A Lenten reading from Hosea 6 tells us:
…it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God…
In what ways has anyone come to know God? What do we know of God?
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@AZslim you are trolling to disrupt. You do it again and you will be sanctioned. I suggest you leave this subforum and stay out of it.
Those are good questions.
Suppose you answer them in a way that shows these are questions that can be objectively answered.
I find the biblical use of “knowledge” and “know”, etc., quite interesting.
KJV and many other translations use “know” or “knew” in place of lovemaking. Knowing at that level means the deepest experience of the other. Likewise, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would also involve the EXPERIENCE of good and evil. (Adam and Even already understood what God wanted. They knew. But in disobeying God’s command, they actually experienced sin (separation from God). The deepest experience of it.)
Following that line of thinking, when God calls for us to have knowledge of Him, he wants us to have true experience of Him. He’s not calling for book-knowledge, nor theology, nor logical deduction of who He is. God calls us to EXPERIENCE him.
In the Hosea quote it says God desires love. It is through love of the other that we can experience God – that we can actually KNOW God.
So very much of Jesus’ words also distill down to that as well.
People experience a lot of things.
At some point there would have to be a way to figure out if such an experience was a true experience of God.
A theme that seems to run through rabbinical commentary is that we can get to know God through His law. One thought is that God is comprised totally of spirit. Spirit is part of human make-up. A second thought is the power of words. God said, Light, and there was light. Jews are cautioned to watch every word they speak, that words can harm and kill, perhaps not in our physical world/being, but in our spirit. Words also have the power to heal.
God is Spirit and spirit is part of our own makeup. By becoming more conscious of our spirit and how spirits can interact with each other, can we come to better know God?
Next, how can living any of God’s laws help us to know Him?
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Well put. It has occurred to me that perhaps, at times, Christianity places too much emphasis on the law being abolished in favor of an emphasis on love. It seems to me the Old Testament directs us to start with the law so that we end up in love, whereas the New Testament directs us to start with love so that we end up with law.
Do you think we may be able to experience God better through the Law?
St. Paul suggests that if we are truly IN God, we don’t even need the Law.
A lot of people have it backwards – especially Catholics. “I have a relationship with God because I go to mass, and because I pray the rosary, and because I fast on Ash Wednesday…” They follow the rules. They “do” Catholic things. They think that makes them “religious”.
In reality, we should want to go to mass and fast and do all those other things BECAUSE we have a relationship with God. We shouldn’t go to mass because we have to. We should go because we GET TO.
“The law” is best used to help us understand what is the meaning behind those practices, and what participating in them should be bringing to us.
