How Is Your Walk?

Have you ever counted the number of meanings that belong to a word?  Take the word walk for instance.

Sometimes, when a person uses the word walk he means putting one foot in front of the other, but other times the walk has absolutely nothing to do with walking.

Sometimes walking means floating, if you are spacewalking.

Sometimes walking means you failed to pitch a ball into the strike zone.

It can also mean escaping without a scratch when you walk away from an accident.  

Something else you might walk away from is a fight, but whether you walk or run or back up slowly isn’t the point.  The point is you didn’t fight.

Actors walk through a play, but they really mean practice.  And dancers mean the same thing when they walk through a routine.

What do you call it when you exercise your pet?  Walking.

What do you say when a criminal escapes conviction on a technicality?  “He walked.”

If you have some complicated instructions and you want to communicate them well, you might walk through them with the person whom you are instructing.

Surveyors when they survey, walk a boundary.

Very interesting, when a person walks out on someone they are breaking up, but if they step out with the same person they’re going on a date.  

Walking together means living with one another in peace.  

If you walk all over someone you take advantage of them.   

Walking on eggshells means you are nervous.  Walking off means stealing. And if you walk the plank you’re dead.  And yes, oddly enough, sometimes walking does mean simply putting one foot in front of the other.

There is another meaning for walk from the Bible, that we still use today.  We find it in Genesis 5.

Genesis 5:21-24 (emphasis mine)

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.  Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.  Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Here walk means “course or manner of life.”  This is a use of the word walk familiar to us in English also. 

Isaiah 50:10 (emphasis mine)

Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.

Let him whose manner of life is darkness (sin) trust in God.

Ephesians 5:15

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

Paul is saying “Be careful about your manner of life.”

Walking in the Bible always has to do with obedience, but different kinds of walking stress different aspects of relationship to God.  For example, in Genesis 17:1, Abram was commanded to “walk before God and be blameless.”  This means that Abram was to live with the conscious realization that he was accountable to an observant and holy God.  The King James version of Deuteronomy 13:4 commands God’s people to “walk after Him.”  The emphasis there is that God has shown us the way to walk and we are to follow Him.  When we say “Enoch walked with God,” we do mean obedience, but the emphasis is on a close, intimate relationship with God that goes along with obedience.

Hebrews 11:5, 6

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.  And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

?  How is your walk?

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

The purpose of this blogsite is to encourage people in their walk with Jesus.  Here you will find studies that stress personal application from biblical texts and spiritual truths.  Some of the subjects into which we delve will be a series of their own, but others might be reflections from a recent sermon or Bible Study.  If there is a subject that would like to see addressed here, email Pastor Scott at pastor.scar@outlook.com.

Until next time, May God bless you richly as you walk in obedience to Jesus Christ.