Sunday, February 27, 2022

Drunken Noahs

This morning, I heard an excellent message from Ephesians 4 on the believer's "walk." I love that metaphor -- for obvious reasons. I love to walk! Many have called walking the perfect exercise. Yet the habit is practically non-existent nowadays. When Becky and I lived in Basel, we walked everywhere. Ditto for Ethiopia. But in the U.S., walking is almost un-American. Who has time to just walk and think? We have to be "doing" something.

The book of Ephesians was written for the Christian pedestrian. Here the Christian life is set forth more as a walk than as any other figure of speech. As Harold Hoehner notes in his magisterial commentary on Ephesians, we are to walk in unity (4:1-16), walk in holiness (4:17-32), walk in love (5:1-6), walk in light (5:7-14), walk in wisdom (5:15-6:9), and stand in warfare (6:21-24). Love it!

Elsewhere, Paul can say that we are to walk by faith, walk circumspectly, walk in the Spirit, walk in newness of life, and walk in the truth. Perhaps the greatest spiritual pedestrian was Enoch, who walked with God right into heaven! 

Today the church cannot be said to be walking in unity. The reason is that two cannot walk together unless they be agreed. If you are not in agreement with your companion, it's almost impossible to walk with him or her. Perhaps the reason we are not walking in unity is because we are not walking with the Lord in the light of his word. A walk allows time for reflection. 

Once, when ordering a cheeseburger, I was asked, "Will that be with or without cheese?" That is probably a record low in inane conversation. But I have heard much longer discussions these days on the internet that said nothing more important. 

In this shallow and superficial day, few souls know what it is desperately to thirst for truth before spouting nonsense. It's no time for drunken Noahs. We need sober saints who understand the times to know what they ought to do and who are enabled by the Spirit to do it. I know a few saints like this. I am so thankful for you!