What does it mean to walk with God?

And, oh! how much is involved in these three words, "walked with God!" What separation and self-denial! what holiness and moral purity! what grace and gentleness what humility and tenderness! and yet, what zeal energy? What patience and long-suffering! and yet what faithfulness and uncompromising decision! To walk with God comprehends everything within the range of the divine life, whether active or passive. It involves the knowledge of God's character as He has revealed it. It involves, too, the intelligence of the relationship in which we stand to Him. It is not a mere living by rules and regulations! nor laying down plans of action; nor in resolutions to go hither and thither to do this or that. To walk with God is far more than any or all of these things. Moreover, it will sometimes carry us right athwart the thoughts of men, even of our brethren, if they are not themselves walking with God. It may, sometimes, bring against us the charge of doing too much; at other times, of doing too little; but the faith that enables one to "walk with God," enables him also to attach the proper value thoughts of man.

There seems to be a suggestion in Gen. 5:22 that the dawn of the new life in Enoch synchronised with the birth of his son Methuselah. One can easily understand how this might be. Births and deaths are alike solemn family events, capable of being used by the Spirit of God to direct the heart to things eternal. Accordingly we read: "Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah; and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters" (Gen. 5:21-22).

To "walk with" implies companionship. If you saw me going down the street in conversation with anyone, the suggestion would be that I appreciate his society. God values this in His people more than anything else. It was here that Mary shone in our Lord's day. It was not that He did not prize the hearty service of Martha; He most certainly did; but He prized yet more Mary's delight in sitting at His feet listening to His word. Enoch is the first man of whom it is distinctly recorded that "he pleased God." While others were occupied with making for themselves a name and a place here, building their city and perfecting their crafts, "Enoch walked with God." The presence of God and communion with Him was more to his heart than anything a sin-cursed earth could give. How is it with us? We should know God better than Enoch. The Only-begotten Son having come into the world, and returned into His glory after accomplishing redemption, God is now fully revealed. The Father's name is declared. Our privileges are immensely beyond anything that could be known by Enoch. But are our hearts as responsive as his?

In the New Testament epistles we very frequently find the "walk" of the believer referred to. The word is used in a figurative sense, and appears to cover all the activities of the believer's life. We are to "walk in the Spirit," for instance; that is, all our activities are to be in the energy of the Spirit of God. Now Enoch is the first believer whose walk is referred to, and it is said to have been, "with God." In Genesis 3, the Lord God is said to have been "walking in the Garden," but Adam was then a fallen creature, so there is no word of his walking with God.

Walking with God, the activities of Enoch came under the Divine control. It was Enoch's happy privilege and responsibility to keep in touch with God, so that he might know His thoughts and understand His ways: then God ordered his life and path, for it was His to indicate the direction and to set the pace. God led the way and Enoch was by His side, as intelligently led by Him. His walk was not like that of a dog who so devotedly follows the steps of his master, since he was endowed with a wonderful understanding of God's mind and purpose, as is made plain in the Epistle of Jude.

"And Enoch walked with God." What a world of meaning is compressed into these few words! "Walking" signifies not rest but activity, whether of mind or of body. Enoch's activities of mind — in the way of intercourse and communion — his activities of service also were "with God." When Adam was in an unfallen condition the Lord God had walked with him in the garden, as Genesis 3:8 implies. Enoch, however, was in the midst of a scene of increasing corruption and violence; no longer was it possible for God to walk with him as once He did in an unfallen creation, so Enoch walked with God. God Himself he knew: in God's things he lived and moved and had his being. In body he trod the earth that was no longer a place fit for the walking of the Lord God in the cool of the day: in spirit he moved with God in His own place, and amongst His own things.

He was, however, no recluse or dreamy mystic, for the record is that "Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters." He entered into ordinary human life and knew all the usual trials and vexations as well as the joys of bringing up a family, and families in those days of vigorous longevity were usually large. In spite of that he walked with God, not by fits and starts, but with steady persistency for three centuries! A wonderful walk, the longest walk on record was that! Moreover, while walking with God in spirit, he walked amongst men in bodily presence and well knew their ways and their sins, and bore trenchant witness to God and against them. But this brings us to the second feature that marked him.

