THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN WALK
(All Scripture Quotations Are From The American Standard Version Unless Otherwise Noted)
A few months ago we did a study on the Christian walk as set out in Galatians 5:16-24. In the study we covered the negative aspects of that walk. We looked at things a Christian must turn his back on in order to continue to walk in the light. In this study I want to look at the positive side of that walk. In particular, some things which must be characteristic of the Christian’s life. The starting text will be Ephesians 4:1-2 where the apostle Paul states "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, 2with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
So Paul begins Verse1 by saying "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you." The word "therefore" connects Chapter 4 with the previous chapters. In those Chapters we find the greatness of the church revealed. We find :
So in light of this, Paul exhorts the Ephesian brethren to walk worthily of this calling. But what exactly does it mean to "walk worthy of the calling?" By the word "walk" he means the manner in which we conduct our lives. It suggests an unwearied approach to a goal. The word "worthy" is derived from a word meaning "having weight, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much, befitting." The walk is to be congruous with the calling. It must be just as serious, deliberate, dedicated, truthful, and holy as the calling. I think that the whole idea is best summed up by the apostle John as "walking in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7).
That which we are to walk worthy of is the "the calling wherewith you were called". In religious circles, we hear quite a bit about God calling someone. The fact of the matter is that God does indeed call people. In fact, those who respond to this call are referred to as the "called." But this call is not some mysterious thing. It is not some warm better felt than told experience. God calls men through the gospel. This is stated in 2 Thessalonians 2:14 where inspiration states: "Whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." So to walk worthy of the calling is to walk worthy of the gospel. In fact, we see this same exhortation given to the Philippians brethren. In Philippians 1:7, it is said, "only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you be absent I may hear of your state, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel." Christians are to walk worthy of the calling, worthy of the gospel. This involves all that is entailed in the gospel:
Walking the walk, requires that we be very mindful of all these things. But note, Paul says that the walk is to be accompanied by a particular character and disposition. That disposition is one characterized by ".. all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering."
Without these things one simply cannot be pleasing to Almighty God. The first characteristic is that of lowliness. This refers to humility, having a humble opinion of oneself. A sense of one’s moral littleness when compared to Holy God. Lowliness was not considered by the Greek and Roman world as a virtue. To regard oneself as great was their idea of virtue. You can perhaps see some of that in the problems that were being experienced in Corinth. The Christians there were not acting as humble individuals. They were claiming to be better than others, even holding themselves up to be better than Paul and passing judgment on His ability to preach the gospel. In doing so, they certainly were not imitators of Christ, but were in fact transgressors of the law of Christ.
If we are to walk humbly, we must pattern our lives after the perfect example of humility, Christ Jesus. His humility was not a result of moral littleness, because he was divine and sinless. His humility was the result of taking on human form. Living under the law of Moses and ultimately sacrificing himself as an atonement for the sins of the world. This is what Paul refers to in Philippians 2:5-9 where we are told ""Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who existing in the form of God count not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross." The key to humility is in the realization of what our true status is. We need to understand what we were and what we are now. That is vividly set forth in Ephesians 2:14. There God tells us, "And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh, and of them mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest."
Christians are people who are former outlaws and rebels against God. Who were condemned to an eternity in Hell, but have been pardoned though obedience to the gospel. Now if that is not humbling, I don’t know what is. Christians are not saved of our own goodness, but by partaking of God’s grace that he gives to those who obey Him. Lowliness is something that we all need, especially in regard to our brothers and sisters in Christ (Philippians 2:3). My wants and my needs must come last place, and our neighbors first. But we also need to be humble with the world. The world needs to see that Christians put others first. We need to find ways to serve the needs of others, such as food and clothing. We need to give of our means to meet those needs. But even greater and more important than the physical needs of others, is the spiritual. Salvation is the great need of the world. Often times though, our fear or even apathy prevents us from preaching thhe gospel. When this happens we are in reality putting our needs first. It says that I am going to do what is best for me; I want make myself feel comfortable, even at the expense of another’s salvation. Friends, this is the very opposite of lowliness. So every action that we take, be it in word or deed, must be accompanied by lowliness.
The second characteristic of the worthy walk is that of meekness. Meekness is often a misunderstood word. Many have the idea that it is a sort of wimpy type disposition. An attitude that says I am not going to defend anyone or anything at all. Well, if that is the case then Jesus Christ was a wimp, because he was said to be meek. Not only that, but Moses was a wimp because he was meek (Numbers 12:3). Paul would have to be included in that category as well, because Paul was meek. But the Son of God was described as the lion of Judah, and Moses withstood Pharaoh and the rebellion of the children of Israel. Paul fought with the false teachers and boldly proclaimed the gospel. The idea that many have of meekness is not correct. Vincent quotes Aristotle in his writing as giving the meaning of the Greek word as "the mean between stubborn anger and that negativeness of character which is incapable of even righteous indignation." To word it another way is to say that a meek person is one who is not a hothead or a person who believes in peace at any price. The lexicons give the meaning of meekness as mildness, gentleness or considerateness. That characteristic really grows out of our lowliness. Christ the perfect and sinless one is great, but we are so little compared to him. Our God is infinite, perfect, eternal, completely righteous, and yet we are not. By realizing that we were dead and made alive and righteous by a Holy God, meekness will arise in our lives.
