What scripture means when it states “Walk with God”

TEXT: And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. -Genesis 5:24.

I think it is quite probable that to supply the ellipsis this should read, “and he was not found, for God took him.” To show the reasonableness of thus supplying the ellipsis, we have only to read the collateral passage describing the translation of Elijah in 2 Kings 2:5-18. Now, applying that narrative, I will read over again: “And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, (i.e., he was not found) for God took him to himself.”

The subject which I have selected tonight is one to me of very great interest. “Walking” in the sense used in this text never applies to doctrine; it applies to conduct, to life; as when it is said of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, that he and his wife, Elizabeth, walked in the commandments of God. In both the Old and the New Testament the word has that signification. For instance, when God said to Solomon, “If thou wilt walk in my ways as thy father David didst walk in my ways,” evidently referring to the life, to the conduct.

Before one’s life can be such as is expressed by this text, there is something implied, something pre-supposed. The prophet Amos asks a question in the 3rd chapter and 3rd verse of the book attributed to him: “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” So that if it be affirmed that two walk together, it is implied that the two are at agreement. And it also follows from the nature of the case that one of the two had been at enmity with the other, and that there has been a reconciliation. So that when we say of any man that he walks with God, it implies that he has been reconciled to God.

It does not mean that God has conformed to him, but that he has conformed to God. It does not mean that the Lord has lowered His standard to suit the man, but that the man’s way has been subordinated to God’s way, and his life to God’s rules. It never implies any kind of a change on the part of God, but always upon the part of man.

B. H. Carroll—Walking with God