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Walking

“Walking” here is meant to represent your daily, moment-by-moment actions; what you do (Gen 5.24, 17.1;Ac 9.31). Scripture establishes these principles about Christians (those reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, 2 Cor 5.17-21) walking with God:

One overarching principle: Col 2.7, walk in the same way you initially received Christ Jesus as Lord:

  1. Firmly rooted in Him, having a specific fixed location and connected to the fuel source
  2. Being built up in Him, growing upward; becoming larger, stronger, and more fruitful
  3. Established (in your faith in Him), stabilized, made unmoveable and impregnable (pp Eph 6.10-14)
  4. Paying continuous attention to the “path” you are on and each “step” along it. Prov 4.11-12 wisdom directs along upright paths of unimpeded steps and protection from stumbling; 4.14 warning against entering the path of the wicked and proceeding along the way of evil persons; 4.15 recognize the evil path and avoid it altogether, going away from that path, don’t be anywhere near it; 4.18 the path of the righteous is illuminated and its illumination improves with time; 4.19 in contrast the way of the wicked is like darkness and those on it stumble over things they are ignorant of; 4.25 stay on the straight righteous path and keep your intentions and interests focused there; 4.26 keep watch over your path, staying on it and benefiting thereby; 4.27 do not stray or deviate from the straight path; 16.17 be on the lookout for evil and avoid it.

Seven points:

  1. Be informed of the commands provided in Scripture. They may be explicitly stated, such as to love fellow Christians (Jn 15.12), or presented as principles, such as to glorify God in everything you do (1 Cor 10.31), speak only what benefits the hearer (Eph 4.29), imitate God (Eph 5.1), walk in love (Eph 5.2), and the overarching command to walk worthy of your calling to be in Christ, glorify God, and properly represent the gospel (Eph 4.1-3, Phil 1.27, Col 1.10, 1 Thess 2.12).
    1. Gal 5.18 states the principle that being “led by the Spirit” keeps one free from legalism; but the Spirit leads by reminding of Scriptural truths. Therefore, one must know those truths for the Spirit to lead; because the Spirit does not lead through new, unique revelation to individuals, but through informing and teaching truths from Christ (Jn 16.13-14).
    2. Eph 4.20-32 describes walking with a mind informed about Christ’s ways of living; and thus informed to make daily decisions against former unChristlike ways and in favor of Christlike ways. Also, being informed of the knowledge of the Son of God, e.g. Christ, protects the believer from being influenced by cunning, crafty, deceitful methods employed against them.
      1. A parallel text is Col 2.2-4 which says understanding Christ provides wisdom and knowledge which protects the believer against false but persuasive arguments.
    3. Col 3.16 commands to let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you.
      1. Dwell within: read, study (2 Tim 3.15), meditate, memorize.
      2. Teaching
        1. Obligation and duty to employ spiritual gift for fellow saints’ edification; Rm 12, 1 Cor 12
        2. Caution: Jas 3.1
      3. Admonishing. Christ’s Word conditions...
        1. The standards we apply.
        2. The motivation we have: edification and restoration, never self-promotion
        3. The methods we use: with memorable means (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs)
      4. With thankful hearts (Phil 4.6) and gratitude expressed to God
      5. Doing everything in the Lord Jesus’ name (and all that implies, circling back to the fact that it is His Word richly dwelling in us and manifesting through our speech and actions)
    4. Col 3.1-2 commands to be continually seeking and thinking about the things above, where Christ is. For example, what Christ is like there, the physical and emotional environment there (informed by passages such as Heb 12.22-24), what is valued there, what it will be like to live there, etc.
      1. Being continually “seeking” those things implies or assumes you have decided to value them, in obedience to commands like Mt 6.19-24.
    5. Col 3.5, 8 commands to consider/reckon the members of your earthly body (eyes, taste buds, pleasure-seeking parts, self-centered parts, e.g. Rm 7.13-21) dead to sinful practices, attitudes, and speech such as are listed in those verses.
