The Christian Walk

Introduction

We are getting there. Slowly but surely, step by step, or should I say, phase by phase, we’re getting back to normal. And that includes our worship assemblies. We have some new faces with us. I think they’re new behind those masks with us this morning. We even have some visitors with us this morning, some newlyweds with us this morning. So it’s so good always to be able to come together and worship God in spirit and in truth. And good to come together, even if it’s virtually. And we thank those who have joined us on our live stream to be able to worship God in spirit and in truth today. I want to give you a heads up, particularly those who may be watching us from home on the live stream.

The elders have something to say to us at the near the close of this service, and so please don’t leave the live stream until it’s over. We want to invite you to stick around for the message from our shepherds this morning. But first, I want to tell you about something that I know.

And I’ve done some research on it. And so I feel fairly confident that I know a lot about this. And that is, I know quite a bit about how to run a marathon in fact I know a lot about how to win a marathon race I know about the self-discipline that it takes I know about the very strict diet that one would need to be on in order to bring their body into athletic form so that they could not only finish but maybe win a marathon I know about all the training that would have to take place I know about the sacrifices and all the time and the work and the races that would have to be run before you’re ready to win one I have the knowledge but you know as well as I do that’s not enough is it’s not enough to know the facts about a subject it’s not even enough to say that you might be expert in the facts about that subject knowing how to run a marathon knowing how to win a marathon are very different than actually running and winning one isn’t it and so it is of the Christian life while we will not diminish the importance of biblical knowledge, of studying, of knowing the Word of God, of even memorizing portions of the Word of God or list from both Old and New Testament.

We will not minimize that at all. But we will point out that that knowledge, no matter how great it might be, is absolutely worthless unless some real transformation in life takes place, and unless we put that knowledge into real practical, continual action and behavior. This morning I’d like for you to turn with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5. In Ephesians chapter 5, the apostle Paul is going to talk to us about this. Not about accumulating knowledge, he is assuming that someone who loves God and loves the Word of God will accumulate that knowledge, but he’s going to talk to us about putting that knowledge into practice. In what we might call the Christian walk. You know as well as I do that the idea of walking or walk is spoken of often in the scriptures to describe our life style, the Christianity that we live.

In fact, if we think about it, Christianity in the scriptures most often is spoken of in two general categories. Number one is it is spoken of in regard to relationships. We’re described as children of God. And you and I are described as brothers and sisters. We’re spoken of as being subjects to our King in his not earthly kingdom. And Christianity is spoken of in terms of activity. Relationship and activity. We are told to walk as he walked. At times we’re told to run the race or to fight the fight. And so our Christianity is spoken of predominantly in terms of relationship and activity. This morning we want to combine or let the apostle Paul combine those two when we talk about activity that is born out of relationship.

As he tells us three ways in which, if we’re to be like him, three ways in which we should walk or put what we know into practical, continual action. Maybe that’s what walk means. Walking involves more than single a single step, doesn’t it? And so maybe walk, the concept of walk means this is an idea of something that is continuing. It’s not just one time you do something, but that this is a continuous activity. But certainly it highlights the idea that it is activity. It’s not just knowledge. And it’s not simply relationship, as important as relationships are in our Christianity, but it’s also activity. And so let’s look in Ephesians chapter 5 at the Christian walk. He says in verse 1 Therefore, be followers of God as dear children.

1. Walk in Love

He hasn’t even got to the word walk, but it’s already implied in that first verse when he says, be followers. That implies two things, doesn’t it? Number one is that implies that we’re following someone who is moving. And that we too are moving. Be followers of God as dear children. God is a God of activity. And our activity is to be modeled after Him. Specifically in verse 2, then He says, and walk in love. If you’re a follower of God as dear children, you will walk where He walked. You will walk as He walked. You will go where He went. You will do what He does and did. And important in that walk, in that following, is that we walk in love. As Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

Walk in love.

In this broad description of three ways in which a follower of God will walk, because that’s the way God has walked. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he begins with this all-encompassing concept of love. A concept that has been in the scriptures from the beginning, a concept that Jesus, who showed us in the flesh how God walks. He talked so much about the concept of love, did he not?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, Jesus said, echoing the words of the old covenant. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Walk in love. That challenge in how we conduct our lives is raised, the bar is raised for us when over and over again, when the New Testament enjoins upon New Testament Christians to participate in love, we’re not simply told to love, but we are told to love by the highest standard. Walk in love just as Christ also loved us.

That’s how we love. Now I think there’s a, I have a fear at least in that concept of love as he has loved us. Number one is my fear is, is that I view that as an unachievable task. Christ’s love was so great for us that I may be tempted to just throw up my hands and say, Well, I can’t do that. And I just quit. Surely that wasn’t the point in putting Christ as our example of walking in love. Don’t let the highness of the hurdle discourage you from trying to achieve that goal. Walk in love as Christ has loved us. If the New Testament is clear about anything, and it’s clear about several things, but if it’s clear about anything, it is this. From 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to the Jesus Sermon on the Mount, particularly the Beatitudes, in the book of 1 John in its entirety, and numerous other places in the New Testament, it is emphasized the absolute essential quality of love in our relationship to God and therefore our relationships to one another.

