What does it mean to walk worthy?

Observe as to walk, it is to "walk worthy of the Lord." How seldom we find such a standard of walk contended for. We hear much as to "consistent walk," but such a loose, indefinite character of walk is not found in Scripture, it is "worthy of the Lord," who loved us, and gave Himself for us. This is a different thought, and silences a thousand questions as to going here or there, doing this or that. The whole point is, Is it "worthy of the Lord?"

And then I get, "Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." I get three "worthies" in the epistles. "Worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory," in Thessalonians. "Worthy of the vocation," in Ephesians; practically the same thing, the Holy Ghost having us for His habitation, the habitation of God through the Spirit as a present thing. And here, it is "Worthy of the Lord." My path through this world is to be worthy of Him. My life should be the expression of Christ; my life, ways, everything that Christ expressed.

You will see how the apostle brings that out, "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." Here am I called to-day and to-morrow to walk worthy of the Lord - nothing that I do, say, or think, which should not be worthy of Christ Himself. Here it is all growth: I have got the life. I say to a child, "You go and walk worthy of your family "; but if he has no sense of what his family is, it is no use telling him to walk worthy of it; but if he has the sense of the integrity and standing of his family, then he knows how to walk worthy of it. "In all things behaving ourselves as the ministers of God." You get the word "worthy" in three ways. In Thessalonians, "Walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory." In Ephesians it is the same thing practically: "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." Here, in Colossians, it is, "Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." Did He ever do His own will in anything? No, He did His Father's. Are you content never to do your own will, but to take Christ's will as that which is to be the spring and motive of all you do? Then communion is not interrupted; and it is joy and blessing beyond all human thought. You say, "Am I never to do what I like?" Like! Do you like not to be always with Christ? This detects the workings of the flesh.

(V. 12) Living such a life he could, with spiritual power, exhort, comfort, and charge others that they, too, should walk worthy of God, who has called us to His kingdom and glory. The world esteems it an honour to be associated with those who are high in the kingdoms of this world and its glory; but how far greater the privilege to be associated with those who are called to God's kingdom and glory. Far greater honour to be found with those who are going to sit on thrones judging in the kingdom of Christ, even if down here they were but ignorant and unlearned fishermen, than to be associated with the greatest potentate of this passing world. Poor the Lord's people may be, but, "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love Him?" (James 2:5). God would have us to look beyond this world and all its empty honours, and remember the high dignity that He has conferred upon us in calling us "to His Kingdom and glory," and, as we pass through this scene to walk and behave in consistency with our position as heirs of the coming glory.

Love adapts itself to the wants of those loved. So did the apostle when the saints needed more than the food of babes. And what earthly father ever made good his relation to his own children as Paul to his beloved Thessalonians? Each one and all were objects of unremitting and considerate vigilance. Exhortation, comfort, testimony never failed to stimulate, cheer, and direct in the ways that befit the God that calls unto his own kingdom and glory. There He will have His own with Christ soon and for ever; in that hope, and worthily of it, He would have them now to walk. Such is the aim of a true workman of Christ; and no lovelier picture can anywhere be found than appears in the simple sketch here drawn by the Apostle.

There is thus in the three "walkings worthy," I think, a practical difference though essentially the same. In Thessalonians it is the essential measure and its nature - "Worthy of God?" imitators of God as dear children, "Who has called us to his own kingdom and glory." Then the manifestation of what this is in a divinely perfect expression of it in Christ, "Worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." In Ephesians 4 we have more our own present place in it by the Holy Ghost - "the vocation wherewith we are called" - all our privileges and place being known to us through the Holy Ghost sent down when Christ was glorified - the place we are in in connection with Him glorified now.

We get walking worthy three or four times in Scripture. In Thessalonians we have, "That ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory," 1 Thess. 2:12. "Worthy of God!" think what this is, and that according to the place we are to have with Him in glory, when all is complete. We have another here, "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." The divine Man in this world is our example. Then in Ephesians we have, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called," Eph. 4:1. Walking "worthy of the gospel" in another passage (Phil. 1) is almost the same. In one sense we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in these three passages.

In verses 9 and 10, our walk is connected with our spiritual state; God does not intend that these should be separated. To have simply the knowledge of God's will, in fact, without walking worthy, would be mischief to me, because I should then be without exercise as to being a spiritual saint. But the being "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," is in order "that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work." I must get divine wisdom and spiritual understanding; but then this acquaintance with His will is here connected with the state of soul. There might be something in the state of my soul that hinders the full following of Christ. It is, "that ye might walk worthy of the Lord." How can I do that if I do not know what Christ is?

It is noticeable that in this passage the fulness of wisdom and spiritual understanding is not that we might do great things for the Lord or that we might teach and preach the truth about the Lord, but that, above all other considerations, we might walk worthy of the Lord. How far more important than all our service and activities is our spiritual condition and practical walk in the every-day life. It is, therefore, for these things that the Apostle prays.

How much that we often say and do would never be said or done if we stopped to ask ourselves, "Is this worthy of the Lord?" and "Is this pleasing to the Lord?" We do well then to set out, day by day, with the prayer that we may "walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing".

Then the Apostle desires that we should be "bearing fruit in every good work" (N. Tn.). Fruit in the believer is always the expression of the character of Christ. The man of the world can do many good works; but he cannot bear fruit to God in his good works. The believer alone can express something of Christ in his good works, so that, in the good works that benefit man, there will be fruit for God.