Loving Christ Results from Knowing Christ Better
Loving Christ Results from Knowing Christ Better
“Familiarity breeds contempt” is an old adage, but it is not necessarily true. The noted American preacher Phillips Brooks said that familiarity breeds contempt “only with contemptible things and contemptible people,” and he was right. My wife and I have been married since 1953 and we know each other very well, but we don’t esteem each other any less, because our relationship is based on love. Frequently when driving together down the highway, we’ve had periods of silence—and then we will both break the silence by saying the same thing at the same time. How much better acquainted can we be!
I don’t remember ordering it, but some years ago I received a biography of Adolf Hitler from a book club I belonged to, and since I paid for the book, I decided to read it. I could not. I tried but I could not. The more I read, the more I disliked the subject, and I never did finish reading the book. It was truly an experience of familiarity breeding contempt. But this could never be true of Christians reading the Bible and getting to know Jesus better, because the better we know Him, the more we love Him.
The Christian life begins with our knowing and trusting Jesus. Jesus said to His Father, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). But as we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18), we come to love Him more and more. In the difficult days of life as well as the delightful days, we find ourselves learning more about Him, worshipping Him, thanking Him, and obeying Him.
All of us are acquainted with church people who know more about popular athletes and entertainers than they do about Jesus, whom they would affirm is their own Savior. But we must learn more about Him, because the better we know Him, the more we will love Him. Every doctrine in the Bible has Jesus Christ at the very heart. Every aspect of the Christian life involves Jesus, whether it’s victory over sin, praying, giving, or witnessing. One reason why some believers can’t witness effectively with more loving fervor is that they are not growing in their knowledge of the Son of God.
The beautiful thing about growing in our knowledge of the Lord is that the Holy Spirit takes that knowledge and uses it to make us more like Jesus. The goal of our salvation is likeness to Christ, not just knowledge of the Bible. The Father has ordained that we should “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), and the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to accomplish this glorious miracle (2 Cor. 3:18). “Am I becoming more and more like Jesus?” is the major question we must ask ourselves as we examine our own lives before the Lord.