John 17:3 To know God and Jesus Christ
Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles:
“It is one thing to know about God and another
to know him. We know about him when we learn that he is a personal being in
whose image man is created; when we learn that the Son is in the express image
of his Father’s person; when we learn that both the Father and the Son possess
certain specified attributes and powers. But we know them, in the sense of
gaining eternal life, when we enjoy and experience the same things they do. To
know God is to think what he thinks, to feel what he feels, to have the power
he possesses, to comprehend the truths he understands, and to do what he does.
Those who know God become like him, and have his kind of life, which is eternal
life” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols.
[1965–73], 1:762).