Articles
Our Next Step
How far are you willing to walk with your eyes closed? That's not exactly the idea Paul had in mind when he said "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7), yet it will help us understand. God has laid out our path, has He not? Like the illustration attached, the man on the tight-rope doesn't need to see how high he is, or what's around him, he only needs to make sure his next step lands in the right spot.
Our faith is comparable. We get caught up in what we can see and touch. We let our circumstances and the physical world dictate our walk sometimes, and Paul is saying, we need to walk by what we know, and not by worldly influences.
We know that walking in this scripture means living, it is a metaphorical reference to the way we live. Paul is reminding his readers that followers of Christ are not to build their lives around things that have no spiritual or eternal importance. He's saying in essence, that while the world pursues the things the world pursues, Christians need to be focused on the realities of Heaven, God, Christ and eternity.
We need to make it our purpose to please Him, because it is God Himself that we will stand before and be judged by "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil" (2 Cor 5:9-10)
We don't love the things of this world, our love is elsewhere. We don't fear the things of this world, our security is elsewhere. We don't follow the commands of this world, our commands come from another place. We don't trust the things of this world, our hope and trust come from our Father. While we must exist here, and make the best of it, we don't work for this life ultimately, we work for a life that awaits us (Matt 6:19-20, Luke 12:33, Matt 16:27, 1 Peter 1:17, John 3:16-18). The only alternative is what the world will inherit based on how they chose to live, and the punishment that awaits them for those choices. (Matt 25:24-46)
God doesn't want us blindfolded as we go through life, not in a physical way, but each step we take should be as though we had our eyes closed to the world, and as though our next step simply needs to land on the path God as set forth.
