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SO THAT YOU MAY WALK:
peripatesai (AAN):
(Col
2:6
4:5
Mic 4:5
Ro 4:12
6:4
Eph 4:1
5:2,15
Php 1:27
1Th 2:12 )
Spurgeon
preaching on Paul's prayer calls us to observe...
The Practical Result Of Spiritual
Knowledge. Paul prays for his friends “that ye might be filled with
the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.”
See, see the drift of his prayer-
“that ye may walk.” Not that ye might talk, not that ye might sit
down and meditate, and enjoy yourselves, but “that ye might walk.”
He aims at practical results.
He desires that the saints may be
instructed so that they may walk according to the best model. By
walking worthy of the Lord Jesus we do not understand in any sense
that he expected them to possess such worthiness as to deserve to walk
with the Lord; but he would have them live in a manner that should be
in accordance with their communion with Christ. You would not have a
man walk with Christ through the streets to-day clothed in motley
garments, or loathsome with filth: would you? No, if a man be a leper,
Christ will heal him before he will walk with him. Let not a disciple
walk so as to bring disgrace upon his Lord!
When you walk with a king, you
should be yourself royal in gait; when you commune with a prince you
should not act the clown. Dear friends, may you know so much of Jesus
that your lives shall become Christ-like, fit to be put side by side
with the character of Jesus, worthy of your perfect Lord.
This is a high standard, is it not?
It is always better to have a high standard than a low one, for you
will never go beyond that which you set up as your model. If you get a
low standard you will fall below even that. It is an old proverb,
“He that aims at the moon will
shoot higher than he that aims at a bush.”
It is well to have no lower
standard than the desire to live over again the life of the Lord
Jesus-a life of tenderness, a life of self-sacrifice, a life of
generosity, a life of love, a life of honesty, a life of holy service,
a life of close communion with God. Mix all virtues in due proportion,
and that is the life of Jesus towards which you must press forward
with all your heart (See
the full sermon - Spiritual Knowledge: It's Practical Results)
Walk
(4043)
(peripateo from peri = about, around + pateo
= walk, tread) means literally to walk around, to go here and there in
walking, to tread all around. The 39 uses in the Gospels
always refer to literal, physical walking. Seven of the 8 uses in Acts
are also in the literal sense (except Acts 21:21). (See
Spurgeon's comments on what it means to walk)
Paul uses peripateo only in
the metaphorical sense (32 times in his Epistles) meaning to conduct
one's life, to order one's behavior, to behave, to make one's
way, to make due use of opportunities, to live or pass one’s life
(with a connotation of spending some time in a place).
Some lexicons state that Paul used
peripateo in the Hebraic sense of living, regulating one's life or
conducting one's self.
NIDNTT writes that...
peripateo (Aristophanes
onwards) is found in classic Greek only with the literal meaning of
strolling, stopping, (e.g. while one walks here and there in the
market, Dem., Orationes 54, 7); the figurative meaning of walking,
with reference to conduct, is lacking. Only in Philodemus (1st cent.
B.C.) does one find the meaning to live (De Libertate 23, 3)... In the
LXX peripateo is found in only 33 passages, of which more than half
come from Wisdom literature... Only occasionally does peripateo
denote in the figurative sense way of life (2 Ki. 20:3; Eccl. 11:9). (Brown,
Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986.
Zondervan)
How the Colossians (and saints
today) "walked" was obviously important to Paul as he
used
peripateo in each chapter of Colossians -- In chapter 2 Paul charged
the Colossians -
As you therefore have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him (regulate your lives and
conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.)
(see note
Colossians 2:6)
To walk in Christ
is to live a life patterned after His and empowered by His Spirit.
In Colossians 3
Paul described how they walked before Christ transformed their heart and
mind --
In (the sphere of immorality, etc,
all things that on account of the wrath of God will come) you also once
walked, when you were living in them. (see note
Colossians 3:7)
In other words
before they were saved, the Colossians ordered their behavior and
regulated their lives within the sphere of trespasses and sins. Not a
ray of light from God, nothing of God's righteousness or goodness, and
not a single good thing in the sight of God penetrated that circle of conduct.
