Jesus would often ask his disciples, "Do you love me?"  In that great fourteenth chapter of John where he promised us a Comforter, he says to us, "If you love me, you will obey what I command,"  admonishing us that by loving him we would indeed be loved by his Father (14:15).

In our text for today, the writer suggests that a particular knowledge and understanding of Christ brings about a willingness to obey.  The Greek suggests of the word know a level of absolute certainty that germinates a perception found in the deepest part of our being.

This kind of knowing is not something that one can perceive on a cerebral level only.  There is a spirituality that is necessary.  Those who have been in this faith walk for some time know that having been touched by an experience with Christ is just the beginning.  The deepest part of knowing will come through a life lived trusting and standing in faith.  I think that our motivation to know him comes when we realize that our lives are not just for us.  When we realize that it is the desire of Jesus to present us to a dying world as vessels of honor, we are then entered into a transformation.  We move from being called servant to being called friend (John 15:15). Then we can say like Paul, "that we might know Christ and in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering" (Phil. 3:10).