If we are going to think with Christcentered minds, it must become a way of life every day. We cannot be sacred on Sunday and secular on Monday. We are sacred all day every day, because we are all ministers under God no matter what our particular professions happen to be.
One of the great passages on what it means to think with a new mind and translate that into everyday life is Ephesians 4:17-24. The apostle Paul begins by saying: “This I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind” (v. 17). Notice how Paul links the mind with a person’s walk, which is a key word in this text. It’s like learning to walk on spiritual feet.
In the Bible, of course, the word walk is used for one’s course of living, his lifestyle, his orientation in living. The imagery of walking is used because of the way a person’s course is set.
When you walk, you put one foot in front of the other in order to make progress toward a particular destination or goal. Walking is the methodology whereby you move from point A to point B, and it’s a process. You don’t get where you’re going in one giant step, but you walk step by step toward your goal.
Therefore, walking was used in Paul’s theology to explain the step-bystep process of moving from where you are to where you ought to be going. The Christian life is not an airplane ride, it’s a walk. You don’t “jet” to spiritual maturity. You walk to maturity, one step at a time.
Believers at Christian gatherings often ask each other, “How is your walk?” By this they do not mean, “Do you cover 12 inches or 24 inches between steps?”
They are asking, “What’s your lifestyle like? Are you living commensurate with your calling in Jesus Christ? ls the direction of your life moving in line with who you are?”
So how does God want His people to walk? Paul answers that back in Ephesians 4:1, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.”
In other words, walk in accordance with who you are. You’ve got a great calling. Make sure you walk a great walk. Don’t walk like a pauper if you are living in the king’s palace!
