Never Enough for us to know

I remember knowing the great J.I Packer through the catechism class in my hometown. His famous work, knowing God is being used as one of the great piece of introduction of Theology Proper in Indonesia Theological seminary at that time. From Packer, we get the famous distinction between knowing God and knowing about God. The first is relational. Second, is only conceptual. This is one of most helpful concept ever that can help people to grow in a right direction. 

And as I read his posthumous biography, written by English theologian Alister McGrath [J. I. Packer: A Biography] in which he write I definitely cannot disagree. Alister Mcgrath nails it perfectly.  I believe he capture the essence of Packer's theology. Alister wrote, 

'Packer argues that it is never enough for us to know about God; true Christian theology is about knowing God – a relational and transformative process of knowing and being known, which sustains and informs the Christian life.The Christian encounter with God is transformative. As Packer, following Calvin, pointed out, to know God is to be changed by God; true knowledge of God leads to worship, as the believer is caught up in a transforming and renewing encounter with the living God. The ultimate test of whether we have grasped theological truth is thus not so much whether we have comprehended it rationally, but whether it has transformed us experientially. In an important sense, we are not called on to master theology, but to allow it to master us''

From quotation above we can conclude that Packer believe that knowing God is a never ending process that bring change and transformation in life. But sadly, many people whom have known lot of theology do not show any sign of change that should be happening. Why? This classic question really bother me sometime. In reality, I have seen many people who love to study the word of God, but somehow, all the study does not change much their character or behavior. 

Then, what's wrong? Sometimes, as a pastor I also ask myself, have the truth that I have been studying and shared in my preaching and teaching has changed me? 

If it is never enough to know about God and everyone need to be changed and transformed during the journey of knowing, the vital question is what we can do or what should we do if we stuck just there (knowing the facts without transformation and when I say things we should do it is not talking about, ''self-maturation'' or ''self-salvation'').

There are two aspect from Packer's thought that we can ponder deeper. 

First, Packer believes that knowledge need to be putted in the whole context of something. Knowing God is never knowing in ''isolation'' it takes in the various context of worship and devotion. Our devotion shows our theology and our theology form our devotion. And that's what Bible command us to do. Take for instance, David. We can see how he never isolate his deep intimate knowledge of God [Theology] with the act of prayer, worship and devotion. Therefore, Packer always said to his student [Echoing the spirit of apostle Paul], ''Theology is for doxology.'' 

Second, we need to move beyond mere awareness that God's exists. I believe this is heavily important because if we only believe that God exits, many secular philosopher believe also believe in that. In his book Knowing God, Packer give four important steps of being truly knowing God and not merely knowing about God,  

''knowing God involves, first listening to god's word and receiving it as the Holy spirit interprets it, in application to oneself. Second, noting God's nature and Character, as His word and works reveal it, third accepting his invitation and doing what he commands, fourth recognizing, and rejoicing in, the love that he has shown in thus approaching one and drawing one into the divine fellowship

From the beginning of the step we already know where many people often fail. Listening is appear to be simple but difficult in today busy and noisy world. Let us make a simple test as Christian do we listen to what God say through the preacher, or do we focus our attention more on ''how'' the preacher deliver the message? J. I Packer believe that listening to a preaching is an act of worship when we listen with eager mind and responsive heart. He once says, ''Congregations never honor God more than by reverently listening to His Word with a full purpose of praising and obeying..'' So, listening to a preaching is not a moment for us to learn about God but also to honor God. Only by listening attentively and devotionally we are moving to a doorway of a deeper and the right state of knowing.