed something critical, was missing from his life.
Saul met Christ on the road to Damascus and realized that all his religiosity meant nothing. Later he would write, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Saul’s experience leads us to two critical questions: first, what is the difference between being religious and knowing God. And second, how can we know God today?
What is the difference between being religious and knowing God? We ask this only because of the experience of devout believers like the Apostle Paul and many other devoted saints down through the ages who came to a point in their lives when they realized that, in the words of Isaiah, their religion and their righteousness were like filthy garments (Isaiah 64:6).
When we seek to be religious, we tend to focus on rituals, rules and regulations, not upon the more pressing business of our relationship with our neighbor and our relationship with God. Rituals, rules and regulations can be helpful in living out our faith, but they can also become an idol in themselves, so that they cause us to despise our neighbor and to ignore the prompting of God toward a deeper sense of God’s presence.
In his book The Call, Os Guinness tells a story about Dr. Arthur Burns, the former chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Although he was Jewish, Dr. Burns agreed to join a White House Bible Study. Since he was Jewish, the other members of the study were afraid to ask him to pray at the end of their time together.
One day they had a guest leader who didn’t know about this unwritten rule. He asked Dr. Burns to pray. To everyone’s surprise, Arthur Burns stood up and began to pray, “O God, may the day come when all Muslims will come to know Jesus and when all Jews will come to know Jesus, and when all Christians will come to know Jesus.” There are many Christians who do not know Jesus.
Would it surprise you if I said that there have been many super-religious people who have done terrible damage in our world? Think for a minute of the Inquisition. the Salem witch trials, and 9-11. How do you know if you know God? Being religious is not enough. It’s the best place to hide from God, especially religious fanaticism. So, how do you know? The best answer I can give you is: Are you trying your best to live like Christ?
What is the best guard against doing horrible things in the name of Christ? Focus on Christ character. Can you imagine Christ condemning someone else because they look different, or talk different, or act different, or even believe different from how you believe? The only times I can think of that Christ outwardly condemned anyone was his reaction to the moneychangers in the temple who were taking advantage of people in God’s house and Christ’s reaction to the Pharisees who professed love for God, but looked down on others.
We sing “They will know we are Christians by our love,” But are we Christ-like in how we live our lives?
Of course, there were other components to Christ’s character besides compassion for the least and the lost. There was Christ’s dependence on prayer and attendance in the synagogue as well as knowledge of the scriptures. And, of course, Christ’s willingness to lay down his life as a sacrifice for all. However, if there is anything in your life that you cannot imagine being part of Christ’s life, then no matter how much scripture you have memorized, how faithful your attendance in church, how sincere your prayer life, you probably don’t know God. Particularly, if your heart is filled with hatred and resentment, that doesn’t leave much room for Christ.
This brings us to our second question: how can you and I come to know God today? And the answer is simple just say “yes” to God. That’s it. There is nothing else you need to do. There is nothing else you can do but say yes.
If you want to read your Bible, that’s well and good. If you want to get involved in acts of social justice, that’s wonderful. If you want to spend hours on your knees, terrific. If you want to make a gift of $100,000 to the church for the heating system, praise the Lord! All these are ways of showing that you love God. But they are not prerequisite to knowing God. Knowing God is simply a matter of saying yes.
Faith is a gift. To know God is simply to say yes to God. God is already knocking at the door. Just say yes. Paul writes, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Paul wants to be like Jesus, even to the point of suffering like Jesus. And he did suffer for his faith. It amuses me to hear affluent, middle-class American churchgoers saying with great piety, “Oh, yes, if you follow Jesus, you will be persecuted.” How we cheapen the sufferings of the saints when we say that. The truth of the matter is that modern day Christians are more apt to persecute than to be persecuted. That’s because we do not know Christ.
How can we come to know God today? Just say yes to God. Then seek to live as Christ lived.
Do you know God or are you just religious? Is your faith about following rules and regulations or is it about relationships with your family, friends and all God’s children, as well as God? To know God all you have to do is say “yes” to God. Invite Christ to take up residence in your life and to fill you with God’s love. Soon you will know that you know God . . . for the grace of God will be evident in your life.