Our outward expression of God cannot exceed our inward knowledge. The degree of our inward knowledge of God determines the extent of our outward expression of Him. In other words, the outward expression is the result of inward knowledge. Now let us consider some different aspects of this matter.
The Apostle Paul said, “But when it pleased God, Who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood, neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me” (Gal. 1:15-17). This shows that the reason Paul had the boldness to preach the gospel to the nations was because his knowledge of the Son of God was by revelation. This kind of knowledge cannot be obtained through the flesh.
When a person knows Christ in himself, he will also know Christ in others. This is what Paul had in mind when he said, “We henceforth know no man after the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:16). Those who know men according to the flesh find it rather difficult to receive the life supply from men. They are easily affected by the shortcomings in men’s appearance. If there is any flaw in others, it becomes material for them to criticize and judge, and it also becomes the element for them to nourish their own pride. Therefore, whether a person can know Christ in others depends upon whether he knows Christ in himself. Paul continued, “Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more” (2 Cor. 5:16). The Apostle John said, “And every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist,...Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:3-4). Those who truly know God can discern the false apostles (2 Cor. 11:13; Rev. 2:2), the false prophets (Matt. 24:11), the false brethren (2 Cor. 11:26; Gal. 2:4), and the false angels of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15). Whenever we are deceived it must be because we do not know men by Christ, who is in us. Those who truly know God have the boldness to declare, “Greater is He who dwells in us than the spirit of antichrist!”
One who truly knows God, not only has the boldness to testify, and is not afraid of the spirit of antichrist, but he especially fears God. For example, the steps Paul took in his work were, many times, forbidden by God (Acts 16:6-7). He feared God. Another example of his fear of God is given in Acts 23:3-5, when being reminded that he rebuked the high priest, he became softened. This means that he feared God.
Those who truly know God gird up the loins of their mind (1 Pet. 1:13). There is nothing loose in their words, attitude, and actions. The reason they are so girded up is not because they have some strength of their own, but because the life in them is restraining them and forbidding them. They are such not only before others, but even when they are by themselves they are girded up. Whenever their words and actions do not match the life in them, those words and actions are forbidden. Also, whenever they touch God they become softened.
Those who are loose outwardly must first be loose inwardly. Those who are loose and without restraint, who remain the same after being saved, who are careless in what they say and in what they do, are Christians who do not fear God. Those who act one way in front of people and another way behind their backs, who are one way in the pulpit and another way in daily living, are those who do not fear God.
To fear God means that anywhere, at any time, in any activity, we dare not be loose. Within there is the attitude of fearing God. Therefore, if someone claims to belong to God, and yet his words and his actions do not indicate that he fears God in the least, we will have a genuine concern for such a person. We fear for him because the day will come when he will see God’s face, though today he does not know God in his consciousness. Brothers and sisters, if this is your case, then you need to hear God’s word: “And now, my little children, abide in him; that, if he shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).
Whenever we think of the fact that one day we shall see the Lord’s face, do we feel confident within? In the future, when everything shall be opened before the Lord, will there be anything which will cause us to be ashamed?
There is no one who truly knows God, yet does not worship God. Brother Lawrence said, “To worship God in truth is to acknowledge Him to be what He is, and ourselves as what in very fact we are. To worship Him in truth is to acknowledge with heartfelt sincerity what God in truth is—that is to say, infinitely perfect, worthy of infinite adoration, infinitely removed from sin, and so of all the Divine attributes. That man is little guided by reason, who does not employ all his powers to render to this great God the worship that is His due.”
This indicates that only the person who truly knows God can worship God in truth. For example, though Jacob’s knowledge of God at Bethel caused him to fear God, it was only an outward kind of knowledge. For this reason his vow was conditional and was concerned with his own interests (Gen. 28:16-22). But when he came to Peniel (Gen. 32:24-32), Jacob’s knowledge of God was much different.
Brothers and sisters, we often say that we need to worship God. But how deeply have we ourselves known God? Has our self really fallen to the ground?