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The Christian’s Walk
The word “walk” is often used within both the Old and New Testament to express how a child of God should live. Following these comments are many of the verses within the Bible that express this, to which the reader is encouraged to review, for God’s Word is always more effective in conveying its truth.
The concept of walking conveys to this author’s mind at least three facets of Christian living, which are activity, direction, and footing — as follows:
1) Activity — walking is a product and demonstration of life. 2) Direction — walking always leads in one direction, never in two. 3) Footing — walking always has one foot firmly on the ground (foundation), which is not the case when running.
A few of the key points pertaining to the “Christian’s Walk,” which the following verses of Scripture specify, may be expressed in the following paragraph.
The “Christian’s Walk” is one that is characterized by an in-depth understanding of and adherence to God’s Word, which produces a life that is pleasing to God in its demonstration of righteous works. It is a “walk in Christ,”empowered by the Holy Spirit, and exercised by faith, not by sight.
A passage of Scripture that essentially describes the “three facets of Christian living” mentioned above is as follows:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5, 6)
A thought regarding this issue, i.e., the concept of walking in Christ (Colossians 2:6), which is indistinguishable from walking in the Spirit (Galatians 6:15, 16), is expressed by the apostle Paul in two comparative passages of Scripture, which confirm that for a Christian to be “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) is the same as the Christian allowing “the Word of Christ” to “dwell in” him “richly” (Colossians 3:16).
Compare these two passages, which indeed express the same command and result:
. . . but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:18b, 19)
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)
One additional thought regarding this issue is that it is only by and through the absorption of God’s Word that a Christian is able to mature spiritually and thereby utilize the faith, which will allow him to demonstrate the “Christian’s Walk” (Romans 10:17; 12:2; 2 Timothy 3:16; James 1:21).
Old Testament
Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.” (cf. Genesis 5:22; 6:9; 24:40; 48:15)
Exodus 16:4
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.” (cf. 18:20)
Leviticus 18:4
You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 26:3, 4
If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Deuteronomy 5:33
You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
Deuteronomy 8:6
Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
Deuteronomy 10:12, 13
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? (cf. Deuteronomy 11:22, 23; 19:9; 30:16; Joshua 22:5)
Deuteronomy 13:4
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. (cf. Deuteronomy 26:17)
Deuteronomy 28:9
The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.
1 Kings 2:3, 4
And keep the charge of the LORD your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the LORD may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, “If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,” He said, “you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.” (cf. 1 Kings 3:14; 6:12; 8:58, 61; 9:4; 11:38; 2 Kings 23:3)
Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
Psalm 86:11
Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Psalm 89:15
Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance.
Psalm 119:1-3
ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! They also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways.
Proverbs 2:6-8
For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints.
Jeremiah 7:23
But this is what I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.”
Ezekiel 11:19, 20
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. (cf. Ezekiel 36:24-28)
Ezekiel 20:19
I am the LORD your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them.
Hosea 14:9
Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Zechariah 3:7
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “If you will walk in My ways, and if you will keep My command, then you shall also judge My house, and likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk among those who stand here.”
New Testament
John 8:12; 11:9, 10
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” . . . Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Romans 6:4
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 8:1, 4
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. . . . that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 13:13
Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Galatians 5:16, 25
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. . . . If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 6:15, 16
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 4:1-3
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 5:2
And 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.
Ephesians 5:8-10
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:15, 16
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Philippians 3:16
Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
Colossians 1:9-12
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
Colossians 2:6, 7
As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:5
Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
1 Thessalonians 2:12
That you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
1 Thessalonians 4:12
That you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 2:6
He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
2 John 6
This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.
3 John 4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
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