Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
We have sought to make it clear that Christian experience does not begin with walking, but with sitting. Every time we reverse the divine order, the result is disaster. The Lord Jesus has done everything for us, and our need now is to rest confidently in Him. He is seated on the throne, so we are carried through in His strength. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that all true spiritual experience begins from rest.
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But it does not end there. Though the Christian life begins with sitting, sitting is always followed by walking. When once we have been well and truly seated and have found our strength in sitting down, then we do in fact begin to walk. Sitting describes our position with Christ in the heavenlies.
Walking is the practical outworking of that heavenly position here on earth. As a heavenly people, we are required to bear the stamp of that heavenliness upon us in our earthly conduct, and this raises new problems.
What then, we must now ask, has Ephesians 4:1-2 to say to us about walking? We shall find that
the epistle urges upon us two things. We will look now at the first of them. “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness . . .”
“This I say . . . that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind” . . . But . . . “that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:17, 23).
“Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2).
“Walk as children of light, . . . proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord ” (Ephesians 5:8–10).
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Eight times in Ephesians the word “walk” is used. It means literally “to walk around” and is used here figuratively by Paul to mean “to comport oneself; to order one’s behavior.” It brings immediately before us the subject of Christian conduct, and the second section of the letter is largely taken up with this.
But we saw earlier that the body of Christ, the fellowship of Christian believers, is another great theme of Ephesians. Now, here in chapter 4, it is in view of such fellowship that we find this matter of a holy walk arises. Paul proceeds, in the light of our heavenly calling, to challenge us upon the whole field of our relationships, both domestic and public, addressing himself to neighbors, to husbands and wives, to parents and children, employers and employed, all in a most realistic way.
Let us be clear that the body of Christ is not something remote and unreal, to be expressed only in heavenly terms. It is very present and practical, finding the real test of our conduct in our relations with others. For while it is true we are a heavenly people, it is no use just to talk of a distant heaven. Unless we bring heavenliness into our dwellings and offices, our shops and kitchens, and practice it there, it will be without meaning.
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May I suggest this, dear friends, that those who are parents and those who are children look through the New Testament to see what parents should be and children should be? We may be surprised, for I fear many of us who say we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ display a very questionable walk in our homes. And husbands too, and wives—there are quite a number of passages for them.
Read Ephesians 5 and then turn to First Corinthians 7. It would do every husband and every wife good to read the latter chapter carefully to discover what a real married life—a spiritual one before God and not just in theory—demands. You dare not theorize about a thing that is so practical.
Look now, in the field of Christian relationships, how forthright are the commands of God in the section here before us. “Walk . . . with longsuffering, forbearing one another.” “Putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor.” “Be ye angry, and sin not.” “Steal no more.” “Let all bitterness . . . be put away from you.” “Be ye kind . . .forgiving each other.” “Subjecting yourselves to one another.” “Provoke not.” “Be obedient.” “Forbear threatening” (see Eph. 4–6). Nothing could be more realistic than this list of imperatives.
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Let me remind you that the Lord Jesus Himself begins His teaching on this very note. Notice carefully the wording of this passage from His Sermon on the Mount:
"Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:38–48)
By Watchman Nee
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William James Roop
