The philosopher Aristotle was concerned with the question of what real knowledge is and what counts as knowledge. His account is arguably too reductive, but I think it highlights something important when it comes to our knowledge of God. He maintained that we can only claim to know what is either rationally self-evident or what we gain from firsthand experience. Everything else he called ‘opinion’. Even, for example, when you are told about some event or some scientific fact that you yourself have not witnessed firsthand, Aristotle would say that this is mere opinion for you rather than real knowledge. He would say we cannot truly know God, because God cannot be grasped by either reason or the senses. We can know God though. We know God when he grasps us; as his Spirit testifies to our spirits from within (Romans 8:16). All we need in order to know God then is the willingness to be grasped. And to be grasped by God we must surrender completely to him and allow him to be God. The extent of our willingness to surrender to God is the extent of our knowledge of God. What Aristotle says is true, I think, of knowing God. If I only know about God then I only have an opinion about God. If I am not having firsthand experience of God ruling my life by his Spirit within me then I cannot say that I know him. John affirms this when he says that we know that we know God when we obey him.
Submit yourself to God so that you may know him more.
Read 1 John 2:3-11
