Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
2 Corinthians 5:11
We all want to be known.
Yet for many, we want to be known only in areas of our lives where we feel are commendable. We want to be known for our achievements – the high score in the UP entrance exam, the title of “Best Thesis Defense,” the one who has the most followers in her Instagram account, or the one with the most shots made from the three-point line, blindfolded.
We also want to be known for our efforts. We want people to know how hard we reviewed for that bar exam. We want our family members to know how hard we tried to stay in our job with all the toxicity around. We want our sacrifices for the ministry to be known to our church leaders or church members. We want our friends to know the thought we put in when buying their Christmas gifts.
And when we suspect people do not know any of these and dare to criticize us for our shortcomings, we feel they are at best ignorant or at worst critical judgers of the vilest sort.
Yet, there are also things that we don’t want to be known about us. We don’t want our failures in our job to be broadcasted and scrutinized at the company meeting. We don’t want our secret traumatic past that we confided to a friend to be known and talked about in our small group. We don’t want our addiction to pornography or same-sex attraction be known to our churchmates.
Yet one thing that many, I suspect, are comfortable with, is that they are known by God.
I suspect people are generally comfortable with being known by God because they always use that fact as a defense when being accused of wrongdoing. Remember your sister in Christ who was being accused of entering a secret relationship with the motorcycle-riding, Coco Martin-lookalike unbeliever but vehemently denying it? “Don’t judge me, you don’t know me. Only God can judge me!” The subtext of such a statement – “God knows me and will not only NOT judge me, but will understand me and my reasons, the same way my mother understands my periodic tantrums when I was nine years old.” (ok that’s too long of a subtext, but you get what I’m saying, right?)
Another reason I suspect comfort is because despite knowing that God knows and sees a Christian, the Christian often returns to the same sin over and over again – without any guilt or hesitation. Maybe because, his heart is comfortable with the idea that God does know him, and for him, it’s ok.
So, are you comfortable with God knowing you? Are you comfortable with the words, “what we are is known to God?”
Hopefully this passage either comforts you more like a mother hugging her son who fell down while trying to walk, or hopefully it shakes you up so much like a career young women finding out from the doctor that she has two months left to live.
What are these words anyway?
First, they are true words. God truly knows Paul, the one who penned this words. When he wrote it, he wrote it not as wishful thinking, but as a real statement. After all, it was God who created Paul, called Paul to the ministry he was in, conformed Paul, and cared for Paul. Some people in Corinth were questioning his authority, his apostleship – questioning his right to minister to them and to give them instruction in the Lord. They want him to prove it to them through performance like the super-apostles if he was really God’s minister for them. Yet, Paul said, “what we are is known to God.” Paul found comfort in these words because these words assured him that he did not have to prove nor perform before God’s people in Corinth. God knew what He has called Paul to do. God knew who Paul was.
So it is with you. God knows you. He knows you even before the foundation of the world. He created you. He called you. You are a successful doctor now? He knows you are. Are you pastoring a church full of members who fight all the time? He knows where He has placed you. You are coming off from surgery for your cancer? He knows what He is doing with you. You are about to be fired from your job? He knows where you are to go.
Why then is this comfort? It’s comfort because you are where you are because He has brought you there. Whether it be the result of your hard work, He brought you to your successful job. Whether it is the result of your fornication and now you have a baby crying at the middle of the night with no milk, He knows where He has brought you. He knows every nook and cranny, every path and calling that He has for you. Where you are now, he knows.
Second, they are sobering words. I cannot hide my faults and failures from God. He knows my failures, my hard-heart, my ignorance, and my ugliness. And even if I pretend before the people around me by wearing a multi-colored stained glass mask to cover and filter people’s perception of me – God sees through the mask. He sees the multiple times I engage in porn in the middle of the night. He sees my bitterness and mumbling every time my pastor gives me another task in the ministry. He sees the unforgiving spirit I have for my friend who cheated on me. He sees the secret relationship I have with the woman not my wife.
And He is not a forgetful God who will let sin go unpunished. If I think that others may not judge me, only God can – then He will truly judge me, not by my biased standards, but by His holy ones. He won’t favor you in judgment simply because you are a career young woman with many goals left in your life who found out she has cancer. He won’t suddenly decide to pass over judgment against your sin because you feel you have done more right than wrong. After all, He judges us not for our good works, but for our sins.
You and I know – we have caseloads of sin in us, waiting to be punished. If that’s the case – I am doomed. You are doomed.
Yet, third, they can be comforting words for the Christian. Why?
Because God saved us. Not because of who we can be, but because of who we are now.
Yes, it says what we are is known to God.
What. we. are.
Not, what we will be.
Why does this matter? If it says “what we will be is known to God?” then people will say, “ah, the reason I’m saved by God is because he knows what I can be, He knows my potential!” As a former church friend once said, “the reason I’m in the ministry and given all these responsibilities, is because God knows what I can do.” Yeah, people tend to think that God saved them because of their inner goodness that is waiting to come out.
Yet for the Christian, that is not our comfort. Our comfort is, “what we are is known to God.” What are you now? Vile and sinful, problematic and insecure, hateful and rebellious? God knows that you are such right now! Yet, He still chose to save you. He still chose to redeem us from our sins.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8
He knows me now, yet He has not rescinded His calling. He knows my temper tantrums yet He has not ceased His love. He knows my lustful addictions, yet He has not stopped sanctifying me. He knows the worst of me, yet He has not said, “you’ve had your chance, I’m moving on from sanctifying you.” No. He knows you, yet He is not letting you go.
Oh saint, are you not amazed that you are known by God?
Your love, oh Lord, truly remains ever steadfast. You regard me, not in my flesh, but in my faithful Savior who died for me and rose again from death. For when He died, I died with Him. When He rose again from the dead, I too, am now raised with Him. You now regard me oh Lord as raised from the dead, an object of your amazing love. Thank you Lord.