This article is part 5 of the “How to Walk in Freedom” series. The full series can be found here.
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INTRODUCTION
In the previous article, we began a consideration of Jesus’ words in John chapter 8:
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32
Jesus instructs Jews who believe on Him that to be His true disciples, they must continue in His Word. The principle is simple. Disciples are pupils or students. Disciples of Jesus are students of Jesus’ teaching. Believing on Jesus is how we enter the Kingdom, but once we’ve done that, we’re called to become His disciples, which means we’re called to learn of Him:
“Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
So, a prerequisite to knowing the truth — and thereby experiencing the freedom that knowing the truth produces — is continuing in Jesus’ teaching.
In the previous article, we discussed the scope of Jesus’ teaching. Specifically, we covered the fact that He sent the Spirit to say things to the apostles that He didn’t say to them during His earthly ministry and the fact that the apostles wrote down that teaching for us in the New Testament. We also covered that while the Old Testament is truth, it is not the full expression of the truth. As such, we must read the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus’ revelation of the truth if we are to understand it properly.
In this article, we will begin to focus specifically on the phrase, “know the truth.”
WE MUST KNOW JESUS THROUGH HIS TEACHING
It is often taught that the idea of knowing the truth is more about knowing Jesus on an intimate and personal level than it is about understanding information taught by and about Jesus. The support for this teaching is usually based on two things:
The fact that Jesus said in John 14:6 that He Himself is the Truth; and
A popular teaching that the Greek word translated know in John 8:32 is only used in an intimate, personal sense of knowing someone.
There is no doubt that Jesus is the Truth, and if we are to know the Truth, we must know Him. It’s also a fact that our knowledge must be more than intellectual or superficial — we must come to know the Truth deeply, intimately, and personally. However, the idea of knowing the Truth should never be divorced from understanding Jesus’ teaching. We can’t know Jesus in an intimate and personal way if we don’t even study or understand His teaching. The idea of knowing the Truth isn’t just about chatting back and forth with Him in prayer and getting to know His likes and dislikes, as though His only role in our life is to be our buddy or counselor. He is much, much more than that.
We must come to know Jesus not only as Savior, but also as Master, Lord, Deliverer, Redeemer, Healer, Teacher, and so much more. He must become our Alpha, our Omega, our Beginning, and our End. We must behold Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We must discover Him as our Substitute and Representative Man. I could go on. Knowing Jesus is like drinking from an endless well of Living Water — there is always more and every new discovery brings a deeper experience of eternal life. To truly know the Truth, Jesus must become our all-in-all.
To divorce the idea of knowing the Truth from the idea of knowing and understanding Jesus’ teaching is to attempt to know Jesus apart from one of His primary roles — that of Teacher. And lest we fail to know Him in His role as the Author of the Scriptures, we must avoid reducing His teaching role to teaching only through inner witness. We must also know His teaching through the Scriptures that He inspired the apostles to write.
KNOWING = UNDERSTANDING
The support for the idea that the word know in John 8:32 only refers to intimate knowledge of the person of Jesus comes from how the word know is used in the following verses:
“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.” Matthew 1:24-25
“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” Luke 1:34
The claim is that because the word know is used in these passages to refer to sexual relations, it must be that any time the same underlying Greek word is used, it must refer to something more intimate and personal than mere intellectual knowledge.
Strong’s Concordance is a great tool to check whether such claims are true. When a pastor or teacher says, “this Greek word always means this,” we don’t have to take their word for it. We have tools to see if their claim holds up.
The way I use Strong’s Concordance is through the Olive Tree Bible App. Within the app, you can download a free KJV Bible that’s connected to Strong’s Concordance. Once you’ve downloaded it and opened it up, you can click on any English word in the KJV text and a window will pop with the entry for that word from Strong’s Concordance. One of the things you will see in the entry is the original Greek word that corresponds to the word you clicked on. You’ll also see the number of times that Greek word is used in the Bible, all the different English words it’s translated into throughout the Bible, and how many times it’s translated into that word.
The Greek word that’s translated as know in John 8:32 of the KJV is ginōskō. According to Strong’s, it’s found in the Bible 223 times. Of those 223 instances, it’s translated as “know” 196 times, “perceive” 9 times, “understand” 8 times, and other miscellaneous words 10 times. Here’s how that information looks in Strong’s:
AV (223) - know 196, perceive 9, understand 8, misc 10;
Already, just by observing that ginōskō is sometimes translated as perceive or understand, we have some indication that it doesn’t necessarily always refer to something akin to sexual intimacy. We can learn even more from Strong’s Concordance though. Either within the Olive Tree app or using a printed Strong’s Concordance, we can get a list of every instance of ginōskō in the NT and see how it is used in context. The following are just a few examples that are relevant to our discussion here, as they clearly refer to knowing something in the ordinary (non-relational) sense of the word:
“And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived (ginōskō) that he spoke of them.” Matthew 21:45
“He said unto them, How many do you have? Go and see. And when they knew (ginōskō), they said, Five, and two fishes.” Mark 6:38
“And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew (ginōskō) not of it.” Luke 2:43
“They understood (ginōskō) not that he spoke to them of the Father.” John 8:27
This is just one example from each of the Gospels, but I could list many more. The bottom line is that there isn’t anything special about the word ginōskō that gives us additional insight into John 8:32; ginōskō is just the ordinary Greek word for know. Sometimes it’s a euphemism for sexual relations, but other times it simply refers to being aware of something or understanding something. Like most words, what it means in each particular context must be determined not by special knowledge of the Greek language, but by paying attention to how the author is using the word.
In John 8:32, Jesus is clearly referring simply to knowing and understanding His teaching. While He does refer to Himself as the Truth in John 14:6, that isn’t His point in John 8:32. In John 8:32, He’s directly referring to His teaching as the Truth, and knowing what someone has taught is more about understanding the meaning of something than having an intimate knowledge of an individual person.
Of course, the Truth Jesus teaches isn’t merely abstract or academic — it is deeply personal and transformational. His teaching reveals the reality of who we are, who God is, and God’s plan of redemption. The Truth Jesus teaches both informs and transforms. We’re not merely learning facts when we study Jesus’ teaching; we’re encountering a message that reveals God and reshapes our lives.
CONCLUSION
While it may sound like I’m attempting to discount the importance of knowing Jesus on a relational level, that is not the point of what I’ve been saying. What I’m pushing back against is the very popular notion that knowing the Truth in John 8:32 is primarily about relational knowledge — to the exclusion of doctrinal understanding. This notion elevates personal communication with Jesus over relating to Jesus as a student of His teaching, and such an approach will not result in freedom.
To know Jesus, we must know what He taught about Himself and what He taught about the meaning of His work on the cross. Our knowledge of Him cannot be separated from our knowledge of His teaching. He is our friend, but He is also our Teacher, and it’s as His students that we can come to know the liberating Truth of the Gospel.
In closing, consider what Paul says made the Romans free in the sixth chapter of his letter to them:
“But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine (teaching) which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18 (parentheses added)
To be made free from sin, we must continue in Jesus’ doctrine and come to understand it, giving us the ability to obey it. In the next article, we’ll begin to define His teaching and what it means to obey it.