That is what is brought before us in the Lord's Supper, the great memorial feast for all His saints: "As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death" — there is Abel's sacrifice. "Till He come" — there is Enoch's translation. And there is nothing, so far as God is concerned, between Abel's sacrifice and Enoch's translation, save His abundant grace to sustain us here. So far as title and fitness for heaven are concerned, the moment a man believes, he is ready to be translated like Enoch. That shows what a perfect work Christ's is. Enoch left behind a bright testimony — that he pleased God. Turning to the Old Testament, the only record we have is that he "walked with God." He lived an ordinary kind of life — begat sons and daughters; but he pleased God by walking with Him. How simple, yet wide-reaching! To walk with God means, to be in accord with His mind and will, to be separate from all that is not according to that. But this necessitates faith. One who has to do with God must believe in His reality — "believe that He is." He must also believe in His goodness — "that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

The third point is how to walk with God, and this again is by faith. Thus in every case it is faith. It owns the creation; it recognizes sacrifice as the only righteous means of being accepted with God — the only means of approaching Him worthily. Faith, again, is the only principle of walk with God; as it is, again, the only means of realizing the judgment of God coming on all around us.

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” There we have the explanation of the whole matter. The chapter in which the statement is found deals entirely with the value and power of faith. Faith is that which is begotten in the soul by the Word of God. It comes by report, and report by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). This is why it is so indispensable to us and so pleasing to God. It was upon the faith of Enoch that the eye of God rested with pleasure, and not upon his failing footsteps. His walking with God was only the outcome and result of the work of God in his soul, his faith was a product of the new nature, which was in him by the mighty operation of the grace of God.

Well now, it is a very blessed thing to find God calling out a man in the midst of a scene like this, surrounded as he was on all hands by that which disowned God; and it is a comforting thing, too, to our hearts, to find the Spirit of God giving us a record, such as you have in those verses in Genesis. With that state of things on every hand, right and left, here is a man that is called forth as a witness to the power of God, so far at least as it was known then, being kept in the midst of all that, and as it says, "walking with God." Beloved friends, it is exactly what you and I are called to in these days; we are called to "walk with God." I will tell you what very much struck me lately. I heard a beloved servant of God say that when he left this country, and went abroad, he came across many of God's people who had gone out from England to settle there, and he asked them how it was they came out there. He got one reply from one, and another from another, but not a word that indicated to him in the least that there was anything like an exercise of soul before God as to His pleasure in the matter. And he said to one something like this — "Well, but I read in scripture that Enoch walked with God,' and I also read in scripture that God says, I will guide thee with mine eye.' What do you know of that?" Well, the only reply he got from several to whom he spoke after that fashion was simply an evasion of this direct appeal to their conscience. Now, beloved friends, all that is very serious; and here is the solemn part of it, these very people were not unintelligent people, they had a very good knowledge of dispensational truth; they understood the scripture, as God has given it to us, outwardly at least; they could tell you the bearing of certain parts of scripture, and so forth; but when it came to this practical question of individually "walking with God," and communion with God, and guidance by God's eye, and this principle of faith, which carries beyond circumstances to that blessed One who is up there in glory, they were completely, as is often said, at sea. I say that is very solemn, and I think that you and I have to be on the lookout. We have to take care, beloved friends, that our outward intelligence is not in advance of our personal communion with God. Be assured of it, the moment it comes to be so, Satan has got materials at hand with which he will make terrible havoc. The outward understanding of the things of God apart from this blessed question of personal walking with God," is a weapon in the devil's hands by which he will sow all sorts of seed, producing terrible results by-and-by, if we are not on our guard.

