Knowing and Glorifying the Father

This morning I read through the 17th chapter of John, which is such and awesome chapter. You could probably meditate on the truths contained in this chapter for years. I was especially impressed by the first few verses this morning:

John 17:1-5 NIV:
[1] "After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. [2] For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. [3] Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [4] I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. [5] And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."

A couple of quick thoughts:

1) Jesus is given authority over all people, whether they recognize His Lordship or not. He primarily uses this authority to give eternal life to those He has been given by the Father. Some people He needs to set free from the chains of the enemy, patterns of thinking or behaving, but it always to draw them deeper into relationship. The invitation should always be to enter relationship with God, heaven is just were He lives.

2) Eternal life, as Jesus defines it here, is relationship with the Father, and the Son, and as implied earlier, the Holy Spirit. The key is knowing God. The Greek word translated 'know' is Ginosko

Definition
1. to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel a. to become known
2. to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of a. to understand b. to know
3. Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman
4. to become acquainted with, to know

The same word is translated into several others in the New American Standard - - ascertaining, 1; aware, 7; certainty, 1; come to know, 1; comprehend, 1; felt, 1; find, 3; found, 2; kept...a virgin, 1; knew, 13; know, 104; know how, 1; knowing, 3; known, 25; knows, 14; learn, 1; learned, 1; perceived, 1; perceiving, 2; put, 1; realize, 3; recognize, 7; recognized, 1; recognizing, 1; sure, 4; take notice, 1; unaware, 2; understand, 11; understood, 6

So do not take this use of the word to mean just intellectual knowledge, but rather an full understanding, having learned how the individual thinks, acts, moves, etc. In other words relationship. Our entering into and growing in our relationship with God IS the entrance to eternal life. This relationship, like all relationships grows and becomes deeper. I guess we could say its like becoming married and then moving in with your spouse. Its within the confines of this living together that we come to know even more the person we are married too, understanding their thinking, the way they will act in any given situation.

As I was writing this I thought of Heaven as just the final stage, when we get to move in with the Lord permanently, living in His residence.

3). Jesus glorified the Father by completing the work He had been given. That work was settling the debt of the law for us all, forever, and destroying the works and the power of the evil one. This has already been accomplished, the work is completed. It is for us to learn to live in this reality, and by doing s, giving Glory to Jesus and the Father.

Amen Lord! Help us to bring Glory to Your Name.