“I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8)

Spiritual knowledge of Christ is personal knowledge. I can’t know Christ through another person’s acquaintance with Him. I have to know Him myself, not in imagination, but as the Bible reveals Him.

I must know His natures, divine and human. I must know His offices, His attributes, His works, His shame and His glory. I will meditate upon Him until I “comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

It will be an affectionate knowledge of Him; indeed, if I know Him at all, I must love Him. My knowledge of Him will be satisfying to me. My mind will be full to the brim – I’ll know peace and contentment, for as He promised, “he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

At the same time, I’ll be anxious to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work” (Colossians 1:10). My knowledge of Christ will bear me up above all trials, and doubts, and sorrows; and it will, while I enjoy it, focus my attention on the immortality of my Savior, and clothe me with His eternal joy. Come, my soul, sit at Christ’s feet and know His rest (Matthew 11:29).

“I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me ... Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind” (Philippians 3:14–16).

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