Walk As Jesus Walked

Did Jesus have long or short strides?  Did He limp?  Did He skip?  Did Jesus have a swagger?  If you’ve asked yourself these questions after you read, “Whoever claims to live in Him, must walk as Jesus did” (I John 2:6), you’re asking the wrong questions.  But not only that, you are misunderstanding scripture and your view of God is off the mark.  However, I suspect that most, if not all of us do not read this text in this manner and I suspect that most people who read this text understand the words in I John to mean, “…must live as Jesus did.”

Most of us are not Greek or Biblical Scholars, but we naturally “interpret” the words of Scripture.  What we may not realize is that we are following what some scholars say are the first three rules of Biblical interpretation: Context, context, and context.

I remember in one class, Junhao challenged my statement of, “God is a Person without a body.”  He then pointed to Genesis 3:8 which says that Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden.  Junhao said that if God was walking, He must have had a body.  I was delighted that he had engaged me in conversation and I asked him, “Does God have wings” showing him Psalms 36.7.  Then I asked, “Do you know any person who has wings” since people were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:7).

I then pulled out a globe of the world and held it up before the class.  While I was looking at North America, the class was looking at Asia.  As we all looked at the globe, not one of us could see the other side.  We then turned to I Peter 3:12, which says that God sees all the godly people.  We all agreed that there were godly people in China as well as the United States.  I then asked, “What does God’s face look like” since He sees both sides of the globe at the same time.  As the class pondered this, Robin spoke to the class about metaphors.

The Bible is not only filled with metaphors, but it uses other many other literary devices like allusions, symbolism, shadows, comparisons, and contrasts.  Interestingly, the Bible does not take the time to explain or inform us about which literary device it is using; this is why looking at its context is so important.

Consequently, sometimes the word, “walk” in scripture does mean putting one foot in front of the other to get to a destination.  Sometimes it means a relationship (Genesis 5:24) and still other times it means a behavior or a lifestyle—good or bad (Ephesians 4:17).  The Bible was given to us so that we can walk with God.  But not only that, but scripture was given to us so that we can see God in all of life.  It is shocking to me that the people in Jesus’ day could not see that He was God (John 1: 10-11, 14:9-10).  On the other hand, the people’s blindness in scripture serves as a warning to me.  It tells me that scripture is spiritually discerned (I Corinthians 2:14) and unless our God opens our eyes (Matthew 16:17), I cannot understand Scripture, or see Jesus in His glory (Hebrews 1:3), or see how God is working in my life (II Peter 1:3-4).

This is why Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18-21 is so personal to me.  I hear Paul interceding for me as he prays, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…”

Hence, this has not only become a prayer for me, but I’ve joined Paul in his prayer for others...