I KNOW (s)he loves me

How do "we know"? How do "we know" anything? Is what we know true because we know it? Can we trust what we know? What's the connection between faith (trusting enough to act) and knowledge?

Let me start by asking you this.



Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

           Faith is only necessary when I do not have enough knowledge.

What about this statement?

           Faith is acting on the knowledge I have.

If you agree with the first statement, you likely see faith as a fallback position when you do not enough knowledge. You may even see people who rely on faith to be weak in dealing with truth because they are not willing or capable of getting more knowledge. If you agree with the second statement, then you may see knowledge without faith as weakness. In this case you may feel that knowledge is not really important unless you trust it enough to act upon it. You may disagree with both statements, seeing faith and knowledge in a different way. However, agreeing with both is a contradiction that may represent that you have not resolved your worldview on the relationship between faith and knowledge.

Maybe the challenge in knowing what is true and trusting what we know enough to act is understanding the meaning of knowledge. By definition "to know" is to bring to an awareness of the mind. However, our mind can be made aware in two ways. One is information we receive through our physical senses. If I say "I know the President of the nation," it likely means that I have information that I have seen or heard about this person, where he/she was born, went to school, what they look like, how they sound, etc. If I know the wind is blowing, while I can't see it, I can feel it and see other evidence, such as leaves moving around or my golf shot gets knocked off line. I can know the mountains are beautiful because I can see them. The Greeks had a word for this meaning of "to know" called eido.

On the other hand, if I say, "I know my wife loves me" or "I know the mountains are peaceful," it is not likely because someone told me or I can touch it, but because this information came to me through relational experience. The Greek word for this kind of knowing is gnosis.

Both forms of knowing are rational, just sourced in two different ways. What we determine to be true becomes our worldview shaped by the roles eido and gnosis play in our understanding. Eido knowledge without gnosis knowledge has little value to life's satisfaction and gnosis knowledge without eido knowledge can be risky if our experience is not aligned with truth.

In plain language, this is what I wishing for you to know. If our knowledge is mainly eido, then our faith or willingness to trust that knowledge is generally weak. If our knowledge is mainly gnosis, then we are likely to act on the knowledge as truth, but we run a considerable risk of being wrong. We must have both the willingness to act (trust what we know) and knowledge that is valid in order to have a worldview that aligns with what is true.

The kicker is that our flaws (biases and filters) influence both kinds of knowledge and the interplay between them. Knowledge becomes truth for each of us from the credibility we give the info received through our senses and our experience.

We must accept eido as true based on the validity of the source, not subject to our biases and filters. We must then understand our gnosis based on the eido we accept as true.  If we allow a flawed understanding of something based on a bad experience to dominate our faith, our gnosis then dominates our eido. This is where we must trust our eido and through faith it then must influence our gnosis.

For example, we read about and see reports of evil and disasters in the world (eido). We are personally attacked by terrorists or are victim of a flood (gnosis). We hear about how good and powerful God is, but how does this eido interact with our gnosis of evil and disaster? The truth we believe about God and then act upon in faith depends on the worldview of God that comes from "knowing Him" with both credible eido further evidenced by gnosis.

So, how do you know s(he) loves you? You first have eido of that person that comes from credible sources and that you trust to be true. S(he) is kind, loyal, dependable, faithful, etc. Then you interpret your experiences with that person through the lenses of eido to gain gnosis of them. Your gnosis strengthens faith in your eido to trust her/him. This produces life's greatest joy, intimacy.

This is what "to know" means and how faith and knowledge work together to make your joy full. 

This is ...