CHRISTIAN LIFE & GROWTH

Do you know Jesus?

It's how you say it

By Laurel J. Davis
See Laurel's blog at The Reluctant First Lady

Human communication is an amazing thing. It's been said that communication is probably only 10 percent what we say and all the rest is how we say it — volume, facial expression, body language and, most of all, tone.

The ladies at my church learned this at a recent Bible study. To prove the power of how you say things more than what you say, we took one simple sentence made up of four simple words and came up with four different ways to say it: "I love my family." If we put the emphasis on each of these words one at a time, what the sentence conveys is significantly different each time.

Try it. Say these sentences out loud, emphasizing the bolded word each time: "I love my family." "I love my family." "I love my family." "I love my family." Do you hear the differences?

Now, let's try that with this sentence: "Do you know Jesus?" For sake of this article's bottom line point, I've taken the emphasis out of consecutive order, but that shouldn't matter. If we emphasize each word one at a time each time we read or recite the question, "Do you know Jesus?", what will the question convey each time? What can you take away from being asked the question differently each time? Do the implications change?

Let's see.

Do you know Jesus?
With the emphasis on "Do," the question seems to ask, You say you do, but do you really? This might be asked to someone who professes Christ but doesn't really live it, and it shows. At best, the question reflects concern about where your priorities are, because you seem to walk after the flesh, not the Spirit. At worst, it makes others wonder what you really believe, or if you really believe it. The question can be asked like this: Are you a follower of Christ and not just a believer?

Actually, better to ask this question of yourself than to ask someone else. Christians, we need to keep ourselves in check first and foremost.

Do you know Jesus?
Put this way, the question now becomes: Is it truly Jesus that you know, or is it a false god or a counterfeit Jesus? This question may arise out of the things a person says that reflect, not mere lack of knowledge such as a new babe in Christ might have, but a real contradiction to or rejection of the Jesus of the Bible and the Essentials of the Christian Faith concerning Him — that Jesus is Messiah, the Second Person of the trinity, the only true God, manifested in the flesh, who took the penalty for our sins on the cross, rose again the third day just like He said He would, and who is coming again. He is not fictional, the object of someone's creative fantasy or the result of some group's elaborate conspiracy. He is not a created being, nor just a prophet, nor just a "good man," nor just a revolutionary.

Do you know Jesus?
The question could now be asking, How much do you know about your Lord and Savior? You love the Lord and you try to live right as a result of accepting Him as your Savior, and it truly is the Jesus of the Bible that you believe in. But are you "growing in grace and in the knowledge" of Him? Are you zealous for the things of Christ in your life, to grasp the depths of His loving grace, power, holiness, wisdom, comfort and even wrath? How deep and pure is your worship of Him, even through your trials and tribulations? Do you know Him enough to serve Him even if no one else will? Do you read His Word? Do you pray and trust Him as your Living God? Is He your every thought, or more often just an after-thought?

Do you know Jesus?
Now the crux of the question is really on you. Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Is He your Lord and your Savior? Do you believe in Jesus?

Maybe it should be asked this way: Does Jesus know you? When death comes to your door and Jesus opens the books on Judgment Day, will He find your name written in His Book of Life? Or will He say, with tears pouring down His most holy face, "I'm sorry, but we don't know each other. You never accepted My invitations to become friends forever. You chose your works to save you instead of choosing My grace. And now, after all those 'second' chances which you rejected time and time again, it's too late. You can't come in."

However the "Do you know Jesus?" question is asked of you, it's not too late, right now, to start working towards making your answer a sure "Yes!"

It may be just a question of semantics, but hopefully this type of exercise can help each of us evaluate and improve where he or she is with regard to the Lord.

Image Credit: pee vee; "crosses"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Salvation | Biblical-Truth | Jesus-Christ | Witnessing-Evangelism