Heart Cry: Keep Me True (3 Jn. 3-4) (Part 3)

Second, let's deal with the word “walking.”  “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6).  The word “walking” suggests three things.

• It suggests beginning.  There was a time when you were not walking in the truth.  Something happened that compelled you to start walking.  That something is called repentance.
• It suggests process.  Once you took the first step, you took the second step, and then the third step, and so on.  Each successive step might not have been as easy as the previous, but you kept putting one foot in front of the other.  Process is determined by repetition, not distance.
• It suggests progress.  You don't want to keep putting one foot in front of the other, only to end up getting nowhere.  It is okay if progress is slow, so long as you are making progress.  If you aren't making progress, check the process.  If the process is altered, then progress is stalled.  In baseball a pitching coach talks to his pitchers about mechanics. If a pitcher's mechanics (process) are wrong, he won't consistently throw strikes (progress, results).

Pastor John didn't write that he was glad those in the congregation started in the truth.  He wrote that he was glad they were continuing in the truth, that they had adopted truth as their lifestyle.  The congregants lived it, and their testimony was obvious enough to Pastor John's helpers that they had to tell him.  These weren't just good people or moral people; they were truth- saturated people.  What they believed about Jesus affected every area of their lives.

We can't talk about walking (living) in the truth without mentioning certain things.

• Those who walk in the truth will develop the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).
• Those who walk in the truth will follow through on their word (Mt. 5:37).
• Those who walk in the truth will not avoid reality by pretending (Prov. 13:7).
• Those who walk in the truth will not pursue crooked business deals (Prov. 20:14).
• Those who walk in the truth will not seethe on the inside while they smile on the outside (Eph. 4:25)