Walk in the Spirit

Galatians 5:25  “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

A person can join themselves to many different groups, organizations, clubs or societies. For a few examples a child might become a member of some kind of youth group, or an athlete might join a sports team. Someone might join the military, a cook might join a restaurant. Whichever it is that a person decides to join, the expectation is that they do the things that is required by all of the other members. A cook prepares the food for the restaurant patrons because that is their job– they aren’t there to fix the electrical problems. A soldier isn’t in the military to bag groceries– they are there to train and fight.

What I am trying to explain is that whatever career life choice that someone makes, they need to do the things which are a part of that job, and the life of a Christian is no different.

So what are the things that a Christian needs to do? How does a Christian live? As we read in the topic verse at the top of the page, if we live in the Spirit, we need to walk in the Spirit. But what does that mean?

To “walk” in something means to pursue a course of action or way of life, or to conduct oneself in a certain manner.

If you are going to say that you are a Christian, then you need to walk in the manner that Christ would walk. You need to live as Christ taught. When Jesus told His disciples, Follow me, they left what they were doing. As fisherman by occupation, that was their livelihood, but they left it all at His words and followed Him. Instead of fishing for actual fish, Jesus used them to “fish” for the souls of men. Their job was to try to convert sinners from the errors of their sins, and to turn to the truth found in Jesus.

Ephesians 4:1  “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,”

The vocation which Paul speaks of is not a worldly occupation, such as a carpenter or a doctor, but has to deal with the Spiritual occupations in our faith like evangelists, pastors, teachers, and apostles (Ephesians 4:11). Not everyone has the same gifts of abilities, and not everyone has the same role in the church. But whatever the role that God has put you in, we need to walk worthy of it.

Colossians 2:6-7  “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

To understand what we need to do, and how we can know that we are walking in the Spirit, we just need to search God’s Word. Everything that we need to know is found in the pages of the Bible, in the teachings of Christ and His Spirit-filled apostles. 

So what role have you been placed in? What is the will of God for you, and are you doing it? The Lord’s army needs obedient soldiers, soldiers who know how to listen to instruction. Is this you?

In Christ,

Andrew