Knowledge of God
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
“If the Kingdom of Heaven is the knowledge of God, it follows that the greatest sin is ignorance of God…Ignorance of God is always a sign that relations with God have broken down, have been terminated, whereas the knowledge of God leads one to union with Him.” (Archimandrite Aimilianos)
“…knowledge about God, like any other knowledge, is absorbed only by the mind and memory, studying the Law of God in school usually becomes an abstract, external assimilation of religious truths, without penetrating into the depths of the soul. Knowing God is distinct from knowing about God. Knowledge of God is the direct perception of Him by an inner sense, while knowledge about God is a property of the mind and memory…The words used by the Fathers for increased knowledge of God are always words of ascent, anabasis, an upward movement of gradual understanding based on spiritual maturity.” (Hieroschemamonk Sergei Chetverikov, Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou)
“The priority he places on knowing God as the ground of wisdom leads Saint Paul to remind us of “the doctrine which you learned” (Rom 16:17). The doctrines and teachings to which he refers are the revealed truths of our faith: repentance from dead works, faith in God, baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (see Heb 6:1-2). These basic doctrines, however, should lead us into the practice of the ascetic life and the spiritual disciplines. Doctrines are not mere collections of information about God. We cannot acquire knowledge of God unless we are purified by our struggles and aided by the Holy Spirit.” (Dynamis 7/26/2021)
“The scriptural Word knows of two kinds of knowledge of divine things. On the one hand, there is relative knowledge, rooted only in reason and ideas, and lacking in the kind of experiential perception of what one knows through active engagement; such relative knowledge is what we use to order our affairs in our present life. On the other hand, there is that truly authentic knowledge, gained only by actual experience, apart from reason and ideas, which provides a total perception of the known object through a participation…by “grace.” We cannot make sense of inequality, injustice, and tragedy without this personal knowledge of God.” (St. Maximus the Confessor, Dylan Pahman)
“We were born to be alive, even though there is evidence of death in us every day—from our sins, from aging, from the mistakes we make, from our uncertainties. If a Christian has the God-given ability in his heart, he can feel that death. But that death is not natural, that death is not the purpose of our life. The purpose of our life is to be alive in Christ. And with God becoming man, it is now possible. Remember this. Live a different way from the rest of the world. And if there are things in you that are living like the world, beg God to help you with them. Do something about it. You were born for perfection. Don’t wallow in mediocrity. None of us should be mediocre. All of us should know God, and feel God in everything we do; with every breath we take, we should feel the Holy Spirit. If we do not feel this, then we must change the way we live. This is the purpose of life—to live a different way from just being a human—to live as a Christ-human. The Greeks have a word, Theanthropos, or God-man. We are also to become God-men. We call Jesus Christ the God-man, but we are to become God-men. We are to become like God and to be united with God, and to do godly things, to have the knowledge of God, to be united to Him in holiness, wisdom, and purpose. This is that other way that is possible today.” (Fr. Seraphim Holland)
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