Walking

The action of travelling on foot at a normal pace. The image of walking with God is used in Scripture to represent the behaviour of believers in their relationship with God.

The physical activity of walking

For travel

Genesis 13:17; Deuteronomy 6:7 See also Judges 5:10; 1 Kings 18:7; Amos 3:3; Matthew 4:18; Luke 24:17

Get up and walk around the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.”

And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

As a miracle

Matthew 11:5, Matthew 14:25–26 See also Acts 3:6–8, Acts 14:10

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and cried out in fear.

God walking

Leviticus 26:12 See also Genesis 3:8

I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

Walking used figuratively of human behaviour

Walking in sin and darkness

1 Kings 15:26; Proverbs 2:12–13 See also Psalm 1:1, Psalm 82:5; Proverbs 2:12–13; 1 John 1:6

And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity, from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness,

Sometimes darkness represents depressing circumstances

Lamentations 3:2 See also Psalm 23:4; Isaiah 9:2, Isaiah 59:9

He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.

Walking with God

Genesis 5:22–24, Genesis 17:1; Revelation 3:4 See also Genesis 6:9; Deuteronomy 8:6, Deuteronomy 10:12; 1 Kings 2:3–4; Isaiah 2:3; Jeremiah 7:23; Micah 4:5, Micah 6:8; Zechariah 3:7; Malachi 2:6

And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. So Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white.

Walking in the truth or in the light

Deuteronomy 5:33; 1 John 1:7 See also Psalm 15:2, Psalm 26:2–3, Psalm 56:13, Psalm 86:11, Psalm 89:15; Proverbs 4:12; Isaiah 2:5; 2 John 1:4–6; 3 John 1:3–4; Revelation 21:24

You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Walking as a way of living or behaving

Ephesians 2:1–2 See also Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 4:1, Ephesians 5:2; Colossians 1:10

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.