"I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. How does the Father know Jesus and Jesus, the Father? In the same vain, what does it mean that “I know mine and mine know me?” Jesus is not talking about an intellectual process but an experiential process. This process is an personal and intentional encounter with another. It is not an accent of the will but the accent of the heart. 

For the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. This is the intimacy of love, resulting from the encounter. It is the same intimacy of love that happens between Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and ourselves. Because God has first loved us (he initiates the encounter), we are drawn by the web of love to love in return (our response to his encounter). In loving him, we are willing to follow him in obedience. As the Son’s love was his yes to the Father, so our love is our yes to the Good Shepherd. In this way He knows me and I know him.