NOTES for Joh 1:29-34
John the Baptist says of Jesus that he did not know Him, although Jesus was his relative. He says that he did not know that Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus was the very Lamb who took upon Himself the sins of the world, that Jesus was the Son of God.
We presume to judge people without knowing them at all. None of us has the right to say that we know another person, because God can always help someone change and become so different that we will say we never knew that person. But what faith John the Baptist must have needed to believe that the Messiah was Jesus, someone so close to him!
And unless we have such faith, we will never learn to accept those close to us as they are and to love them, nor will we ever be able to change ourselves. We often say that we certainly know ourselves: we know what we can do and what we cannot. But God knows us better. He created us, and He knows that with His help we can do far more, while without God we can do nothing.