I was listening to Nancy’s radio series “Getting into the Word and Getting the Word into You” earlier this week. Her thoughts about the significance of knowing and loving God’s Word hit me like a two-by-four right between the eyes. She said, “Your relationship with God will never be any greater than your relationship with His Word.
You cannot claim to know God if you don’t know God’s Word. You can’t claim to love God if you don’t love God’s Word. You can’t claim to obey God if you don’t obey God’s Word. I’m just amazed at how many professing Christians there are today who say, ‘I know God, I love God, I obey God,’ but they don’t know the Word of God. They don’t love the Word of God. They don’t have an appetite for it. They don’t have a hunger for it. They don’t obey the Word of God. But they claim to know and love and obey God. It’s just not possible. You will never have a greater relationship with God than the relationship you have with His Word.” Is she right? Is it impossible to know God, to love God, and to obey God if I do not know, love, and obey His Word?
I’m afraid so. And I have to confess; I am one of those Christians she mentioned—the kind who doesn’t always hunger for the Word. I truly do love God, but if I am being honest, I don’t always love His Word as much as I love my Facebook account, my time with friends or my television set. I truly do want to know God, but I don’t always want to know what His Word has to say. Can you relate? Is it eye opening to you to realize that you can never have a greater relationship with God than the one you have with His Word? All of this has me asking some practical questions. What does it mean to know the Word of God? How do you know if you know it? What does it mean to love the Word of God? How will your heart respond to Scripture if that love is there? These aren’t easy questions. And they certainly aren’t questions that I have all of the answers to. But I believe in the power of God’s Word and I know that I can know it better, obey it more faithfully, and love it more. Can you?