Walk with Purpose

When I was in high school, I remember our vice principal always telling us to “walk with purpose” in the hallways. He would say this as a way to encourage us not to congregate. I guess his fear was if we were idle in the hallways it would lead to mischief. One afternoon during junior year, while hanging out near my locker, a friend and I noticed that a female friend of ours had not fully closed her locker. We decided it would be funny if we were to put something in her locker as a prank. We decided on a dead fish. For weeks the fish sat in the back of her locker behind books. Every time she would come back to her locker, she would comment on how badly our lockers smelled and threatened to come to the school on the weekend to clean them out. Boy was she surprised when she discovered that the smell was actually coming from her own locker. The result of our little prank was a feud that nearly ended our friendships. While it was funny to us at the time, I don’t think we would have done it if we had realized what would happen as a result. Luckily she accepted our apology but not until after our trucks were egged and toilet papered. 

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

This message was shared by the Apostle Paul to the Galatian church with the thought that if it is from the Spirit we begin, then every subsequent actions should also be from the Spirit. But what does it mean to “walk by the Spirit”?

I believe the Apostle Paul encouraged the Galatian church to “walk in the Spirit’ as to avoid doing things that are harmful to themselves and their neighbors. The phrase “walk by the Spirit” appears twice in chapter 5 of the Galatian text, first in verse 16 and then in verse 25. Verse 16 describes what is the opposite of walking by the Spirit, namely, giving in to the desires of the flesh. The “flesh” in this context is our old nature, the things we used to live for, not of God. Instead we live for the things of the Spirit which according to Paul is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Notice how these are primarily actions towards your neighbor. So, if we are to live by the Spirit, then we walk in such a way that we demonstrate peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control towards our neighbor. Let’s walk together in such a way!

Do you walk with purpose? Does every move you make, every action follow from walking by the spirit? Join us this Sunday for worship at 8:30 and 10:45 am as we continue this discussion on our new sermon series, “Focused”.

In God’s grip,

Pastor Chuck Church