A Hope Built on Truth

KEY VERSE: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” —III John 4

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: II John 1-11; III John 2-4

TO WALK with God it is required that we walk in truth. In his first epistle, John wrote: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness we lie, and do not the truth.”

Through the Prophet Amos the Lord asked the question, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” While in principle the thought of this text applies to human relationships, God asked the question of those who professed to walk with him with the intent of pointing out to them that this could be true only if they were in full agreement with him and with his will. We can walk with God only if our hearts and lives are in agreement with him. God does not change his course in order to walk with us. Instead, we must find out the way he would have us walk, and agree to walk that way if it is to be true of us that we are walking with God.

In Genesis 5:22,24, we are told that Enoch “walked with God.” Not a great deal is said in the Scriptures concerning Enoch, but we are assured that he had faith in God and was faithful in bearing testimony to the truth which God had revealed to him. (Heb. 11:3) Enoch’s walk with God consisted of his faithfulness to the light then due to be understood. His heart was in agreement with God’s plan, and his lips bore testimony thereto.—Jude 14

Genesis 6:9 declares that “Noah walked with God.” He was a chosen servant of God to perform a very definite mission in connection with the ending of the “world that then was.” (II Pet. 3:6) It required great faith in God and utmost confidence in his instructions to perform the task assigned to him, but it was his faithfulness in obeying the divine will that constituted Noah’s walk with God.

Abraham walked with God, his great faith enabling him to believe and act upon the promises made to him. But his being in agreement with God cost him a great deal, changing the whole course of his life. Abraham’s faith in the Lord and his agreement with the divine will constituted him a friend of God.

It was at Jordan that Jesus began his walk with God. There he entered into a covenant with his Heavenly Father, agreeing to do all that had been written of him “in the volume of the Book.” (Heb. 10:7-9) Being guided by the Word of God, he was able to walk with God. Jesus knew that moral uprightness alone did not constitute walking with God. He knew that God had a definite plan for the redemption and recovery of the human race. He knew he had come into the world to perform a service in connection with that plan. He knew, therefore, the only way to be pleasing to his God was to discover from the Word—the volume of the Book—just what that plan was, and the exact manner in which he was to serve in connection with it. There were certain things God wanted done, and certain ways to do them, and it would have been unthinkable for Jesus to undertake a service for God along any other line.

On many occasions during the self-sacrificing ministry of Jesus we find him emphasizing his agreement with God. Is it not likewise essential for his followers to commit their ways fully to the Lord? This point cannot be emphasized too strongly! Satan has made great. inroads of deception with the argument that, after all, it doesn’t matter so much how one serves the Lord, or what he believes, but the important thing is to be sincere in what we do and the way we live—that this is all the Lord requires. Sometimes even among those enlightened by present truth there is a tendency to adopt this easy-going viewpoint of what it means to walk with God.

We often sing, “Send out thy light and truth, O Lord, Let them our leaders be.” But the mere singing of these words is not enough. Two great truths are involved in these words. First, we are to make sure we are following the leadership of the truth, which is the leadership of the Lord; and if we are doing this we will also be laying down our lives by making known his truth to others, as far as possible giving the whole world an opportunity to hear the glad tidings. Thus we will be walking with God, and in the very nature of things we will be walking with one another. What greater joy could there be?

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