God has ever been interested in the walk of His saints, desiring that His own character might be reflected in them, and that they might in this way be for His pleasure and glory while passing through the world. To Abraham God said, "I am the Almighty God: walk before my face, and be perfect" (Gen. 17:1). At all times Abraham was to be conscious that the eye of God was upon him, taking pleasure in all that was according to His mind and will; and he was to have the assurance in his heart that all the power of the Almighty would secure his protection and care for him. Abraham's life was to be in accord with the revelation that God was pleased to make of Himself to him, and nothing was to be seen in his walk that would be inconsistent with this revelation.
How wonderful it is to find God coming down to walk in this world! In Genesis 3:8 we read of "Jehovah Elohim, walking in the Garden in the cool of the day." Alas! Adam could not walk with God in the Garden of Eden, for he had sinned, and God had to call to him, "Where art thou?" There could not be communion with God, for Adam had alienated himself from God by his sin, and he was afraid when he heard God's voice. Yet there were men who walked with God. It is recorded in Genesis 5:22, 24, "And Enoch walked with God"; its double recording giving us to see God's pleasure in it. Then in Genesis 6:9 it is written, "Noah was a just man, perfect amongst his generations: Noah walked with God." These two pious men lived in evil days, but they walked in separation from the evil, and in communion with God.
Communion with God brings its own peculiar privileges, as we see in these three saints of whom we have read. Enoch was able to give the mind of God in relation to the last days, for he prophesied, saying, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints to execute judgment" upon the ungodly. To Noah, God communicated His intention of destroying the world with a flood and provided the means for his salvation from the judgment of the world. To Abraham, who was called "The Friend of God" (James 2:23), God spoke of the impending destruction of the cities of the plain, and listened patiently to his intercession.
In Leviticus 26:11-12 we read of God's promise to Israel, "I will set my tabernacle among you … and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people"; a promise which is given a Christian application in 2 Corinthians 6:16. Although the promise was conditional on the faithfulness of Israel, yet do we hear Moses tell Israel, "For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that He see no unclean thing in thee" Deut. 23:14). It was of His journeying with Israel that Jehovah spoke to David when He referred to His walking "in a tent and in a tabernacle ": He had walked in patience with them, wherever they had walked (2 Sam. 7:6-7; 1 Chr. 17:6, 8).
Spite of God's condescension to walk in the midst of them, Israel "refused to walk in His law" (Psalm 78:10). Isaiah bewailed Israel's departure from God, and brings home to them that all the evil God had brought upon them was because "they would not walk in His ways, neither were they obedient unto His law" (Isa. 42:24). Jeremiah also speaks of the same things in Jer. 9:13; Jer. 32:23. Yet amidst all the failure of the nation there were the godly, such as David, of whom God could say to Solomon, "If thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness " (I Kings 9:4). No matter how dark the day, God ever had His faithful remnant who walked before Him for His pleasure.
Of the godly man we read in Psalm1, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." There is only One who has answered perfectly to the man of this Psalm, the Blessed Man who came to earth, the Man out of heaven, for the accomplishment of the will of God. But he was not only Man, walking under God's eye for His infinite delight; He was Emmanuel, "God with us" (Matt. 1:23). He was "The Word" become flesh, and "dwelt among us" (John 1:14). What an answer this was to Israel's refusal to walk before God! God had come down in flesh to dwell with men.
What a wonderful pathway was that trodden by the Son of God. Every step was perfect, yielding constant fragrance to His God and Father. For Himself, there was grief and suffering, for He was a Man of sorrows; yet every moment of that holy life was lived for the glory of God and the blessing of men. The path taken by the Lord Jesus is the divinely given pattern for the Christian's walk. The apostle Peter tells us this in his first epistle, where he writes, "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
We have a lovely picture of discipleship, that is "following His steps," in the opening chapter of John's Gospel. John Baptist, "Looking upon Jesus as He walked," exclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God"; and on hearing John speak, two of his disciples detached themselves from John, and attached themselves to Jesus. They "followed Jesus"; then "They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him."
Our walk as Christians is dependent on the relationships into which God has brought us with Himself as His sons and His children. This is clearly shown in Ephesians 4:1 and Ephesians 5:1-2. In the former, we are to "walk worthy of the calling" wherewith we are called. God in grace has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, and has marked us out for sonship, that in the nearest possible place of relationship and intimacy we might enter into the thoughts of His heart and respond for His pleasure. This response is not only to be in worship in spirit and in truth, but in a walk consistent with the dignity that He has conferred upon us. The consciousness of this dignity will be expressed in the "lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering" that found their perfect expression in Jesus.