All their previous thoughts, words, and deeds were ensphered in an
atmosphere of sin. Not one of their acts ever got outside the circle of
sin -- their previous manner of walking is a description of what is
often termed total depravity.
In Colossians 4, in
Paul's last use of peripateo in this epistle, he charges the saints to
Conduct
(present
imperative =
command to make this their lifestyle) yourselves with wisdom
(living prudently and with discretion) toward outsiders
(non-Christians),
making the most
of the opportunity (continually
seizing, redeeming or buying up the opportunity). (see note
Colossians 4:5)
(Comment: Weymouth catches the thought well paraphrasing it "Behave
wisely in relation to the outside world.")
Conduct
refers to our behavior in our daily life, and it is a conduct that the
unsaved are watching with critical eyes, so there must be nothing in our
daily walk that jeopardizes our witness.
Peripateo is found
4 times in Colossians
and 95 times in the NT
(7x
Mt;9x
Mk;5x
Lu;15x
Jn;7x
Acts;4x
Ro;2x
1Co;5x
2Co;1x
Gal;7x
Eph;2x
Phil;l;3x
1Th;2x 2Th;1x
Heb;1x 1Pe;4x
1Jn;2x
2Jn;2x
3Jn;5x
Rev).
There are about 18 uses in the
non-apocryphal
Septuagint (LXX)
(Ge 3:8, 10; Ex
21:19; Judg 21:24; 1 Sam 17:39; 2 Sam 11:2; 2 Ki 20:3; Esther 2:11;
Job 9:8; 20:25; 38:16; Ps 12:8; 104:3; 115:7; 135:17; Prov 6:22, 28;
8:20; 23:31; Eccl 4:15; 11:9; Isa 8:7; 59:9; Da 3:25; 4:29, 33) Here
are two of the uncommon figurative uses of peripateo in the LXX...
2 Kings 20:3 "Remember now,
O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked (Lxx = peripateo)
before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is
good in Thy sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice,
young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant
during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your
heart (Lxx = "walk
[peripateo in
present imperative]
in the ways of thy heart blameless") and the desires of your eyes. Yet
know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.
In the KJV peripateo
is translated walk in all but three places in the NT uses. In
these it is rendered go about (Mark 12:38), walk about
(see note
1 Peter 5:8),
and be occupied (see note
Hebrews 13:9).
In the NAS peripateo
is translated by a number of words: behave(2), conduct ourselves
(1), conduct yourselves (1), leading a life(1), leads a life (1),
prowls about(1), walk(50), walk about(1), walk around(2), walked(7),
walking(21), walking about(1),walks(5), were thus occupied (1).
In the figurative
sense, peripateo refers to one's manner of life, to one's
habitual way or bent of life, to one's life-style. For example, Luke
describes Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, as
being
righteous in the sight of God,
walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the
Lord (Luke
1:6).
In contrast, Paul
counseled the Ephesian believers to
walk no longer just as the
Gentiles (in context a description of all the unsaved) also walk,
in the futility of their mind” (See note
Ephesians 4:17).
In Romans Paul
explains how it is possible to no long walk as the Gentiles writing
(speaking of our spiritual baptism into Christ)
we have been buried with Him through
baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk (peripateo
- Paul's first use in the NT canon) in newness (a brand new kind of life
never possible before) of life. (See note
Romans 6:4)
(God condemned sin in the flesh of
His Son) in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in
us, who do not walk (peripateo) according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. (See note
Romans 8:4)
Let us behave (peripateo)
properly (fitting or becoming in a manner of behavior) as in the day,
not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and
sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. (See note
Romans 13:13)
For if because of food your brother
is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not
destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. (See note
Romans 14:15)
Some uses of
peripateo in Corinthians...
