Lesson for November 5, 2023
The Battle for Your Soul
Lesson 5
The Spiritual Walk of the Believer
Walking in a Worthy Manner
(Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 1:10; I Thessalonians 2:12, 4:1)
In all the verses above, the Greek word for walk is “peripateo,” which is used to express the entirety of a believer’s spiritual life. It means what a person is occupied with. Applying that meaning to the worthy walk of a believer, we must ask what is he to be occupied with? The answer to this question is Bible doctrine. If a believer is occupied with Bible doctrine, he will also be occupied with the Person of Jesus Christ by being occupied with the mind of Christ, which is the Word of God. Walking worthy is used for a command to advance to spiritual maturity by applying Bible doctrine on a consistent basis.
Since it is through the filling and power of God the Holy Spirit that we are able to learn and apply Bible doctrine, we must conclude that it is God Who makes us worthy. The virtue and integrity developed by the doctrine in our souls is God’s virtue and integrity. He alone gets all the glory for the worthy walk of a believer.
Walking in Wisdom
(Colossians 4:5; Ephesians 5:15)
The Greek word for walk in these verses is “peripateo,” which is used to express the entirety of a believer’s spiritual life. Wisdom is the Greek word “sophia,” which is a synonym for application of Bible doctrine. One meaning of the Greek root word of “sophia” means clear. Spiritual wisdom is a clear understanding of Bible doctrine and how it applies to your life. Spiritual wisdom is based on spiritual I.Q., not human I.Q., which means spiritual wisdom is based on a maximum amount of Bible doctrine in your soul. The more Bible doctrine you understand, the more wisdom you exhibit.
Wisdom is knowing, understanding, and doing the will of God. Wisdom is defined as knowledge of what is true or right, combined with good judgment. The good judgment is the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit. (John 14:26) Good judgment is related to the believer’s scale of values, in which Bible doctrine is circulated in the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness. You create a mirror in your soul so that, in the privacy of your priesthood, you can look into the mirror of your soul anytime and see your spiritual status and your relationship with God, or your failure to have harmonious rapport with God.
The foundation for wisdom is the filling of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom is the sum total of the teaching of Bible doctrine under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit and the positive response to that doctrine, resulting in perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. Wisdom understands both the will and the plan of God for your life. You have to know both. Wisdom begins when you understand that God has a plan for your life, and you begin to see it from the Scripture and begin to understand the spiritual life and live it.
You must have humility to have wisdom because no one is teachable apart from humility. With humility, your mind is open to teaching. Humility is the basis for teachability, and teachability is the road to wisdom. No one will attain wisdom apart from humility. From virtue comes great happiness. From humility comes grace orientation to life.
Wisdom comes from the Word of God. We are to have wisdom regarding our life and the plan of God. With this perspective, we are able to live the Christian life in light of eternity. Our wisdom is based upon our interest in the plan of God for our life. How we arrive at death is based on how we lived our Christian life. Our perspective about death changes our perspective about life. God has a plan so that our life will be occupied with Christ and therefore dying will be profitable. (Philippians 1:21)
Walk in Love
(Ephesians 5:1-2)
The Greek word for walk in these verses is “peripateo,” which is used to express the entirety of a believer’s spiritual life. Walking in love is walking like Christ, with unconditional love for everyone.
Christ’s love allows us to have a relaxed mental attitude toward others and treat them with kindness, compassion, patience, and forgiveness. Unconditional love must be based on the virtue of the subject, the one doing the loving (“the treating”). It is our love for God that motivates us to exhibit His love toward all. Unconditional love operates from the integrity and virtue that you have developed from learning and applying Bible doctrine.
With Jesus Christ as our example, we are to exhibit the same kind of love that He exhibited. This kind of love can be accomplished only by a believer with Bible doctrine in the soul, who is empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. When we are properly functioning under the filling of the Holy Spirit, we will adhere to the principles found throughout the Word of God. These principles will enable us to exhibit unconditional (impersonal) love toward others.
Applying God’s principles will allow us to treat everyone with respect, and not on the basis of our “pet prejudices” regarding race, social status, ability, or what a person can or cannot do for us. We will refrain from gossip, maligning, judging, character assassination, etc. In other words, we will “live and let live.” The principle of treating everyone with respect also means that we will be tolerant, be thoughtful, and be kind toward others. We will hold no grudges or resentment against anyone. (I John 4:17-18)
The Word of God teaches us how we are to love. We are to love unconditionally, as God loves. This means that we are to love others regardless of their race, their beliefs, their language, their place of birth, their body type, the color or style of their hair, their clothes, their behavior, etc. We are even to love them despite their sin. We are to love others in the same manner as Jesus did. (I John 3:16-24; James 2:1-10)