Knowing God and growing as a Christian always means delighting in Jesus above any created thing.

Why Jesus never becomes secondary

The apostle Paul had an impressive resume and pedigree. He talks about it in Philippians 3:4–6. But he does so only to say how little these things now mean to him. Something far better has taken over Paul’s life. He writes:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7–11)

In your pursuit of knowing God, Jesus Christ is not only essential to beginning your knowledge of God, he is supremely important for your ongoing growth in that knowledge. We don’t start with Jesus and then move on past him to other things.

In the verses above, Paul speaks of “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul says knowing Jesus is so valuable that he is worth surrendering any other valuable thing in life for. Knowing Jesus is better than anything. And that is so because when we know Jesus we know the Father.

Here is the contrast between our way and God’s way:

Our way: Jesus becomes one of many things we value, but not the chief thing. Jesus is wonderful, but not everything to us. Jesus is important, but not worth sacrificing for. Our life-goals still take center stage, while Jesus is a supporting actor. We acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but our thoughts, time, money, goals, and desires center on other things.

God’s way: In the heart of every believer, Jesus becomes far more valuable than any created thing.

The change in heart that God requires for us to walk in his way is far more important for knowing God and his ways than any theological facts we can know about God. We can read 100 books about God and his ways, but if Jesus does not become our surpassing delight, then we will not know God as well as the illiterate one who loves Jesus more than any created thing.

Knowing God truly is more a matter of the heart than the mind, and therefore it is not about accumulating more knowledge about the Bible. It is about reordering our hearts around Jesus Christ. (This is not anti-mind, because we can’t do heart without mind.)

It is the Father’s will that we know him through Jesus, through loving Jesus supremely.

What supreme devotion looks like

This means that meditating worshipfully on the words and deeds of Jesus in the four Gospels is a crucial part of knowing God and his ways.

It means that means that meditating worshipfully on how the New Testament epistles explain, interpret, and apply the life of Jesus to us is crucial to knowing God and his ways.

This means it is crucial that we monitor the desires and affections of our hearts to be sure no created rivals arise to challenge our central focus on Jesus.

It means we monitor our ways to see that we love people as Jesus did.

You cannot exhaust the riches of Jesus Christ. You cannot know Jesus more without knowing God and his ways better. Jesus teaches us how to know and love the Father, and to rely completely on the Holy Spirit in all things.

Pause in prayer right now and center your life on Jesus Christ.