Do you KNOW Jesus?

2 Tim. 1:12b

…for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

For we know the name of Jesus, we may know about Him, we may even have asked Him into our lives, but do we KNOW Him? Are we intimate with Jesus? Paul uses the Greek word oida, in the perfect tense which indicates to know intimately, to have seen and considered. Paul is saying that not only do I know Him but I have known Him, I have seen Him. I know Him so well that I am convinced of His reality, of His realness, of His closeness. I know His strength and power. Paul was not just acquainted with Jesus but knew Him in a much deeper way, at a much deeper level.

I am acquainted with other people, but I know my wife. I know her in not only the Biblical sense that “Adam knew Eve”, but after forty years of marriage I know her on a much deeper level than words can even describe. Our spirits have connected at such an indescribable depth that I am convinced that nothing could ever come between us, that even though someday in eternity we will have new bodies, I will still recognize her immediately. Even though I might be struck blind I would still recognize her. If I lost all hearing, I would know her touch and her presence. I know her because I have spent time with her. I can sit and be quiet with her and I can sit and converse with her. I trust her with my very life.

This is the kind of knowledge that Paul had of His Lord. He had complete trust in Him. Because he spent time with Him, because he learned of Him by talking with Him and learning everything he could about Jesus. This is the kind of knowledge that the Lord wants us to have of Him. He desires to spend time with us and is willing to teach us and give of Himself. He is the living Word (John 1:1, 14). If we want to know Jesus we must spend time in His Word, the scriptures. We must spend time conversing with Him in prayer. We must sit with Him in quiet times of listening as well as times of petition.

I know in Whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard the life that I have given to Him until that glorious day when we will see each other face to face.