Living out faith and obedience: Luke 1:6

In telling the story of the birth of John the Baptist, Luke notes that both his father Zacharias and his mother Elizabeth were “righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.” (Luke 1:6) What is interesting in the Greek is that the verb translated here as “walking” is not the normal verb for walking. Rather, Luke uses a verb that simply means to “go.” In other words, one could translate this, “they were going in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.”

God never meant for us to live our religion hidden away of some secluded cloister fighting our inner demons alone. Rather, God meant our religion to be live in the world, as we went about our daily lives. To live a religious life, we need to live our life; keeping the commandments as we go. It is interesting to note that, in rebuking the religious elite who had a knowledge of religion but not a lifestyle of religion, he counseled them, “go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice.’” (Mat 9:13) Sometimes we never fully come to understand and appreciate the commandments of God until we go forth to do them. It is in the going that they begin to make sense.

In seeing this scripture in this light, I must ask myself, “To what degree am I truly living the faith I confess or is it merely head knowledge to which I have added my agreement?” Life must be lived, and true life must be lived in the knowledge and obedience of God.