When we turn to the New Testament, however, the ordinary word for walking, is often used in a special sense. It refers to our behaviour, our conduct, our whole manner of life. So, in this special sense, the question, "How are you walking these days?", is probably a question like, "How's life?" or "How's it going for you?" At a deeper level it is a query about your relationship with God and how that translates into daily living.
Life, action, vitality, happiness... Whatever you call it, it is much sought after and too often missing in the life of this world. In the first chapter of 1 John, we noted that life itself has been fully expressed in the history of this world in the person of Jesus Christ. And, as we have fellowship with Jesus, his life flows into our lives too (1.1-4).
If our relationship with him is genuine, the effects of his life will be seen in three major areas - in our personal life, in our relationships within the Christian family and in our relation to the world at large.
Of course, we have a tendency to blame the failures of life on the world at large. We are surrounded by change and stress, by reports of violence and upheaval. It is all too easy for us (and it has such point!) to see the essential trouble "out there". The problem is what "they" do or don't do!
This has been a favourite with politicians wanting to explain the value of the dollar and rising interest rates, with students who have trouble settling down to study, with the motorist who fails a breath test or is pulled over for speeding... Probably all of us at some time have concluded that things would be different if it weren't for "them"! Like the teacher who said, "I could be a good teacher, if it weren't for the kids!" Wse could do our own translation of that!
But "they" are essentially a collection of "me's". Yes, I know the "synergy" principle - that together we are more than the sum of what we are as individuals. Nevertheless, the basic problem is within "me"! If the problems within the wider life of the world are to find some kind of lasting solution, the problem within each "me" has to be seriously tackled.
At the end of the first chapter, John has told us that we deceive ourselves if we say we have no sin (v. 8) and that we make God out to be a liar if we say that we haven't sinned (v. 10). But God's purpose is not only to forgive us our sins, but to purify us from all unrighteousness (v. 9).
Now, in the second chapter, John begins by telling us, "My children, I write this to you so that you will not sin..." (v. 1a). Sin has no rightful place in the Christian's life. It is an alien, an intruder. The ultimate purpose of the life of God within us is that the sin-principle, the spirit that sets us up over against God, that seeks first our own plan, pleasure and comfort, should be completely eradicated from our life.
But God is realistic in his dealings with us. We stand in daily need of his forgiveness. "But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence (someone called alongside to help us, an advocate) - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (v. 1b) How comforting it is to have Jesus, the Son of God himself, the only one who has "got it right," to plead our cause with the Father! For this Jesus is the very one who is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (v.2a) - as the KJV puts it, "he is the propitiation for our sins." His death on the cross was the sin offering, the sacrifice that fulfilled the punishment due to sinners. This is the one who is our advocate with the Father.
Yet, having said this, John looks to a real change taking place within the Christian. He gives two sure signs that a person knows God and lives in union with Christ. The first sign is that we "obey his commands", "obey his word" (vv. 4-5). The second has to do with our "walk" - "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did" (v. 6).
What, we may well ask, is the point of contact between realism and idealism? between the reality of human sin and the goal of Christian holiness? It is the cross of Christ. Keep 1.7 in mind - "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."
It is John who recorded the interview between Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus told this great Jewish teacher that it was necessary to be "born again", to be born spiritually (John 3). This implies a radical personal change. But it also points to a whole set of new relationships with others in the Father's family.
Within the Father's family are people at all stages of spiritual growth and development. There are some who are "little children" just beginning the Christian life (the term says nothing of physical age). They belong within the family because "your sins have been forgiven on account of his name" and are already beginning to "know the Father" (vv. 12,14a). Some are described as "young men... you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one" (vv. 13b,14c) - they are engaged in conflict and victory over evil. Then there are the "fathers", the ones who, across the years, have come to a deeper and richer knowledge of God - "you have known him who is from the beginning" (vv.13a,14b).
All have their place within the family. All have need of one another. And the reality of my personal claim to what God has done within me will be seen in my relationships within the Christian family. Do I, or do I not, have love for my fellow-Christians, no matter what their stage of spiritual growth? Living in the light means loving our brother/sister. "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness" (v. 9). The command of Jesus to love one another is not simply about loving those who are similar to us in spiritual development, in musical preferences or in experience of God. Mature family-love will reach across the ages and stages and preferences.
John goes on to say, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (v. 15). Sometimes Christians have taken this verse to imply the need to separate the Christian and the Christian community from the world at large.
We need to remember v. 2 in which the life of Christ is seen to have been given, not just for our sins "but also for the sins of the whole world". Let us also remember God's love for the whole world that he gave his only Son (John 3.16).
Yes, there is a world system of thought and behaviour which is contrary to God's ways and is opposed to God. With this the Christian can have no part.
At this point John reminds us "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come" (v. 18). Some of these have been part of the fellowship, but they did not really belong and have now left (v. 19). So the spirit of antichrist is a rejection of God - Father and Son (vv. 22-23).
But as Christians we have received "an anointing from the Holy One" and know the truth (v. 20). We should be able to discern the spirit of antichrist.
So, John tells us,
"See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you" (v. 24a). It is the gospel message that brings eternal life.
The Holy Spirit lives within us. "Just as [his anointing] has taught you, remain in him" (v. 27d).
"Christ is righteous". His character will become visible in us - "everyone who does what is right has been born of him" (v. 29).
How are you walking these days - in your relationship with God, with your fellow-Christians, with the world at large? What God's life and love are doing within us cannot be contained. It must reach out, even as God's love reaches out, to embrace all people for him.
"And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming" (v. 28).
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