Who are the three people that you know the best? What do these relationships look like?
In Philippians 3:7-14, Paul talks about "knowing Christ". The desire for this knowledge is all-surpassing to Paul. What does it means to really "know" someone (as opposed to "knowing about" someone)? The word "know" that Paul uses is similar to the Hebrew word used to describe Adam and Eve's relationship in Genesis. It is true intimacy with God. We are able to have this intimacy with God through Christ's sacrifice for us. There seems to be a relationship between knowing God, intimacy with Him, and salvation through his Son (see John 17:1-3).
In the second part of this Philippians passage, we see that this goal of intimacy with Christ is probably not something we will ever fully realize here on earth, but it is a journey and a goal that we are continually pressing towards. This is Paul's goal. Is it ours?
In Ephesians 4:11-13, we see that no matter what your role is in serving the kingdom of God, it should result in helping people mature in knowing Christ. As worship leaders, our role is to help unite the body in knowing Christ more deeply. We are leading others into intimacy with God.
Who are the three people that know you the best? Are these the same people as before? What do these relationships look like?
As amazing as it is that we have the opportunity and privilege to know God on an intimate and personal level, it is mind-blowing that God cares about each one of us and knows us better than ourselves or anyone else (see Psalm 139). Intimacy with God is to know Him and be known by Him.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 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.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
return
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
return
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
return
O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
...
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
return