CHAPTER 6: From Information to Intimacy: Studying the Word to Know the One Who Wrote It
We close where we must always close: with the reminder that everything in this teaching — the method, the tool, the habit — exists for a single purpose. Not to make you a more knowledgeable Christian, though that will happen along the way, but to bring you into deeper relationship with the God who wrote every page you study.
WORD STUDY — γινώσκω (ginōskō, Greek) To know experientially and intimately, as opposed to merely knowing information about something. Used by Jesus in John 17:3 to define eternal life itself: knowing God and the One He sent. It is the same root used elsewhere for the intimate knowledge between spouses — knowledge born of relationship, not mere facts. Reference: John 17:3
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. AMP: This is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true God, and [in the same way to know] Jesus [as the] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) whom You have sent.”John 17:3 KJV
The Danger of Information Without Intimacy
It is entirely possible to become skilled at Bible study — fluent in chain references, quick with cross-references, comfortable navigating sixty-six books — while quietly drifting further from the God those pages describe. Information about someone is not the same as relationship with them, and Scripture itself warns against mistaking the two.
This is not a reason to avoid careful study. It is a reason to hold the method loosely enough that it always serves the relationship rather than replacing it. Every chain reference you follow, every word study you complete, should end in the same place: not merely ’now I know more,’ but ’now I know Him more.’
A Simple Test
After any season of Bible study, ask yourself honestly: do I feel closer to God, or simply more informed? Neither answer should produce shame — but an honest answer of ’more informed, not closer’ is worth bringing directly to God in prayer, asking Him to do in your heart what the method alone cannot do.
Author’s Dialog
We have both, at different points in our ministry, caught ourselves treating Scripture like a resource to be mined for sermons and teaching material rather than a relationship to be nurtured for its own sake. The correction was always the same: closing the study notes, setting aside the chain references for a moment, and simply talking to God about what we had just read, as though He were in the room — because He is.
The chain reference can show you where a theme runs through Scripture. Only the Holy Spirit can make that theme feel like it was written for you, today, by Someone who loves you.
This is our hope for you as you close this teaching: not that you become an expert navigator of a study system, though we hope the tool serves you well. Our hope is that the fear you named in Chapter One dissolves, the drift you grieved in Chapter Two reverses, and the years ahead of you are marked by a Bible that is worn soft at the edges from genuine, intimate use — not because you finally mastered a method, but because you fell in love, again or for the first time, with the God who has been waiting for you on every page.
Reflection Questions
- Think honestly about your recent seasons of Bible study, if any. Have they left you feeling more informed, closer to God, or both?
- What would it look like, practically, to end a study session in conversation with God rather than simply closing the book?
- What is one specific thing you hope will be different about your relationship with God a year from now, because of what you began in this teaching?
Application Exercise
At the end of your next study session, before closing your Bible, spend two full minutes simply talking to God about what you read — not analyzing it further, just speaking to Him as you would to someone who was present with you while you read it.
Closing Prayer
Lord, let every method I learn always lead me back to knowing You, not merely knowing about You. Make my study of Your Word a doorway into deeper intimacy with You, for the rest of my life. Amen.