For (explaining why they still need
milk and cannot take solid food) you (babes in Christ) are still
fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not
fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? (1Cor 3:3)
for we walk by faith, not by
sight (2 Cor 5:7)
For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (2 Cor 10:3)
I urged Titus to go, and sent the
brother with him. Titus did not take any advantage of you, did he? Did
we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit and walk in
the same steps? (2 Cor 12:18)
Paul
charges believers to...
walk
(present
imperative =
command to
make this one's lifestyle) by the
Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Gal 5:16)
Paul's
classic description of unbelievers in Ephesians...
And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins, 2 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. (See notes
Ephesians 2:1;
2:2)
Paul's
contrasting description of believers...
For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them. (See note
Ephesians 2:10)
After describing
the wealth (in Christ Jesus, in the heavenly places) of believers in the
first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul proceeds to exhort us to
walk accordingly (note the concentration of peripateo in
the second half of Ephesians)...
I, therefore, the prisoner of the
Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with
which you have been called, (See note
Ephesians 4:1)
and walk in love, just as Christ also
loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to
God as a fragrant aroma. (See note
Ephesians 5:2)
for you were formerly darkness, but
now you are light in the Lord;
walk
(present
imperative =
command to
make this one's lifestyle) as
children of light (See note
Ephesians 5:8)
Therefore be careful how you walk,
not as unwise men, but as wise, 16 making the most of (redeeming, buying
up every second) your time, because the days are evil. (See note
Ephesians 5:15;
Ephesians 5:16)
Here are a few of
Paul's uses of peripateo in other epistles...
Brethren,
join
(present
imperative =
command to
make this one's lifestyle) in
following my example, and
observe
(present
imperative =
command to
make this one's lifestyle pay
attention to, implying mental concentration regarding) those who walk
according to the pattern you have in us. (See note
Philippians 3:17)
18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, (See note
Philippians 3:18)
Finally then, brethren, 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. (See note
1Thessalonians 4:1)
John uses peripateo in
the figurative sense affirming
that,
if we walk in the light as
[God] Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and
the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin (1Jn
1:7)
J Vernon McGee
adds the practical comment that
Walking is not a balloon ascension. A
great many people think the Christian life is some great, overwhelming
experience and you take off like a rocket going out into space. That’s
not where you live the Christian life. Rather, it is in your home, in
your office, in the schoolroom, on the street. The way you get around in
this life is to walk. You are to walk in Christ. God grant that you and
I might be joined to Him in our daily walk. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Ray Stedman
comments on walk writing
I like that figure because a walk, of
course, merely consists of two simple steps, repeated over and over
again. It is not a complicated thing. In the same way, the Christian
life is a matter of taking two steps, one step after another. Then you
are beginning to walk. Those two steps follow in this passage. Paul
describes them as, "Put off the old man" (see
Col 3:5-10) and "put on the new." (see
specific attitudes and actions in
Col 3:12-4:6) Then repeat them. That is
all. Keep walking through every day like that. That is how Scripture
exhorts us to live." (Click
for Dr Stedman's message on
True Human Potential)
In several letters
Paul commanded and encouraged the saints to walk worthy but here he
prays to God that they would be enabled to walk worthy. As
already noted, the purpose of all knowledge is conduct. A
Christian’s walk is a Christian’s life. Our walk and our
talk should be twins going along on the same trail. Christian
service is result of Christ devotion. The work that we do is the outflow
of the life that we live abiding in Christ (Jn
15:1-8). God must make the worker before He can do the work.
Warren Wiersbe reminds us that
Practical obedience means pleasing
God, serving Him, and getting to know Him better. Any doctrine that
isolates the believer from the needs of the world around him is not
spiritual doctrine.
Evangelist D.
L. Moody often said,
Every Bible should be bound in
shoe-leather.
IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE
LORD: axios tou kuriou:
In a manner worthy
(516)
(axios)
means weighing as much as, of like value, worth as much. It means
having the weight of another thing and so being of like value or worth
as much. In other words axios has the root meaning of balancing the
scales—what is on one side of the scale should be equal in weight to
what is on the other side. By extension, axios came to be applied
to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. A person
worthy of his pay was one whose day’s work corresponded to his day’s
wages.
