And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
This verse comes from a letter written by the apostle John — one of Jesus' closest disciples — near the very end of his life. He was writing to early Christians being confused by teachers who claimed Jesus wasn't truly God or wasn't truly human. John cuts through the fog: through Jesus, we've been given the ability to truly *know* God — not just know about him. The phrase 'him who is true' refers to God the Father, and John says we are now *in* him — genuinely connected to him — through Jesus his Son. Then John makes his most striking claim: Jesus himself is the true God and eternal life. Not a pointer toward God, not a great teacher about God, but God himself in person.
Lord, thank you that you didn't stay distant — that you came and gave us yourself. Forgive me for the times I've treated you like a tool rather than a person. Open my eyes to know you more truly, not just to accumulate more about you. You are the real thing, and I want to live like that is actually true. Amen.
There's a difference between knowing *about* someone and actually knowing them. You could memorize every detail of a person's biography and still be a complete stranger to them. John spent three years eating, sleeping, and walking with Jesus. He watched him laugh at weddings and weep at funerals. He was close enough to the cross to hear the last words. When John says 'we know him who is true,' he's not offering a theological argument — he's giving testimony. And the claim embedded here is startling: the person you come to know through Jesus isn't a reflection of God from a safe distance. It's God himself. This flips a common assumption. Most of us instinctively treat Jesus as a *means* — a path to reach God, a bridge to cross, a teacher to follow toward something further down the road. John says: no. Jesus is the destination. The map and the territory are the same person. That changes what prayer is for. That changes why you read your Bible. You are not straining toward something distant — John says you are already *in* him. The question isn't 'how do I find God?' The deeper, more unsettling question is: do you actually believe you've already been found?
John says God has 'given us understanding' to know him — what do you think that kind of understanding looks like in practice, and how is it different from just learning facts about Jesus?
Where in your own life do you treat Jesus more like a means to an end — comfort, answers, blessing — rather than the relationship itself being the point?
John's confidence here is striking: 'we *know*.' Many people today feel deep uncertainty about knowing anything about God. How do you hold the tension between John's boldness and your own honest doubts?
If you truly believed you were already 'in' God — not striving to earn closeness but already there — how would that change the way you treat the people around you today?
What is one concrete step you could take this week to move from knowing *about* Jesus to knowing him more personally?
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 17:3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians 2:9
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Matthew 11:27
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
John 14:9
And we [have seen and] know [by personal experience] that the Son of God has [actually] come [to this world], and has given us understanding and insight so that we may [progressively and personally] know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
AMP
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
ESV
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
NASB
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
NIV
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
NKJV
And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.
NLT
And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God's Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life.
MSG