Your word for this week is "knowledge". There are a few different words translated knowledge in the New Testament, but we'll be looking at the one found in these verses:
Rom 10:
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Eph 1:
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 4:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Phil 1:
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
Col 1:
9-10 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
1 Tim 2:
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 1:2-3
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
The word "knowledge" in all of these verses is the Greek word "epignosis", which is a compound work meaning: recognition, full discernment, acknowledgement in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says: precise and correct knowledge. The Vine's Expository Dictionary says: exact and full knowledge, discernment, recognition, expressing a fuller knowledge, a greater participation by the "knower" in the object "known", thus more powerfully influencing him. It comes from the Greek word "epiginosko", which is also a compound word. "Ginosko" means: to learn to know, to come to know, to get knowledge, to become acquainted with, to understand, to perceive in Thayer's Greek Lexicon. "Epi" is a primary preposition meaning superimpostion (of time, place, order, etc.) according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.
The example I think of is the section of an anatomy book that shows the human body through pages layered over each other. You can start with the skeleton and add page after page until you have the entire body! That's how our knowledge of the Word of God is obtained! You learn something new every day and it is added to the layer you have already known! But this knowing can only come through meditating on the Word. Otherwise it is just memorization. This is the knowing that Jesus meant when He said this in John 8:31:
John 8:31
So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples.
32 And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.
AMP
I LOVE "knowing" the Word more every day, and there is so much more to "know"! What a great adventure! Here is Hillsong's "To Know Your Name":
Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!
