Tag: walk

Where Do You Want to Walk?

img_4274Ephesians 4:1

Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received… (HCSB)

Almost every time Sharon and I go for a walk, one of us asks, “Where do you want to walk?” It is a valuable question for friendship. It is good to listen the other’s ideas, moods, and desires. To teach the Christian way of life to his readers, Paul often used the metaphor “walk”. As we live in friendship with the Lord, we ought to listen to his preferences about the places where he wants to walk with us. Every follower of Christ knows that we make rather poor choices about where to walk. Because of his greatness, holiness, and wisdom and our deficiencies in these qualities, we need to listen to his good choices about where we should walk.

As we approach the year 2017, it is worthwhile to ponder where we must walk to please the Lord. In the letter to the Ephesians, the apostle presents much of his ethical teaching through this illustration. Let’s glance at the “trail map” to find out where the Lord wants us to walk in him and through him and by him.

  • Walk worthy of your calling (4:1). The first trail leads up to a lofty place, the calling to hope (confident expectation) of our glorious inheritance (1:18). Our Lord wants us to walk near to heaven, confident and our eyes set on the prize. We should aspire for eternal glory. When you read the Gospels attentively, you will discover the importance of this idea in the teachings of our Lord.
  • Walk no longer as the nations walk (4:17). The second trail leads away from where the peoples of the nations of this world like to walk. It seems a poor choice to them, but those in the Messiah know that their trails are destructive and futile (4:17-19). To walk with the Lord Jesus requires that we deliberately turn from the paths of the nations.
  • Walk in love (5:2). The third trail leads to the imitation of God. It is the trail of love, of setting your affections on God and others, so that you give yourself sacrificially for their good. To walk this trail is costly to self-love; for that reason, it is despised. Think and feel the description of love’s actions (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 HCSB): Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. The only way to love this way is to pick up your cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34).
  • Walk as children of light (5:8). Light involves knowing the truth and acting the truth. As we genuinely shine for the Lord, we will expose the evil in others. Yet, we will also produce the pleasant-to-the-Lord fruit of goodness, righteousness, and truth. There is also the pleasant by-product of being unashamed.
  • Walk as wise, not as unwise (5:15). Wisdom is skill in godly wisdom. It is knowing how to practice the truth in fellowship with the truth. This necessitates being filled with the Spirit.

The practical question for each of us is “This coming year, do I want to walk where the Lord wants me to walk?” There really is no value, in fact, it is harmful, to continue to make our poor choices where we are not walking with the Lord. Sit down with the “trail map”, alone and with some friends, and think through the places that the Lord wants to go with us. Choose his paths in 2017.

Grace and peace, David

Walking in the Truth

img_42683 John

For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth (3 John 1:3-4 ESV).

In our group reading, we have read (or should have read!) 2 and 3 John ten times. Those who have read it will be aware that the ideas of “walk” and “truth” are important in the letters of John. Here, he takes these two important concepts and joins them together to form a lively picture of what the Christian way of life looks like. What is walking in the truth?

“Truth” is the message of Jesus the Anointed (Messiah or Christ). He was sent by God the Father to make known who God is and to provide the only way that sinful people like us can have our sins forgiven and be right with God. In Christ, God is known, and we can have koinonia (“fellowship” or sharing of life) with God. Truth is essential to John. True Christianity is not formed from our opinions and preferences but from God’s revelation of himself and the way to God in Jesus the Messiah. This is the reason that correct teaching (“doctrine”) matters. Our views must develop out from the Scriptures, instead of trying to find a text that can be stretched in bizarre ways to lend supposed support to human inventions. Therefore, we stress reading and rereading books of the Scripture. As we read and listen carefully, we will hear God’s ideas of reality, and by the Spirit, we will see those ideas and values become ours.

“To walk” means our way of life; it means the attitudes, words and actions that we have and do. In many places in the Scriptures, the Spirit teaches that these can be transformed and conformed to God’s word. Our present practice can be far different and godlier than how we used to live. We are not victims of our circumstances. In Christ, we have power to change. This requires personal choices that are consistent with what the Spirit of God has revealed in the Bible. Yes, I understand fully that you might think that sinful patterns of attitudes, words, and actions are native or natural to you. It feels that way because sin comes from inside you (Mark 7:21-23), as well as being presented to you by others. But in Christ you can make godly choices with the help of the Holy Spirit.

“To walk in the truth” is the practice of seeking to experience the way we live transformed by the truth. God’s message forms new, godly ways in us. An example of this is Paul’s statement in Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (ESV). The apostle said that the reality of his union with Christ in his crucifixion produced a radical change in the way he lived. The bigoted persecutor had become the servant of Christ and so followed him in his way of life. John rejoiced when he saw people walking in the truth. There was no gap between the message of the gospel and how they lived. Dear friends, are we walking in the truth? Do we walk in the truth so that others notice our new way of life?

Grace and peace, David