So much so that we can say without fear of scriptural contradiction that it doesn’t matter what you do, or who you are, or where you go to church, if you’re not walking in love, you don’t have God. You are not a child of God, and heaven won’t be your home. It’s as simple as that. That’s how important love is. I fear sometimes we’d like to oversimplify and oversimplify and categorize things that we have over here this idea of doctrine. Here’s the thou shalt’s and the thou shalt not. Here’s the things, the laws that we ought to keep. And over here, in a separate category, maybe on the other end of the spectrum, is the idea of love. Understand this. That if we understand and we believe in the importance of doctrine and doing Bible things in Bible ways, we must understand this that love is God’s doctrine.

2. Walk as Children of Light

Love is God’s law. And if we don’t love as He has loved, if we don’t have the love of God within our hearts and born out in our daily walk, we are doing it wrong. To borrow Paul’s language here, we’re not following him. Period. In verse 8, he continues in talking about another way in which we are to walk or to conduct our Christian lives, when he says, for you were once darkness. After saying, don’t commit these types of sins, in fact, he says, don’t even be partakers with them. He says in verse 8, you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Be followers of Him as dear children. That means you walk in love as He’s loved us.

And that means you must walk in the light. Because He is not only in the light, He is the light. The concept of light and darkness is prevalent throughout scriptures, isn’t it? And the best that I can understand, the idea of light and darkness conveys two concepts that are very closely connected. Number one is that they speak of the idea of good versus evil. Light is good, darkness is evil. But they also speak of the idea of knowledge versus ignorance. Darkness is ignorance. Light is knowledge. And both of those concepts are also wrapped in the idea that God is light. And God is not darkness. It is God in the very first page of our holy scriptures who says, let there be light. Do we understand?

There would be no light, literally or metaphorically, without God. I believe the creation story is told in the way that it is told to show us what this place was like before God stepped in. It was dark, it was lifeless, it was without form and void until God spoke.

And if God had never spoke, there would never be light. But God spoke and said, Let there be light. And throughout history, God has spoken again and again at Mount Sinai. He spoke. And there was the light of his law. When man rebelled against that law, God spoke again, and the light of his will was revealed through prophet after prophet. And after centuries of darkness and sin and ignorance, God spoke again and said, Let there be light. And Jesus was the light of the world. And God’s still speaking to us today. In the words of Jesus, the saying, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. So we must repudiate the works of darkness.

We must repudiate spiritual and godly ignorance and walk in light. That requires a submission. It requires me saying, I don’t know the way. Illuminate the way for me, Lord. I don’t know. That requires humility. That requires submission. That requires me being quiet and listening to God’s instructions. Recognizing that I, whether in the singular or in the collective, I don’t have the answers. I don’t have the answers. We might use the example of the unrest in our country today of what’s happening. And I must admit, I don’t have the answers. Now that’s not a defeatist attitude, because that’s not the end of the sentence. But I don’t have the solution. And I can’t fix this problem from my own reasoning or by the multiplicity of my Facebook post.

Collectively, we don’t have the answer. We can establish whatever councils, groups, think tanks, government organizations that we want. We don’t have the answer. Walking in light doesn’t mean doing my best. Walking in the light means walking where God walks, because He is the light. He has the answer.

3. Walk in Wisdom

So we walk in love. We walk in light. And according to verse 15, walking in love, walking in light must be guided by walking in wisdom. Ephesians 5, verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Walk circumspectly, the New King James Version says. Your translation may say, walk carefully. The concept there is walk wisely. Walk aware of what’s going on, aware of our circumstances, aware of God and our fellow man. Aware of the days in which we are living, redeeming the time. Again, some translations say buying up the opportunities, using what we have because the days are evil. I think there’s two senses in which the days are evil. The days are evil in the sense that the calendar and the clock is against us.

I think the older you get, the more you are made aware of that fact. That how quickly a year can go by. You remember when you were a kid, it seemed like an eternity from Christmas Eve night to Christmas morning. Now, Christmas to Christmas happens in the blink of an eye, doesn’t it? The older you get, you learn how quickly a decade can just fly by. And depending upon the age of your children, you can learn how quickly 30 or 40 or 50 years can go by.

Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Redeeming, use the opportunities you have because it goes by so quickly. You can waste a day without even trying, a week, a month, a year can blow by, and you haven’t done anything spiritually productive. The days are evil in that sense. So buy up the redeem the time. Use the minutes God has given you while they’re before you instead of behind you. But certainly also the days are evil just because the days are evil. We live in a cursed planet. Tim talked about that this morning. From the Genesis chapter 3 on. Innocence has died. Sin has multiplied and multiplied. The days are evil. And so to paraphrase the inspired apostle, watch your step. Walk carefully. Circumspectly. And in wisdom.

Conclusion

And again, we would remind you what James, the inspired writer, said that that wisdom is from above. Not our own homegrown wisdom. But God’s revealed will. Be followers of God as dear children. Walk in love, walk in the light, and walk in wisdom. Would you be a follower of God? Would you be his child this morning and obeying the gospel, believing in him, confessing your faith, repenting? That’s all about where you walk. Changing the way, the direction that you walk, and to be baptized into his blood for the remission of your sins, to be his children. That’s not the ending. That’s the beginning of your walk and following him as dear children. Would you be obedient to that gospel this morning? Would you come to us right now as together we stand and as we sing?