Physically speaking, we can learn a lot by how a person walks.  Some walk with their eyes looking down, avoiding those around them, revealing a certain degree of timidity or shyness.  Others walk looking up, making direct eye contact with those walking by, leading to some type of verbal acknowledgement, revealing a person with a confident, self-assured personality.  Some walk with a limp, others with a bend, some with a hobble, all telling us something about them physically.  Of course, sometimes the way a person walks does not say anything about the person at all.

Spiritually, how we walk says everything about us.  While the Bible gives us no instructions on how we should walk physically, it sets forth clear commands about how we must walk spiritually.  In the spiritual realm, how you walk will determine where you spend eternity.

Galatians 5:16 (ESV)
¹⁶  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

To walk by the Spirit is to live by His teachings.  The teachings of the Spirit are found in the gospel of Christ; thus, to walk by the Spirit is to live by the gospel.  The only other alternative to walking by the Spirit is walking by the flesh.  A person cannot do both of those things at the same time.  We are all either walking by the Spirit or walking by the flesh.

Galatians 5:17 (ESV)
¹⁷  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other…

How are you walking?  Walking by the flesh results in the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), making it impossible to inherit the kingdom of God.  On the other hand, when one walks by the Spirit, the result is a state of justification in which there is no condemnation.

Romans 8:1 (KJV)
¹  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

According to Thayer, the word “condemnation” means, “a damnatory sentence.”  So, when we walk after the Spirit, something Paul once referred to as keeping “in step with the Spirit,” we can be assured that we will not receive a damnatory sentence.  Paul tells us why.

Romans 8:3-4 (ESV)
³  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

When we walk according to the Spirit, we fulfill the righteous requirement of the law (ver. 4).  The law that Paul is referring to is the Law of Moses that demanded sinless living to escape condemnation.  Those walking according to the Spirit meet that requirement, not because we are sinless, or even innocent, but because we have been justified of all our sins.  Our sins have been removed by the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 1:5).  We now appear before God as if we have never sinned.  All we have to do is continue to obey the gospel of Christ.

Ephesians 4:1 (ESV)
¹  I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Are you walking worthy of your calling, that is, by the instructions of the Spirit?  Think about it carefully.  Your soul stands in the balance.  

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.