Well now, let us look at this blessed character, "walking with God." What does it involve? The first thing that must be clear in our souls is, as to whether our relationships with God are understood in our consciences. May I ask you now, Are the relationships which God has been pleased to bring His people into, as Christianity reveals them, are they understood by you in your souls? Is it all right, may I ask, between you and God, as to these relationships? Is there any cloud on these relationships, as between you and God, any unsettled question between you and God in any of these relationships? You perceive it is impossible to "walk with God" if this is not clear. It is no use speaking of "walk with God" if the relationships between me and God which He has been pleased both to form and to reveal, are not clearly entered into, and understood, and enjoyed. Or, supposing there is unjudged sin upon my conscience, how can I "walk with God?" It is folly to talk of it. Look at the bearing of that for a moment. Suppose a person with unjudged sin upon his conscience, takes his or her place in the assembly, that person is a member of the church of God, and walks in the outward expression of it; but look at the trouble that person brings in, and the weakness, and the difficulty. I do not believe we think enough of these things, and I believe you will find that they account to a great extent for the immense amount of feebleness and weakness that one finds amongst God's people. You see, the Lord puts it very clearly before us; He says, "Let a man so examine himself." You could not have any thing more intensely individual than that. He says further, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep," that is, many die. Unjudged sin — sin tolerated in the assembly — was the thing that brought in trouble at Corinth. Of course that was a special instance, but the principle is the same; and if you come to the assembly of God now, if any of those comprising it have not got the joy, and the peace, and the satisfaction of their individual relationship with God, if that relationship is not clear and distinct, and further, if there is any evil unjudged or tolerated, there is sure to be weakness, and difficulty.

It is a wonderful thing to find how few there are who know that we are in relationship with God, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The utmost that many get to as to this question of relationship — it may appear strange to say so, but it is true — the utmost that a large number of Christians get to is, that they are pardoned criminals. That is the extent of it pardoned criminals. I say it is a terribly solemn thing. How can I "walk with God" as His child, if I do not know my relationship? How can I "walk" with Him as a member of the body of Christ, if I do not know that relationship? and if all that pertains to the responsibility of that relationship is not maintained? All this enters into this question of "walking with God." The relationships in which my soul stands to God must be without anything that compromises them on my side. If this is not so, then there is trouble and difficulty.

We do not live in heaven and then we complain of earth. If walking as men on earth, we shall have bitter experience. As it is, we get a quantity of experience for which we have to thank self. Enoch, in a day when there was no scripture, walked with God. 300 years he walked according to the mind of God. Such a walk as that is a little thing as to making a noise in the world. What would be the world's judgment of any one of whom God could say, "That man and I know each other, and he walks with me." It was a very quiet, very unostentatious, walk. It was simply saying at every step, "Whereabouts is God in this step?" Did the people of that day before they put their foot to take a step, ask first, "Is God in it?" No: it appears that Enoch walked alone with God. He had a set of thoughts and ways peculiar to himself, but the same as God's; and he must have known himself as one who could boldly say, "I am walking with God." I would ask as in the presence of God, with the measure of light given to us, can we say, not to man, nor to one another, but to God, "Father, Thou knowest I walk so with Thee, that as the end was to Enoch, so will be my end?" What is true of faith at one time, is true at all times. These things that came out in Enoch are as a touchstone for the people of God from those days to the present time, by which to test themselves. Can you say, "I know God's judgment is coming on that which professes to be His church on earth, but where faith calls me there will I be found in separation with God Himself. The wide world may have gone aside and left me standing alone, but there I am with God?"

Dear brethren, this is an urgent exercise and calls for responsive movement of heart. God wants your company and He wants mine, and blessed be His name the ground has been cleared in righteousness in order that we might be free to walk with a God Who, though seeking our company, yet surrenders not one iota of His glory or holiness.

Enoch walked with God. Enoch did not live in an easy day; we have noted that Jude tells us there was universal ungodliness in Enoch's day. Four is the numeral of universality and in verse 15 of Jude's short epistle the word ungodly appears four times, showing to us the universal ungodliness of the day in which Enoch lived. But, beloved brethren, he walked with God — He walked with God! He had the sense in his affections that God desired his company, and God so worked in those affections that Enoch responded to God's own desires as he walked with God. He didn't walk with God casually; he didn't walk with God intermittently; he didn't walk with God for a few moments; he walked with God for hundreds of years. He didn't go into a monastery to do it, for we read in Gen. 5:22 that "Enoch walked with God … and begat sons and daughters."

In the carrying out of the ordinary responsibilities of life here in the midst of ungodliness, he walked with God and, beloved brethren, it is open to you and to me; in the midst of all the ungodliness that is around us, and as following the responsible pathway that is our lot, it is our inestimable privilege to walk with God.