Not long ago as I was reading John chapter 5 there was a passage that stood out. I wrote it down so that I could puzzle it out a bit. Although I’ve seen the passage in my journal several times since, it wasn’t until another passage in John 14 that jumped out at me this morning made me realize the two were somewhat connected. That’s when I decided to do a bit of digging.

The first passage from John 5 was this:

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

John 5:44-47

What I learned when I read this passage is that it is possible to set your hope in something you don’t actually believe in. Sounds crazy backwards, right? Why would anyone set their hope in something they didn’t actually believe in? And yet so many of us do exactly this!

The second passage I read this morning is this:

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

John 14:5-7

OUCH! Can you imagine being Thomas and hearing Jesus say “if you had known Me”? This was a conversation Jesus’ closest disciples were all a part of, those who communed with Him regularly. They ate with Him, spoke with Him privately, listened to His teachings, witnessed His miracles. How is it that they did not know Jesus at this point?

I took the time to look up the word “know” in this passage. In the Strong’s dictionary it is Greek word #1097, and the transliteration is “ginóskó”, meaning “to come to know, recognize, perceive. To realize through personal experience. It is the same word used by Mary when she asks Gabriel “How will this be since I do not know a man” (Luke 1:34), implying intimate knowledge.

As I puzzled over this, the Holy Spirit brought to light another phrase in verse 7: “from now on“. OH, this indicates a change! Jesus was going away. We learn from the rest of chapter 14 that the Holy Spirit will be coming in His place. AHHH, so the Holy Spirit is the difference! But how exactly is the Holy Spirit the difference between a casual knowing and an intimate knowing? It is because we have the mind of Christ!

Do you want to be encouraged about how having the mind of Christ really makes the difference? Take the time here to read 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It is a short chapter but oh, so worth it, and it was here where I discovered how the two passages I highlighted above are related. The scripture says it far better than I can (although I have emphasized a few words to help them stand out). A quick note about verse 8 – the word “understood” is also from 1097 “to know”.

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

⁶ Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; ⁷ but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; ⁸ the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; ⁹ but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

¹⁰ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, ¹³ which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

¹⁴ But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. ¹⁶ For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2

Be blessed!