John 8:55
“Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Jesus declares that his accusers do not truly know God, while he himself knows God intimately and lives in perfect obedience to God's word.
Context
Jesus is deepening his challenge. The crowd claims to know God and to follow the law, but their actions show otherwise.
What Does John 8:55 Mean?
To know God is not merely intellectual. These questioners know the Torah; they study the prophets; they practice the law. But they do not know God in the way that matters most: as the source of life and love, as the one whose will they are called to serve joyfully. If they truly knew the God they claim to serve, they would recognize in Jesus the One God sent. Their very attempt to condemn him shows their ignorance. Jesus, by contrast, knows God perfectly. He does not merely study God''s word; he keeps it, meaning he embodies it, lives it, returns continually to it. His obedience is not grudging or formal, but the expression of his nature.
The accusation that they would become liars if they denied knowing God is complex. Jesus is saying: you cannot deny knowing me without contradicting your own claim to follow God. You cannot reject me and still claim faithfulness to the one who sent me. This is not merely a logical trap; it is a call to consistency. The path back to knowing God runs through receiving Jesus. Our deepest problem is not ignorance of doctrines, but distance from the God who loves us and the One he sent.
In the Original Language
ginosko (ghin-AHS-koh), 'know' -- a relational knowing, knowledge by intimate acquaintance and experience, not mere intellectual information; the knowing of personal relationship.
Application
We can know many facts about God yet be distant from God. We can read Scripture, attend worship, speak the right words, and still not know God in the deepest sense. Jesus invites us into a relational knowing of God, a trust and obedience that flows from love. Is our faith primarily a matter of what we believe about God, or do we know God as someone we commune with, follow, and obey from the heart?