True interpersonal familiarity, or intimacy, is multidimensional; and that “multidimensionality” is an important element for truly knowing someone.
One-dimensional familiarity, however, knowing a person only from a singular perspective, is seemingly shallow… “Work-mate”, “church-mate”, “class-mate”, “boss-employee”, “teacher-student”.
Those who know each other most deeply have crossed the limits of singular categories of association and know each other beyond them. The strongest “work” buddies are those who meet after 5pm, the stronger church bonds are those which spill over into home visits and weekday calls & hangouts.
Can you truly “know” someone within the limits of singular categories, where you and they are limited to the expressions required and permitted only by that singular category of association? Possibly, but not very deeply.
What about knowing God, and being known by Him?
When, in parable, God says “I never knew you?” to those who had once called Him “Lord, Lord” [Matt. 7:21-23], we would not imagine that God means that He is unaware of their existence. It may rather be seen as an expression of the true quality of their relationship with Him. There is a lack of depth in the intimacy with Him, expressed in part by them being labelled as those who “break God’s laws.”
But how is it that in one instance these individuals are said to call God “Lord”, while in another they are said to “break God’s laws?” It may be, in part, because of a singular-dimensioned relationship. One in which familiarity, or intimacy, was only limited to a singular category of life (say a culture of church attendance for example), but which did not spill over to all other dimensions…
