It's not WHO you know...

"We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." 1 Cor. 8:1b

It's not what you know, it's WHO you know. Right? At least that's what I've heard. This quip tells us that we can do everything to become knowledgeable in our trade or our field of expertise, but we still need people to get somewhere with that knowledge. There are plenty of people out there who are filled with incredible, and sometimes useless, amounts of knowledge who never get a hearing in the public square. By this saying, it appears they just need to know the right people in order to make an impact with their knowledge.

However, anyone who has called into a radio talk show knows this isn't necessarily the whole story. I once called in to a show I had listened to for years. I felt I knew the host well, and though I was going to disagree with him, I felt he would listen - after all, I knew him. I could not have been more wrong. Though I clearly had the drop on him with my argumentation (so I imagined it, anyhow), he treated me like an idiot, demagogued the conversation, and ultimately dismissed me completely. I don't listen to him anymore, having seen his true colors - and having realized that there is one key component to our relationship that was lacking: He didn't know me.

Knowledge is a good thing. We can access many universal truths with our knowledge. We can even begin to comprehend God Himself with it. But our knowledge is incomplete. Verse 2 of the passage quoted above states: "The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know." All of our knowledge cannot lead us into our greatest need - the need to be known. Our knowledge may allow us to know about God, perhaps even to feel that we know Him. After all, "It's not what you know, but who you know." Right?

I've also heard it said of God, "It's not enough to know about Him. You must know Him." Yet this doesn't even appear to be enough. Our knowledge is incomplete, imperfect. Jesus Himself said that (paraphrasing here) many would come to Him on the day of judgment and claim great things they had done in His name - yet He would dismiss them, saying that not only had they "practiced lawlessness," but that He (Jesus) never knew them.

This should strike a healthy fear into our hearts. Most of us learn to pursue God via knowledge first - but head knowledge of Him is not enough. In fact, we are told that He must know us. This takes the control out of our hands. It demands that we open up to Him in relationship. It requires that we learn love from Him, that He may truly know us. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

In the end, it will not be what we know, or even who we know, that will get us into His Kingdom. It will be who knows us. "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (13:12, emphasis added)