#12: One of the Great Metaphors
The Walk of Life
This is the final metaphor in a series of the 12 greatest metaphors for life. Note that the reality is stated next to each item in the list. If you'd like learn about the metaphor, click on the post.
The breath of life: a person can live three minutes without air.
The shelter of life: in harsh climes a person can live 3 hours without shelter.
The water of life: a normal person can live three days without water.
The bread of life: the average person can live about three weeks without food.
The light of life: if the sun were to stop giving its light, global temperatures would drop, plants would die, trees would vanish, and all life would cease to exist.
The tree of life: without trees, we would have little fruit to provide our bodies with the antioxidants we so desperately need. In addition, trees provide beauty and shade, as well as leaves which provide healing substances.
The True Vine of life: up to this time, we have looked at the necessities of physical life. The vine of life represents something deeper: abundant life.
The oil of life: the olive tree was once a primary source of oil for food and light.
The spice of life: spice provides flavor for bland food, healing for sick bodies, and fragrance for perfumes.
The rest of life: after three days of no sleep, the average person begins to hallucinate. Sleep is such a fundamental part of life that we just cannot live without it. We need downtime to regenerate, recuperate, and revitalize.
The blood of life: blood is so necessary for life that blood-loss from a severed artery can cause death in less than a minute. This process is called exsanguination.
The walk of life: walking is the primary mode of mobility for healthy humans.
Dire Straits understood that walking is an expression of life -- and they sang about it.
There's just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, you do the walk of life [1]
The Walk of Life
Have you ever considered why humans value the first steps of their children? When a child it born, the first thing he or she does is breathe the breath of life. Next the child needs nourishment to survive. Soon the child begins to crawl. However, if a child crawled its entire life — it would indicate that something was wrong with the child's development. Tests would be done, physical therapy, and maybe even surgery would be done in order to get the child walking.
Walking is a fundamental part of human life. Those who can't walk, would do anything lawful to regain that ability.
Walking is how we move from task to task each day. It's how we move to the dinner table. How we get out to the garden. How we get from one location to another. It is what made these words so important for history when man first walked on the moon: "One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind." And walking was the primary mode of transportation from city to city for millennia.
Read about transportation in the Bible here.
Read about 24 benefits of walking here.
The Christian Walk.
As important as walking is in the development and day to day existence of humans, it is no wonder that walking is also a metaphor for the spiritual life of Christians. The Bible tells us again and again to walk a certain way.
Colossians 2:6 tells us to "walk" in Christ
Ephesians 4:1 urges us to "walk" in a manner worthy of our calling
2 John 1:6 says to "walk" in obedience to God's commands
Romans 6:4 says that Christ was raised so we might "walk" in newness of life
2 Corinthians 5:7 says we "walk" by faith not by sight
Ephesians 5:15 warns us to be careful how we "walk"
And on and on the Bible speaks of walking. And this "walking" is not putting one foot in front of the other as much as it is a metaphor for how we live each day. This is the Christian "walk" of life.
The Perfect Walk
And to take this metaphor of the Christian life to the fullest measure of beauty, we only need to look at Christ, the God man. Perfect God was born in human flesh, born with two feet, so He might walk among us.
Christ soiled His feet on the dirt of the earth, yet remained without sin so He could pay the penalty for ours. He walked the perfect Christian walk because God knew we could never walk in such a way as to please God perfectly. Yet, in Christ's walk, God was pleased. Now through faith, we can find favor with God -- and walk in newness of life.
What a God we serve!
Further Application.
Metaphors are not created by men — they are only discovered. God uses metaphor over and over in His holy word. God takes the mundane to explain the holy. But we can't understand the metaphor unless there is a physical reality behind it.
Physical walking is an intrinsic part of life. We ought to be involved in it daily — or at least some form of physical exercise.
Read more about walking:
Transportation: A Primary Mode of Exercise in the Bible.
The Walk of Life: 24 Benefits of Walking.
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