      1. As for reckoning this non-spiritual part of your being dead, as for treating it as such, consider Rm 6.6-7, 11-14. Picture your previous slave master judged, condemned, and crucified. While dying on the cross, but not yet dead, that old master yells at you, attempting to again command your obedience. But you are now emancipated from his authority and released from his power. You have both the right and the ability to ignore him.
      2. Consider that Jas 1.14-15 says the cause of temptation to sin is one’s own very strong desires, called “lusts”, for self-serving experiences and outcomes.
      3. Note that Jas 4.1-4 says a primary cause of sinful conflicts is the very strong desires (called “lusts”) of the parts of our physical/material self (called “your members” in the NASB) for pleasure (which translates hēdonē, experiences that gratify the physical senses).
    6. Col 3.15-17 commands to allow the “peace of Christ” to rule (brabeuō, to arbitrate, govern, act as an umpire) in your heart. Given choices of heart desires and responses, choose those most aligned with “the peace of Christ.” The peace of Christ is broad, encompassing needs/situations such as:
      1. Peace with God. Emulate Christ’s choices to “be about the Father’s business” in priorities, agenda, speech, and actions.
      2. Peace with men. Notice these aspects of Jesus’ life and mimic them:
        1. He grew in favor with God and men (Lk 2.52).
        2. He operated in the world but not of it (Jn 15.18-19, 17.14-16). Notice how He treated sinners: He ate, maybe even partied, with them; He gently gave truth to the Samaritan woman; He forgave the woman caught in adultery; He forgave and called into His service despised tax collectors such as Matthew and Zacchaeus; He gently gave truth to sincerely seeking “religionists” such as Nicodemus (Jn 3.1-21, 19.39-42).
      3. Peace with (or amid) circumstance. Learn from how Jesus faced crises: His temptation by Satan; when His hometown tried to murder Him, when a massive crowd needed food, in a storm at sea, facing a scary violent demon-possessed man in the Gadarenes region, at the sad death of friend Lazarus, when Judas Iscariot defected and betrayed Him, and at His last and worst temptation at the Garden of Gethsemane.
    7. Phil 1.27-28 lists three activities of walking worthy of the gospel of Christ:
      1. Standing firm in one spirit.
      2. Striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel; e.g. for the faith which forms an integral part of Christ’s gospel.
      3. Being in no way alarmed or concerned by opponents.
    8. 2 Tim 2.15 commands personal study of the Scriptures to be able to correctly interpret and apply them.
    9. Acts 17.11 provides an example of Christians employing the Scriptures to identify truth and truth-tellers.
    10. Eph 5.8-10 being light in the Lord, walk as children of light (all goodness, righteousness, and truth) trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord
    11. Dt 30.16 To “walk in God’s ways” is different from obeying Him. It covers all the unspecified situations and choices about them you make day-to-day. It means whatever you are doing, your actions and internal motivations about them conform to God’s character, priorities, and methods as revealed in Scripture. Walking this way causes your prayers and requests to qualify as being “in Jesus’ name” (Jn 16.24).
  2. Being informed of God’s commands, obey them.
    1. Eph 4.22-24 commands one to “lay aside” the ways of the old self and to “put on” the ways of the new self. Samples of the new self “ways” are in Eph 4.25-32.
    2. Jn 14.15, 21; 1 Jn 5.3; and other verses give the positive sense, saying obedience to God’s commands is the expression of love God accepts.
    3. Lk 6.46 gives the negative sense, saying God rejects mere profession of loyalty to Him without obedience.
  3. Respond positively to the promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
    1. Ps 37.4 describes this as delighting yourself in the LORD and the LORD then putting in your heart the desires He wants to be there. You can then, as you delight in the LORD, trust those desires and do them.
    2. Gal 5.16 says walking by the Spirit keeps one from performing the sinful desires of their flesh (Rm 7.14-23). “Walking” in this context means responding to and doing the promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul contrasts this being voluntarily under the Spirit’s control with being under the control of alcoholic inebriation.
