IN the second case in which the believer is exhorted to " walk worthy," it is the Lord Himself that is brought exclusively before the mind. In walking worthy of our vocation in Ephesians it is, as we have seen, the position in which we are set before God in a corporate relation with others that is in question. Lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, and forbearing in love, have others in view, as those with whom we have to walk in a way becoming the relations in which we stand to God as His house. Here, in Colossians, others have no place, it is our individual walk with the Lord, in a world that is opposed to Him, that alone engages the attention; we are to " walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." It is the path that Enoch trod, who, before he was translated, had this testimony " that he pleased God;" and above all it is
the path of Him, who, in His own personal perfectness could say, as to His Father, " I do always those things that please him."
If there be not another Christian in the world, I am to " walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." This is very precious, and throws out into relief, what it is of all-importance ever to bear in mind, that whatever the corporate relations of saints, their first and commanding obligation is to walk individually with the Lord in all that is pleasing to Him. The depth and gravity of this " walk worthy," as compared with the one we have already considered, is, we think, strikingly apparent in the way it occupied the apostle's mind.
In connection with the former he expresses the earnestness of his own feelings in the form of an exhortation to saints, but here his heart refers itself to God for them, and this he tells out in language of great force and beauty. " We do not cease," says he, " to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." And not only have we prayer instead of exhortation, but the requisites for the walk here are very different from those for the other.
The gracious dispositions of the soul-lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love-that are essential for our worthy walk with other saints are not directly in question here. To walk worthy, or becomingly, of the Lord unto all pleasing, requires that we should first be filled with the knowledge of His will, and that not as a law outside of us that we strive after, but as that which intelligently fills us inwardly, so that every thought and feeling is prompted by His will made known to us by His Spirit that dwells in us. The wisdom and understanding of the believer are formed by the will of God, known and delighted in by the affections, so that it is the only spring of thought and action.
This was perfect in Jesus-" I delight to do thy will, 0 my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." Out of this flowed the practical expression of the divine and heavenly life He lived as a man on earth in which all was pleasing to God. He walked here in entire dependence on God or in perfect obedience to His will.
It is into this practical path, in which the character of God is expressed in all the Christian does and says -where all is suited to, or " worthy " of Him, that the apostle prays that saints may enter. That they might so walk, they must know what is suited to the Lord-be filled with the knowledge of His will: and walking in accordance with it, all they did would be well pleasing to Him.
Such is the high and holy walk that alone becomes the believer in Christ. It was the path in which the apostle himself walked, and which he expresses as to himself in these words, " therefore we labor, that whether present or absent we may be well pleasing to him." Oh, that our unceasing prayer, for ourselves as well as for all saints, be that we may all " walk worthy of the Lord."—c. w.
(To be continued, the Lord willing.)