The Good Way: Walk
What word would you use to describe the Christian life? Faith? Religion? Salvation? Christianity? All are important words. But throughout Scripture, another image appears again and again: walk.
Enoch and Noah walked with God. Abraham was told to walk before God. Israel was called to walk in God’s ways. The Psalms and Proverbs contrast the way of the righteous with the way of the wicked. The prophets call us to “walk humbly with your God.” Jesus declares, “I am the way,” and the earliest Christians became known simply as followers of “The Way.”
This isn’t merely a metaphor. It is one of Scripture’s great motifs for life with God.
That makes Judah’s response in Jeremiah 6 so devastating. God invites his people to “ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it.” Their response is simple: “We will not walk in it.”
Their problem wasn’t that they didn’t know the way. They refused to walk it.
The biblical vision of walking challenges us to recover a richer understanding of discipleship.
Walking is directional. Every path is taking us somewhere. Scripture contrasts roads leading toward life with roads leading toward destruction. The question isn’t simply, “Where do I want to end up?” but, “What path am I actually walking?”
Walking is relational. Micah calls us to “walk humbly with your God.” The goal of spiritual formation is not simply better behavior. It is communion with God.
Walking joins love and obedience. Scripture refuses to separate the two. Biblical love is not merely affection or sentiment; it becomes faithful love in action.
Walking is comprehensive and ordinary. The Shema places formation around tables, along roads, at bedtime, and in the morning. Jesus formed disciples in villages, boats, homes, weddings, meals, and interruptions. There is no meaningful separation between our “spiritual life” and the rest of life. Every part belongs to Jesus.
Walking is habitual. A walk is made of repeated steps. Jesus calls us to remain in him, and Paul tells us to “keep in step with the Spirit.” Formation happens gradually through ordinary faithfulness.
Walking has a pace. Jesus does not usually form us through one heroic leap, but through ten thousand ordinary steps taken in his direction.
Walking is communal. Discipleship is a communal pilgrimage. Jesus didn't call one disciple but formed a community. Christianity was never intended to be a solitary journey.
And finally, walking is Spirit-empowered. Discipleship isn't about trying harder. It is walking differently—not because our willpower has improved, but because God's Spirit now dwells within us.
But all of this raises one final question: Who shows us how to walk? The answer is Jesus. The metaphor doesn't disappear in the Gospels; it becomes personal. The Way becomes a Person. Jesus doesn't simply point toward the Good Way. He says, “Follow me.”
And following Jesus means three things. Be with Jesus. Become like Jesus. Do what Jesus did.
This is the invitation of discipleship. Not merely to believe certain things about Jesus, but to arrange our lives around him—to stay close enough to learn his ways, become the kind of people he is forming us to be, and participate in his work in the world.
Jesus' invitation has never changed: “Follow me.”
This is the Good Way. And it is still the invitation before us today.