    3. Eph 5.18 describes this as being controlled by the Holy Spirit, seen as contrasted with being controlled by drunkenness.
    4. An example is Ac 13.5-12. On his first missionary journey Paul and Barnabas were preaching the Gospel at Paphos on the island of Cyprus to a government official, Sergius Paulus. Also present was a magician named Barjesus, also known as Elymas, who was opposing the Gospel message, attempting to influence Sergius Paulus against it. Assuming Elymas was a favorite of the official, since he was allowed to speak and repeatedly interrupt Paul and argue against Paul’s message, the most politic action Paul should have taken was to excuse himself, not cause a scene, and seek a later audience with Sergius Paulus when Elymas was not there. But Ac 13.9 says Paul, filled with the Spirit, did cause a scene. He interrupted his Gospel presentation to publicly and harshly rebuke Elymas, calling him a fraud, a liar, and a child of the devil. If that weren’t enough Paul then cursed Elymas’ vision, causing the man to go blind for a time. All this could have incensed Sergius Paulus against Paul and Barnabas. However, in some way the Holy Spirit communicated to Paul to take this drastic action, so he did; and the result favored the Gospel and glorified God.
  4. View good works as an important part of your life with God, a by-product of His having saved you, and as something God preplanned for you before you were born.
    1. Know that in Christ you are living an agenda containing a set of good works God preplanned for you to do. Ephesians 2.10.
    2. See the God-directed good works as a way to glorify God, even in the eyes of an unbelieving world. Mt 5.16
    3. Be confident in God’s ability and intention to provide whatever you need for every good work He wants you to accomplish. 2 Cor 9.8
  5. Act on the information and opportunities God provides at the moment.
    1. For example, Acts 13.5 illustrates this principle. Paul and Barnabus, setting out on their first missionary journey, being in a right and open relationship with God via the Holy Spirit, with no inhibiting unconfessed and unrepented sin attenuating the communication, acted on the information and opportunities they had at the time. In this case their only obvious venue to proclaim the Gospel, at first, was Jewish synagogues, of which there were several in Cypriot cities. So that’s where they started.
  6. Expect resistance. Do not be confused, disappointed, inhibited, or dissuaded by it.
    1. Understand one source of the resistance will be internal.
      1. Your own residual sinful tendencies will continue operating from your physical body, affecting your mind and desires, and opposing the righteous God-oriented aspirations of your living spirit. Realize that God knows all that and has chosen to save you, and walk with you eternally in love, anyway. See Romans chapter 7. And also be encouraged that there will come a future day when this sin-vs-righteousness competition will be ended in righteousness’ favor (Rm 7.24-25) and that until then, since you are in Christ Jesus, God does not condemn you for anything (Rm 8.1).
      2. Incorporate into your outlook the reality that all your sins, including those in your future, were punished fully when God poured out His wrath on Himself, Jesus, bearing your guilt. 2 Cor 5.21
      3. Know that once reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, nothing you do can separate you from His love. Rom 8.37-39
      4. Know that when God looks at you, even on the day of your worst sin, He sees you clothed in Christ’s perfect righteousness. Isaiah 61.10, 2 Cor 5.21b. Therefore, understand that He sees you as blameless and as righteous as Jesus Christ. Eph 1.4, Col 1.22. When God looks at you in Christ Jesus, He likes what He sees.
      5. Be encouraged that you are not “stuck” in a sinful pattern. As He said through Paul in Rm 8.28-29, God will use EVERYTHING you experience, including the bad things you do, to work together with everything else to make you like Christ. In the case of sin, God as a loving father, and not as a punishing judge, promises to discipline you to achieve in you “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Heb 12.3-11
    2. Understand another source of resistance, including persecution, will be external. It will be the world, over which Satan rules with the freedom, authority, and power God has granted him to have temporarily.
      1. The energizing “force’ behind world evil is the rebellious angel Lucifer, often termed Satan, meaning “the accuser” or “the opposer”.
