In a
novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, one of the characters, speaking of New York’s
Empire State Building, said, “I know this building because I love this
building.”
That
statement caused me to think about the relationship between love and knowledge.
Whenever we love something, we want to know everything about it. When we love a
place, we want to explore every inch of it. When we love a person, we want to
know every detail of his or her life. We want to know what he likes, how she
spends her time, where he grew up, who her friends are, what he believes. The
list is endless. But some of us want to be loved without allowing ourselves to
be known. We’re afraid that we won’t be loved if we are truly known.
We don’t have to worry about that with God. His love is far superior to ours: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Furthermore, He makes Himself known to us. Through creation, Scripture, and Christ, God reveals His character and His love. Because God loves us in spite of our imperfections, we can safely confess our faults to Him. With God, we need not fear being known. That’s why to know God is to love Him.
There is no greater joy than to know that God loves us. (RBC)
