Knowing God

“Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives. As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.”

Here, Packer uses a cultural analogy to help his readers understand The Importance of Knowing God Personally—a device frequently used by both Packer and many other English Christian writers of the period, like C. S. Lewis. This quote also shows the type of sentence structure that Packer favors in his writing: long and often complex, but eloquently put.

“There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death, and on forever.”

Packer regularly draws attention not only to the necessity of knowing God, but to the quality of life that such knowing engenders. This quote also exemplifies the theme of knowing God personally, putting stress on the idea of knowing God as a relational reality and not just an intellectual achievement.

“What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. […] What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment than anything else? Knowledge of God.”

Here, the book’s title is underscored, with the idea of knowing God presented as the ultimate goal of all human life. This extract, coming from the beginning of Chapter 3, draws the attention of the reader because it stands in such contrast to Packer’s usual practice of using long, multi-clause sentences.