Author: Gary Witcher

Christian Walk: Worthy of God

     "You are witnesses, and so is God," Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12, "how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory."
     How often does our way of life make God proud?  How often does it make Him ashamed?  What is required in order to walk in a manner worthy of God?
     "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?" the Pharisees demand of Jesus in Mark 7:5.
     "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites," Jesus responds in verses 6-8, "as it is written, 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
     "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."
     "You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition," the Lord sums up in verse 9.
     So walking in a manner worthy of God means to not walk according to the traditions of men.
     "Beware of the scribes," Jesus warns in Luke 20:46-47, "who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues, and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses, and for appearance's sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation."
     In this passage Jesus gives us a perfect example of someone who insists on walking according to traditions and not in a manner worthy of God.
     The second thing that we must avoid if we want to walk in a manner worthy of God is fleshly desire.  As humans we must live in the flesh, but as Christians we cannot live according to the flesh.  1 John 2:16 defines sin as "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life."
     According to Romans 8:4, Christians "do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
     "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh," verse five explains, "but those who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
     "For the mind set on the flesh is death," the passage continues in verses 6-8, "but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
     So walking according to the flesh means setting our minds on the things of the flesh.  What controls most of your thoughts?
     "For you are still fleshly," Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 3:3.  "For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?"
     Walking according to the flesh means to be jealous and divisive.
     "I ask that when I am present I may not be bold with confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh," Paul states in 2 Corinthians 9:2-3.  "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses."
     Walking according to the flesh means relying on the power of the world.
     "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?" James 4:1 asks.  "Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?"
     James goes on to discuss the conflict between following the world and following God.
     "You adulteresses," James notes in verse four, "do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
     Walking according to the world means friendship with worldly desires and pleasures.
     In 1 Peter 4:1-5 we find a list of things that are involved in walking according to the flesh.  In fact, this is more than a "walk."  The word that is used by Peter is "run."
     Included in the list are sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.
     2 Peter 2:10 mentions "those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority."
     "Daring, self willed," this passage says, "they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties."
     2 Peter 3:3-10 tells of people who mock God because they want to follow their own lusts.
     Perhaps the strongest condemnation of this kind of person is found in the short book of Jude.
     "These are grumblers," verse 16 describes, "finding fault, following after their own lusts, they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage."

     Walking in a manner worthy of God requires not walking according to traditions of men and not walking according to the flesh.  It also means not walking according to the will of the devil.
     "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins," Paul writes in Ephesians 2:1-3, "in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
     "Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."
     If we want to walk in a manner worthy of God, we must decide to not walk after the futile things of the world.
     "This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord," Paul instructs in Ephesians 4:17-20, "that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.  But you did not learn Christ in this way."
     Not walking in a manner worthy of God promises death, as we learn from Romans 6:21-23.  So, as Christians, we must put to death in our lives those things that threaten to kill us spiritually.
     "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry," Paul commands in Colossians 3:5-7.
     "For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them."
     Most adults are able to see the faulty reasoning when a young person wants to do something because "everyone else is doing it."  Why, then, do so many adults use the same excuse to justify their own practices?
     "And in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways," Acts 14:16 notes.  But, as the passage points out, this doesn't mean that what everyone was doing was right.  If we base our religious and moral decisions on what everyone else is doing, we will not be walking in a manner worthy of God.
     Walking in a manner worthy of God requires that we walk not according to traditions of men, not according to the flesh, not according to the prince of this world, not in futility of mind, not in death and not in the ways of everyone else.
     What it DOES require is that we walk in a way that will please God.
     "Finally then, brethren," Paul admonishes in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more."
     Walking in a manner worthy of God means that we must walk according to the pattern we find in the Bible.
     It means walking according to the truth that will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."