“…THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE, that THEY MAY 1KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3) 1ginōskō: to be in an intimate relationship. WILL Jesus is praying for us to know God in a very personal and intimate manner, you know, the First Commandment, “2Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your strength and with ALL your mind…“ (Luke 10:27) 2agapaō: a divine, self-sacrificial love, exemplified in God’s offering of his Son. Jesus is teaching us that we, with divine and self-sacrificing, love God with EVERYTHING THAT IS IN US.
Loving God will include obeying ALL HIS COMMANDS; it will include believing ALL HIS WORD; it will include thanking Him for ALL HIS GIFTS. But all that is overflow. The essence of loving God is ADMIRING AND ENJOYING ALL HE IS. And it is this enjoyment of God that makes all of our other responses TRULY GLORIFYING TO HIM. “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE, TO 3GAZE ON THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD and to seek Him…” (Psa. 27:4) 3châzâh: observe with intelligence. Being able to know and understand what we are looking at.
THERE ARE WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES AHEAD AS WE GROW IN INTIMACY WITH GOD…
-Bill Stockham