God has not only given to us the place of sons, but also the relationship and portion of children, and because of this we are to be "followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." In Christ there has been the expression of a love "which passeth knowledge," and it is this divine love that is to come out in the walk of the Christian. We have to confess how little we know of this wonderful love of Christ, and how feeble has been the expression of love in our lives; yet we can rejoice that as children we have the nature of God, the nature of love, and that we can in some little way express it in testimony for His pleasure and glory.
Our walk then as Christians is to be consistent with the relationships into which God in His grace has brought us. We are to be like Himself, manifesting in our every step down here the features of beauty that were manifested for the glory and the pleasure of the Father in His well-beloved Son. Nothing less than this is worthy of the calling wherewith we are called; nothing else can be accepted by God as walking in love as becometh His children.
What came out in the walk of Jesus was entirely new in this world; and when Jesus went back to the Father, for His glory He purposed to continue the manifestation of what had been so delightful to His heart in Jesus. To secure this God has wrought in new creation, bringing in something entirely new for the pleasure of Himself, and of this we read in Ephesians 2:10, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." These are not the works of the flesh, for the very best the flesh can produce can never please God: they are the good works that result from God's own workmanship in new creation in those He has blest in Christ.
As Christians, our walk is not according to the flesh. We are not under law, which could neither give us righteousness to stand before God, nor power to produce anything pleasing to Him. Our standing before God is in Christ, in whom He has so richly blessed us, and He would ever have us in the realisation that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but new creation" (Gal. 6:15). Our walk is to be directed through this world in the light of all that God has brought in for His glory in relation to Christ glorified at His right hand, and this is what is spoken of in verse 16 of Galatians 6; "As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." What a privilege it is for the Christian to walk through this world, in all the ordinary circumstances of life, conscious that he has part in the new creation, and that this is to give colour and tone to the smallest detail of every movement.
When upon earth, the blessed Lord could say. "I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12); and how great was the privilege of the disciples who followed Him until the end. But Jesus is no longer here as the Light of the world! Without Christ, the man of the world walks in darkness, but every true Christian walks in the light of the full revelation of God in the Person of the Son. Although the Light has gone from the world, and will not return until the Son of Righteousness ariseth with healing in His wings; yet the Christian knows that "The True Light already shines" in the Person of Jesus in the Father's presence. It is in this light we walk as Christians.
Every Christian walks in the light, and every one should walk according to the light, even as we read, "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked " (1 John 2:6). This is the divine standard for every professing Christian: nothing lower than this will do for God. The measure of our communion with God will determine the measure of our answer to God's desire for us.
The Christian's walk through this world is " by faith," not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), for our eye rests upon Christ in His glory; "we look not at the things which are seen. but at the things which are not seen." Christ is the object of the eye and heart, and as engaged with Him where He is we take character from Him, and it is this that will enable us to "walk as He walked." With the Lord before us, we shall seek to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing " (Col. 1:10); yea "worthy of God" who has called us to His own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:12).
We are exhorted in Galatians 5:16 to "walk in the Spirit." God's Holy Spirit who indwells the Christian will give divine energy to every step that is taken with the eye on Christ, and will give character to our walk if we are led by Him. It is in this way we shall "walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4); not marked by the features of man after the flesh, but by those of the Risen Christ, whose life we have received.
Soon will come the day when our privilege of walking here like Christ will be over. We shall no longer need the many exhortations of the New Testament that are given to secure in us this blessed result, for we shall be in the enjoyment of the happy prospect, held out to the " few names" in Sardis, " They shall walk with me in white" (Rev. 3:4). The few in Sardis, to whom the Lord held out this bright reward for their fidelity, were walking in this world for Him, apart from the pollutions of a corrupt church, and where the many had a name that they lived, but were dead.
The blessed hope of having our part with Christ in the paradise of God, to walk with Him in communion in that heavenly scene of unspeakable delight and unbroken joys, should encourage our poor hearts to enjoy communion the more with Him now, so as to know His mind and will, that we might be the more like Him, walking for His pleasure in this world, while awaiting the full joy of companionship with Him in the coming glory, and in the rest of the Father's House.