To whom are we to be meek? We must be meek in our relationship to God. We need to accept His will and dealings with us without murmuring and quarrels. James tells us this in James 1:20-21 "Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save you souls." But sometimes we feel it is hard to follow God’s Word. It is not always financially or socially beneficial to us. It requires us to do some things we might not feel comfortable doing, or it may require us to give some things up. Too many times we would rather argue about it with God rather than simply obey and enjoy the blessings of obedience and His just dealings. If we are to be acceptable to God, we must be humble, we must be meek towards him. Our relationship with our fellow man must be characterized by meekness. There must be a mild, kind and forgiving spirit that we have toward one another. This is in opposition to the disposition of being easy to offend, or desiring vengeance, or insisting upon my rights and privileges. We need to be meek when a brother or sister wrongs us. We need to exhibit an understanding and loving attitude. How many problems that would solve! So many times the wrong may have been unintentional or done through thoughtlessness, then when the wrong is avenged, a brother or sister have been separated, often times forever. But whatever the reason for the wrong, we need to have a disposition of meekness. This means that whatever the situation, we must react on the level of Christian love. This may mean that in some instances we accept the suffering and continue on.
In 1 Corinthians 6 we find that brethren were taking one another to court. What a great reproach that was. Paul gives them some pretty tough instruction. They were to accept wrong rather than bring reproach on the church. Listen to Paul and make application: 1 Corinthians 6:5-8 "5I say this to move you to shame. What, cannot there be found among you one wise man who shall be able to decide between his brethren, 6but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded? 8Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. If we did not have attitudes that were so insistent on putting our personal needs first, I doubt there would be very many problems in congregations these days. To be meek means that when a brother stumbles we don’t say something like. "I can’t believe you did something that stupid and foolish." What does God say our attitude should be? "Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted." (Galatians 6:1). Now when someone stumbles in a sin, they need to be restored. Meekness as I said is not a wimpy disposition, but the spiritual brother must restore the one overtaken in an attitude that recognizes that he is human and that he has sinned before. He himself might be overtaken by the same sin, certainly a cause for meekness. We need to be humble with those in religious error.
Too many times Christians can come across as arrogant or haughty. What must be remembered is that it is not us that is right, but it is God’s Word that is right. There have been times that some brotherhood papers seemed anxious to write someone up in an almost vindictive and hateful attitude. Make no mistake, false doctrine (and those who propagate it) must be identified and shown to be false in the light of Biblical Truth, but it must be done in an attitude of meekness in order to restore the erring.
Finally, our walk must be accompanied by longsuffering. Longsuffering is a characteristic which suggest to us patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, a slowness in avenging wrongs. This characteristic results in what Paul describes next as "forbearing one another in love." That is the main point Paul is making. We must be patient and steadfast with our brethren, and it must be done in love. Forbearance rises out of a meek disposition. After all, if we realize how small we really are compared to God, I don’t believe we will be quite to ready to strike out at others. When people offend us or sin against us, we are going to understand that they are fallible people like us. If we esteem others better than ourselves, give others the benefit of the doubt, the personal things that so many times cause such great disruptions in the unity of a congregation will simply not happen. The realm of longsuffering is to be in love, Godly love. Surely love is one of the great keys to longsuffering. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:7 that love suffers long. By learning of God’s love toward us, we will get a correct picture of longsuffering because longsuffering is one aspect of that love. Consider the following verses regarding this:
Romans 2:4 " Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"
1 Timothy 1:15 "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: 16howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an ensample of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life."
2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
God’s longsuffering is salvation to us; it works with sinful man to bring him to redemption. It is easy to see the longsuffering of Jesus Christ, as he endured insults, mockery, rejection, traps set by the Pharisees, and even torture. Yet patiently he bore it all to reconcile man to God. So with that in mind, how should we react to others when they persecute and mock us? Or when a brother offends us? If we are followers of Jesus Christ, we will do exactly as he did.
Our concern must first be salvation of ourselves and all of those whom we know. We must live the gospel and take the gospel to a world that is lost. We must be clothed with lowliness, meekness and longsuffering. With all these things in mind, ask yourself have I obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ? If the answers is no, then you are dead to God and alive to sin. You need to believe in Christ (John 3:16) and subscribe to his gospel (Mark 16:16). Then you must repent of your sins (Luke 13:3), confess the name of Christ (Romans 10:10), and then be buried with him in the watery grave of baptism unto the remission of your sin (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:1-4, 1 Peter 3:21). Then live your life a faithful child of God (Revelation 2:10) and heaven will be your home. Won’t you obey the gospel now?