The Practical Walk

People have varying degrees of skill, aptitude and interest in athletics.  Some people who are fit, healthy specimens have no desire to play ball sports, and others who are not ideal pictures of fitness love to participate often.  We all have limitations when it comes to the fastest we can run, jump, lift and throw.  Even the best professional athletes who push themselves to a maximum far beyond other mortal men can only go so far.  The same is true for intellectual pursuits or physical work.  There are some things we will never understand and building skills we will never master.  No matter how hard we labour even maintaining the skills and fitness we once possessed can prove difficult.

The spiritual, inner man is in contrast to the outer man that is perishing because we are being renewed by faith in Jesus day by day.  Our understanding concerning God and His wisdom can expand after our minds and bodies are well past their prime.  By the power of God we are enabled to do things as we mature in faith in Jesus we could not do in our earlier days.  God does not teach "old dogs new tricks" but He makes old men new.  Paul said in Philippians 4:11-13, "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: ¹² I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Contentment was something Paul needed to learn, and he did.  Experience coupled with conviction of sin through fellowship with God moved Paul to repentance and rest confidently in God's sovereignty.  This is not something only apostles or Paul could learn, but this is God's will for all believers.  Let us not imagine contentment is a hurdle only Paul could clear because he was a superhuman Jesus-freak, for the God who helped and taught Him is also our Helper and Teacher.

Another aspect of the Christian walk we are to embrace is that of sexual purity.  This purity of mind and body isn't just essential for pastors or those in ministry but for all believers.  Paul wrote this in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7:  "Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; ² for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, ⁵ not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶ that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. ⁷ For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness."  Paul was not given special knowledge no one else could attain, for it is the will of God that all believers know how to abstain from sexual immortality and how to keep our bodies pure in sanctification and honour without falling prey to lust.  This requires faith and agreement with God's definition of sexual immorality, repenting of our sin and walking in union with the Holy Spirit.  Knowing how to control our minds and bodies in sanctification is an ability from God we learn to walk in.  Since the Holy Spirit is holy, He will always lead us to walk in holiness.

The Christian walk of faith is not theoretical but practical and supernatural empowerment from God we are called to labour to choose.  Like that long jump distance which surpassed our natural ability to leap or that maths equation we could never solve, contentment and sexual purity is always beyond our natural man.  But praise be to God Jesus Christ is able to make us new creations and renew our minds to believe He can do what we cannot.  May it sink into our minds and hearts we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and this includes His will for us to live in purity and contentment.