        1. Verses such as Jn 12.31, 14.30, 16.11; 2 Cor 4.4 refer to Satan as the ruler or god of this world.
        2. Eph 6.11-12 depicts Satan as lord over organized spiritual forces of evil: rulers, authorities, and powers.
      2. People not reconciled to God, assisted by Satan or his demons, or just acting naturally, oppose your walk with God and the good works that come from that walk.
        1. Such people are pictured as “of the darkness” and “walking in darkness”. They oppose the righteousness, truth, and authority of God, pictured as “the light”. Jn 3.19-20
        2. Such people are spiritually dead.
          1. Spiritual death originated by Adam’s sin (Genesis 2:17, 3:6-7, 5:3; Romans 5:12).
          2. The state of being spiritually dead is described as including alienation from God (Ephesians 4:18); being caused by and the result of sin (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1, 2:5; Colossians 2:13); and manifests as a mind focused on and interested in things of the physical worldly existence, which the Bible calls a “carnal mind” or a “fleshly mind” (Romans 8:6).
          3. Spiritual death is characterized by unbelief in and unresponsiveness to God (John 3:36); not possessing a relationship with the Son of God as Lord-God, and as Savior (Romans 10:9-10, 1 John 5:12); not possessing the permanently and continuously indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 9:8); unwillingness and inability to respond to God (Romans 3:10-11); and commitment to physical pleasure, e.g. experiences of the five physical senses (1 Timothy 5:6).
          4. The following are some sample Scriptures referring to people physically alive as being spiritually dead: Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:60; John 5:25, 6:53; Ephesians 5:14; 1 John 3:14.
        3. Resistance, opposition, and persecution should be expected from such people. Jn 16.33, 2 Tim 3.12
    3. Be encouraged and comforted that God will use everything you experience, including all the difficult and unpleasant, even grievious experiences, toward the good outcome of making you more and more like Christ. Rom 8.28,29
  7. Anticipate rewards, and be motivated by that expectation.
    1. Expect great reward for suffering persecution for Jesus’ sake. Mt 5.11-12, Lk 6.22-23
    2. Know God will reward you in heaven for your prayers only He and you know about. Mt 6.6
    3. You will be rewarded for discipling people correctly, engendering loyalty to Christ rather than loyalty to any other person. 1 Cor 3.10-15
    4. Expect to receive a Crown of Righteousness (2 Tim 4.8). Here’s why...
      1. You are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, if this happened to you:
        1. God gave you a living spirit, enabling you to understand your need for and availability of salvation through Christ. Jn 3.3-8, Eph 2.4-5, Col 3.19-20
        2. You consequently turned to Christ as your Lord and Savior (Rm 10.9-10).
        3. God released you from the condemnation and domination of your sin (Rm 6.1-14), and adopted you as His child (Rm 814-17, Gal 4.5).
        4. God permanently placed His Spirit within you (2 Cor 1.21-22, Eph 1.13-14).
      2. Since you are reconciled to God, you love the fact that He appeared to save you and will appear again to bring you to be with Him and establish His righteous kingdom on earth.
      3. Since then you “love His appearing”, you will be rewarded with a Crown of Righteousness.
    5. Whatever good you do to please God will be “paid back” to you by God. Eph 6.8
    6. God will abundantly “repay” or reward you for whatever you have given up for Him in this life. Mt 19.29
    7. God promises a variety of rewards for receiving, accepting with sincere appreciation and hospitality, His emissaries. Mt 10.40-42
    8. If you are faithful to God’s calling and purpose for your life here on earth, at your glorification, the “judgment seat of Christ” (Rm 14.10, 2 Cor 5.10), God will give you something, metaphorically called “an imperishable wreath”, that permanently acknowledges and honors you for your faithfulness. 1 Cor 9.25
      1. Soberly, seriously consider your “walk” in light of Father-God’s impartial judgment and the infinitely high price He paid to ransom you. 1 Pet 1.17-19
    9. In Christ’s 1000-year reign on earth, e.g. the “Millennium”, you will be rewarded with responsibility and authority commensurate with your faithfulness in your current, pre-glorified life. Lk 19.16-19

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