KNOWN AND UNKNOWN
The world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
I John 3:1
I never knew you.
Matthew 7:23
This world new not our Lord. “There standeth one among you whom ye know not.” So said John the Baptist. “If thou hadst known…If thou knewest…If ye had known” – so runs Jesus’ constant refrain while He was among us.
Because the world knew Him not it knows us not. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (I Jno. 3:13). It not only does not know us, it hates us. “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them” (Jno. 17:14). We cannot love the Word and be loved by the world.
But what matters the hatred of this world if He knows and loves us? Most fearful of all pronouncements ever to fall on human ears is that word to those who profess to know Him but whose works deny Him: “I never knew you.”
“The Lord knoweth them that are his” (II Tim. 2:19). This world makes much of “knowing the right people.” What matters is to know God.