It’s very funny, because I always hear the term, “Walking with God”.
“Yes, she walks with God.”
“I’ve been walking with God for 25 years now.”
And it’s used as a way of saying, “Not only do I say I am a Christian, but I live like I am a Christian, too.”
But let me tell you the thought that struck me today and why I think it’s funny that I often hear this term.
First, let me say that the idea of walking with God is found in the Bible—Enoch walked with God (Gen. 5:22, 24) Noah walked with God (Gen. 6:9). And David walked with God (1 Kings 8:25). They all knew God and sought a relationship with Him. This pursuit of a relationship with God was called “walking with God.” But the term “walked with God” does not carry over into the New Testament.
Here is where it gets even more interesting…
In the New Testament, we no longer walk. We run!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1
In Hebrews, we are instructed to run after knowing Christ. In the next three verses I quote, Paul speaks about ways in which running could be hindered or done in vain:
- While speaking to the Galatians, Paul said, “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Galatians 5:7
- Paul said, “I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.” Galatians 2:2
- In Philippians 2:16 Paul says he holds “fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
But we aren’t just running—we are running in a competition. We are in a race!
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:24-27)
It’s not just a walk now! It’s a race!!!
The Greek word for run is trecho. In addition to being translated “run”, the word also refers to “persons in haste, of those who run in a race course, to exert ones self, strive hard, to spend one's strength in performing or attaining something”. And this is interesting. The “word occurs in Greek writings denoting to incur extreme peril, which it requires the exertion of all one's effort to overcome.”
The exertion of all one’s effort. That’s not a walk in the park.
Oh yes, dear ones, we don’t just walk anymore. This is a new covenant we are under. And we must run…
(I’ve previously done a study on what the Bible says specifically about the race we run. You can find it at this link: www.katiehoffman.org/knowingchrist1.html.)
