You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
8 Howbeit [alla] then [tote][men], when ye knew [eido] not [ou] God [theos], ye did service [douleuo]
unto them which by nature [phusis] are [on] no [me] gods [theos]. KJV-Interlinear
8 However
at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by
nature are no gods. NASB
Before you know God, then by default you cannot know God prior to knowing him.
Knowing, indicates a state of perception, of understanding, of substantive knowledge, of comprehension and orientation to the subject, and of benefit to yourself.
In the spiritual life, a human spirit is required in order to comprehend and understand the things of God. That refers to the one true God, not to hand-me-down beliefs or philosophical inventions or cultural rituals or anything else of that nature.
Reality, is where facts match perfectly with truth. And when facts do not match perfectly with truth then all you have is theory and/or imagined realities.
In the spiritual life technical knowledge of God begins at the moment you express faith in Christ, which is the moment of your salvation. That is when your real and true knowledge of God begins. At the moment of your salvation is when God creates a new human spirit within you, thus we refer to that as, being born again, and into that human spirit is imputed eternal life.
As an unbeliever, you lack the human spirit, and without a human spirit you lack that important link which gives you access to knowledge of God. Therefore, prior to salvation, as an unbeliever, you not have the ability or the wherewithal to know God. Lacking the human spirit means that you do not have the mechanism for assimilating spiritual information. Therefore, as an unbeliever, it is impossible to know God, technically speaking, as there is no benefit for whatever it is that you do know.
Therefore, prior to knowing God, anything and everything you think you know is not real, is not true, and is false with respect to your relationship life and with respect to your relationship to God. Unbelievers pursue all manner of beliefs and philosophies which get them nowhere, and of course if they die as an unbeliever, then all of their efforts and beliefs are for not.
Knowing or hearing the gospel, merely leads you to the point of knowledge, which is salvation, which is the beginning of respect or fear of God, and therefore the beginning of knowledge.
Everything the unbeliever does, repeat everything that an unbeliever does, is for and toward a false and empty objective.
When your beliefs are false, then your efforts are false. When your efforts are false, then your accomplishments are false. When your accomplishments are false then you have attained nothing. And when you attain nothing in life then of course your life is nothing short of wasted.
Knowledge in effect, equates to benefit. Prior to salvation anything you know does not gain benefit to you. Only after salvation does anything that you know transform into benefit for your life. And of course the benefit of salvation begins with eternal life and much, much more.