Axios was
used to describe the Roman emperor when he marched in a triumphal
procession. He was "worthy". John tells us however that the One Who is
truly "worthy" is the Lamb, recording that he heard all creation rightly
declare
Worthy (axios) is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and might and honor
and glory and blessing.
(see note
Revelation 5:12)
The Lamb slain (the resurrected and glorified Lord
Jesus Christ) is the only One Who is
worthy to open the
book and to
break its seals? (see note
Revelation 5:2)
The Redeemer Alone had the right to redeem His creation,
the culmination of which was set in motion by His breaking of the seven
sealed scroll, which many
futuristic commentators identify as the
"title deed to the earth" (Click
discussion).
Paul uses
urging the Philippians saints to
conduct yourselves in a manner
worthy of the gospel of Christ (see note
Philippians 1:27).
He is exhorting
them to live their lives like what they are citizens of heaven, so their
conduct in a sense "weighs as much as" (axios) the gospel they
preach and the faith they profess. In other words, they are to see to it
that they practice what they preach, that their experience measures up
to their new standing as children of the King. We do not behave (or
conduct ourselves in a certain way) in order to go to heaven, as though
we could be saved by our good works, but we conduct ourselves because
our names are already written in heaven, and our citizenship is in
heaven.
In Ephesians marks
a transition from doctrine to duty writing...
I, therefore, the prisoner of the
Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with
which you have been called (See notes
Ephesians 4:1)
A good picture of
axios is a set of scales that balance so that the same weight is
on one side as on the other side.
MY WALK CHRIST
IN ME
If Jesus is in me
then enabled by the Spirit and depending continually on His grace, I
need to live a lifestyle that will "Measure up" to Who is in me and
which gives a proper opinion to the lost and perishing world (see
note
Matthew 5:16).
A worthy walk
brings "forth fruit in keeping (axios) with repentance." (Mt
3:8) Keep in mind that the root idea of axios is
having equal weight or worth, and therefore of being appropriate. True
repentance should have correspondingly genuine works, demonstrated in
both attitudes and actions. Those who claim to know Christ, who claim to
be born again, will demonstrate a new way of living that corresponds to
("has a weight that equates to" or is worthy of) the new birth.
Jesus said
He who loves father or mother more
than Me is not worthy of Me (Mt
10:37-39)
Saints are to walk
in a manner
worthy
of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and
gentleness, with patience,
showing
forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (see notes
Ephesians 4:1;
4:2;
4:3)
The believer who
walks in a manner worthy of the calling with which he has been
called is one whose daily living corresponds to his high position as a
child of God and fellow heir with Jesus Christ. His practical living
matches his spiritual position. As an aside, don't be surprised that
when we are walking worthy of our calling, in humility rather than
pride, in unity rather than divisiveness, in the new self rather than
the old, in love rather than lust, in light rather than darkness, in
wisdom rather than foolishness, in the fullness of the Spirit rather
than the drunkenness of wine, and in mutual submission rather than
self–serving independence, then we can be absolutely certain we will
have opposition and conflict.
The Bible defines a
worthy walk as consisting of the
following
A worthy walk is a walk in...
the Holy Spirit (see note
Ro 8:4;
Gal. 5:16,
25)
humility (see note
Ephesians 4:2)
purity (see note
Ro 13:13;
Ephesians 5:3)
contentment (1
Cor. 7:17)
faith (2
Cor 5:7)
righteousness (see note
Ephesians 2:10)
unity (see note
Ephesians 4:3;
Phil 1:27 note)
gentleness (see note
Ephesians 4:2)
patience (see note
Colossians 1:11)
love (see note
Ephesians 5:2)
joy (see note
Colossians 1:11)
thankfulness (see note
Colossians 1:12)
light (see note
Ephesians 5:8;
5:9)
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