TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM

Years ago (1958), there was a popular song entitled "To Know Him Is To Love Him" written by Phil Spector. Here is some of it:

To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him;
Just to see him smile, makes my life worthwhile.
To know, know, know him Is to love, love, love him, and I do.

I'll be good to him; I'll bring love to him;
Everyone says there'll come a day when I'll walk alongside of him;
Yes, just to know him Is to love, love, love him, and I do.

If I were to apply this song to my love for Christ, I would have to stop there, as the next verse would not apply. And, if I wanted to have it represent my feelings for Jesus, I would certainly capitalize "Him." I believe that when I am walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, I make the Lord smile (Gal. 5:16). I also believe that I will "walk along side of Him because 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says, "Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." My favorite verse in the whole Bible is 1 John 3:2 which says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Because I will have been transformed into His likeness, I will not be ashamed to be in His presence.

Yesterday, I wrote that our knowledge of the Father is totally found in our knowing Jesus. Some may say that Jesus did not come on the scene until long after the Old Testament was written, and that we can know God from it. I do not believe the YHVY, the "I Am" of Exodus 3:14 is the Father, but that it is actually Jesus before He took on human flesh; Jesus is Jehovah (see my posts dated February 8-11, 2011).

In the two Old Testament references to God being the Father of Israel, both use the word "God" which is different from the name "Jehovah" (1 Chron. 29:10; Mal. 2:10). The first verse, 1 Chronicles 29:10 says, "Wherefore David blessed the LORD (Jehovah) before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed [be] thou, LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) of Israel our father, for ever and ever." It is quite understandable that David would use the two words together as he could not have understood that Jehovah and Elohim were two distinct persons of a trinity; Israel did not, nor does it now, acknowledge the existence of God as being triune in nature.

Because we know Jesus, we know the Father. Because we know the Father, "We love Him, because He first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19)! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen!