John Paul Peter on Knowing God

Knowledge → Excellence → Influence

A Johannine–Pauline–Petrine Theology of Knowing God
A study of γινώσκω, part of the series "The Word Became Flesh"

Chapter I: John — Knowing as Participation in Divine Life

John never treats knowledge of God as a settled fact to be filed away. His verb of choice, γινώσκω (ginōskō), describes a knowing that is entered into rather than possessed — the kind of awareness that grows out of nearness, obedience, and love rather than out of information alone. This is why John can make the astonishing claim that eternal life itself is this knowing, not merely a reward attached to it.

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
(John 17:3)

The Two Directions of Johannine Knowing

John develops this knowing along two connected lines:

• Downward, from God to the disciple: Jesus describes a mutual knowing between shepherd and sheep — "I know my sheep and my sheep know me" (John 10:14–15). Knowing God is never a human achievement climbing upward; it begins as an act of divine self-disclosure.
  Underpinning: relationship precedes information.
• Outward, from knowing to obedience and love (1 John 2:3–4; 4:7–8): for John, a claim to know God that produces no love and no obedience is simply false — the verb and the fruit cannot be separated.
  Underpinning: knowledge that does not change behavior was never really knowledge.

Actualization: John's ginōskō resists the modern habit of treating "knowing about God" (facts, doctrine, correct answers) as equivalent to "knowing God." Several commentators note that Jesus' prayer in John 17 sets relational, ongoing communion — not doctrinal mastery — as the definition of eternal life itself.
Source: Full of Eyes — John 17:3 | BibleRef — John 17:3

Chapter II: Paul — Knowing as Union with Christ

Paul inherits the same relational verb but drives it toward a single, personal goal: not knowledge in general, but knowing Christ specifically, at whatever cost. Writing from prison, having already walked with Christ for two decades, he still describes this knowing as an unfinished pursuit rather than a completed possession.

"I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."
(Phil 3:10)

The Collapse of Privilege in Christ

Just before this verse, Paul lists his credentials — lineage, law-keeping, zeal — the very things a first-century Jew would count as privileged standing before God. Then he calls all of it rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ (Phil 3:7–8). One expositor observes that Paul is not merely trading one form of knowledge for another; he is trading a knowledge earned by status for a knowledge given in relationship, echoing the Old Testament's use of "know" for covenant intimacy rather than data.

Semantic Change: Paul's ginōskō carries the same relational weight it had in the Hebrew Scriptures — the same verb used of the most intimate human bond becomes the vocabulary for covenant nearness to God. Knowing Christ is not concluded at conversion; Paul still presses on to "make it my own" (Phil 3:12).

Source: GTY.org — The Surpassing Value of Knowing Christ

Chapter III: Peter — Knowing Turned Outward into Proclamation

Where John locates knowing in communion and Paul locates it in union, Peter adds the piece the other two assume but do not name outright: that real knowledge of God cannot stay private. In 1 Peter 2:9 he draws on two rare, weighty words to describe what the church is for.

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
1 Peter 2:9

The Negative Formula vs. the Living Model

• ἐξαγγέλλω (exangellō) — "to proclaim abroad, to declare openly": the priesthood's calling was never simply to hold knowledge in trust; it was to announce it. Peter reapplies Israel's priestly vocation (Isaiah 43:21) to the whole believing community.
• ἀρετή (aretē) — "excellence, moral beauty, praiseworthy character": the same rare word reappears in 2 Peter 1:3–5, where knowing God is explicitly said to produce this excellence in the believer's own character, before it is ever proclaimed to anyone else.

Actualization, further Petrine citations: 1 Peter 1:15–16 (called to reflect God's holiness); 1 Peter 2:4–5 (a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices); 1 Peter 4:10–11 (stewardship of grace as priestly service); 2 Peter 1:3–5 (sharing in the divine nature and "adding" aretē); 2 Peter 2:9 (God knows how to rescue the godly). Read together, Peter's contribution completes the arc: knowledge received (John), knowledge pursued (Paul), knowledge lived out and spoken abroad (Peter).
Source: Enduring Word — 1 Peter 2 Commentary