WALK AS GOD WALKS (1)

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to WALK as HE WALKED” – 1 John 2:6

Believers are redeemed and empowered to WALK AS GOD WALKS: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to WALK as HE WALKED” (1 John 2:6). The English Standard Version states: “Whoever says he abides in him ought to WALK in the same way in which he walked.” Scriptures reveal God as the First Walker ever. The first “heard the Sound of the Lord God WALKING in the Garden in the cool of the day” (Gen.3:8a). God has His manners and patterns of walking. It is His perfect will for every Believer in Christ to walk like Him. John’s ultimate proof for how a person knows and shows that he or she is a Believer is: A Believer in Jesus lives and walks like Jesus! Anyone claiming to “abide” in Christ should “walk” as Jesus walked.

True Christians grow to act more and more like Christ. He left an examine that we “should follow in His steps” (1 Pet.2:21). Those who do not demonstrate a Christ-like lifestyle are simply not providing proof of their salvation, even though they may have been saved. However, anyone who claims to be “in Christ” but fails to live or walk like Him, even though saved, certainly does not have a close fellowship relationship with Him. So, how does God Walk? What are the manners of His Walk, that we might walk like Him?

First, GOD is SPIRIT and He would have His children WALK in the SPIRIT: “GOD is SPIRIT, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jh.4:24). God created Man in His likeness, as a spirit-being; hence, Paul prayed for the Thessalonians: “No may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole SPIRIT, SOUL, and BODY be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1The.5:23). Man is a SPIRIT-BEING who possesses a SOUL, and resides in a temporary earthly cloth, the BODY. Paul therefore wrote to the Galatians, and by extension to all Believers: “I say then, WALK in the SPIRIT, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh ... If we LIVE in the Spirit, let us also WALK in the SPIRIT (Gal.5: 16, 25).

GOD is LIGHT and He wants His children to WALK in the LIGHT: “This is the message which we have heard of Him and declare to you, that GOD is LIGHT and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth: 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” (1Jh.1: 5-7). To walk in the Light is to walk in the truth and in righteousness. Jesus had declared: “I AM the LIGHT of the world. He who follows Me shall not WALK in darkness, but have the LIGHT of LIFE” (Jh.8:12). He then transforms us into light: “You are the LIGHT of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt.5:14).

GOD is LOVE and He wants His children to WALK in LOVE and be perfected in it: “But whoever keeps HIS WORD, truly the LOVE of GOD is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (v.5). 1 John 4: 7-8 declare: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for GOD is LOVE.” Love is a Verb – Action: “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God who he has not seen?” (1Jh.4:20). Paul instructs: “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” (Eph.5:2).