"'How do you know me?' Nathanael asked."
(JOHN 1:48)

John 1:43-51
The surprising thing to Nathanael was not that Jesus knew his name, but that He knew his character. Honesty and integrity characterized Nathanael, but he wondered how anything good could come out of the ill-reputed town of Nazareth.


So it must have caught him off-guard, indeed, when the new Teacher saw him and said, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false” (v.47). I would have asked the same thing Nathanael did: “How do you know me?” Having read the Psalms many times, he knew that only God was familiar with a man’s comings and goings, his getting up and sitting down, his inmost thoughts (see Psalm 139). Could this “man” be anything other than God? Then Nathanael’s eyes were opened, and he saw right before him – straight out of Nazareth! – the very Son of God (v. 49)!


No one but Jesus can know all about us and still love us so much that He calls us to Himself. He sees and fully knows our pride, our petty deceptions, and the wrong-doings we try to conceal. He knows me and loves me still!



Scripture Focus

John 1:43-51

Insight

WRITTEN BY DON HILLIS, APRIL ANCHOR, 1984

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