September 2026: Walk as Jesus Walked

Read: John 1:1–14

Consider

Before we can talk about walking as Jesus walked, we need to understand who we are following.

John does not begin Jesus’ story in Bethlehem. He takes us back to the beginning: “In the beginning was the Word.” The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then John makes the connection unmistakable: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

The God who created all things stepped into His creation.

That makes the life of Jesus more than an inspiring example of how a good man lived. When we look at Jesus, we see God revealed in flesh. His words, His priorities, His compassion, His obedience, and His way of life matter because of who He is.

John also tells us that Jesus came “full of grace and truth.” We sometimes treat those as competing ideas—as though grace means overlooking truth or truth means withholding grace. Jesus embodied both perfectly.

Over the next 30 days, we’re going to look closely at how Jesus actually walked.

Before asking whether His walk agrees with ours, let’s turn the question around:

Does our walk agree with His?

Reflect

• What does John 1:1–14 reveal about who Jesus is?
• If Jesus is God revealed in flesh, how should His example affect the way you decide how to live?

Go Deeper: Isaiah 9:6; John 10:30; John 14:8–11; Colossians 2:8–10

Read: Acts 2:36–42

Consider

The people listening to Peter realized something had to change.

When they understood who Jesus was and what they had done, they were “pricked in their heart” and asked a wonderfully simple question:

“What shall we do?”

Peter didn’t tell them merely to believe something intellectually. He didn’t send them to go pray the “sinner’s prayer.”

He gave them a much deeper response: repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For Apostolic believers, Acts 2:38 is familiar territory. But don’t stop reading there.

Verse 41 tells us they received the Word. Then verse 42 tells us what happened next:

“And they continued…”

Their response to God wasn’t completed in one moment of repentance, baptism, or receiving the Holy Ghost. Those things began a life of not just following Him, but pursuing Him.

That’s important for this study.

None of us reaches a point where we have learned enough, obeyed enough, or understood enough that God has nothing more to show us.

We continue.

As we spend this month looking at how Jesus walked, our question isn’t whether we’ve already obeyed God.

It’s whether we’re still willing to obey Him when He shows us more.

Reflect

• What happened after the believers in Acts 2:38 responded to Peter’s message?
• When Scripture challenges something you already believe or practice, how willing are you to continue learning and obeying?

Go Deeper: Acts 2:1–4; Acts 8:12–17; Acts 10:44–48; Acts 19:1–6

Read: 1 John 2:3–6

Consider

How do we know that we know Jesus?

John gives us an answer that is remarkably direct: we keep His commandments.

Then he goes further. If we say that we abide in Him, we “ought…also so to walk, even as he walked.”

Notice what John doesn’t say.

He doesn’t tell us merely to agree with Jesus. He doesn’t tell us simply to admire Him, sing about Him, or identify ourselves as His followers.

He points to how we live and the fruit that comes from that life.

You don’t have to ask an apple tree what it is. You just look at its fruit.

That makes “What would Jesus do?” a much bigger question than we sometimes allow it to be.

How did Jesus treat people?

How did He respond to sin?

How did He pray?

What did He teach?

What did He obey?

How did He worship?

What did He consider holy?

What did His ordinary life actually look like?

Those aren’t abstract theological questions if John tells us that we should walk as He walked.

For the rest of this month, we’re going to let Scripture answer them.

And as it does, our responsibility isn’t to make Jesus’ walk resemble ours.

It’s to examine whether our walk resembles His.

Reflect

• According to this passage, what evidence should appear in the life of someone who says they know Jesus?
• What areas of Jesus’ life have you rarely considered when thinking about what it means to follow Him?

Go Deeper: Matthew 7:21; John 14:15; James 1:22–25; 1 Peter 2:21

Read: John 6:38

Consider

Jesus makes an extraordinary statement:

“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”

Submission to God’s will wasn’t an occasional part of Jesus’ life. It characterized His life.

This leaves some people scratching their heads because if Jesus is God, then isn’t doing God’s will actually His own?

You have to look at the context of His relationship to His office of God while He was here. He walked as a perfect example of what we should do. Jesus was fully God and fully man, but He lived as a man when He walked among us. So, He lived as a man doing God’s will for His life.

That’s powerful.

It’s easy to admire walking in God’s will until God’s will conflicts with ours.

We even saw this when Jesus prayed for God to take the cup from Him if it be His will.

We all have preferences. We have traditions, habits, plans, assumptions, and ways of doing things that feel completely normal to us. Some have been part of our lives for so long that we’ve never thought to question them.

Following Jesus eventually brings us to a choice:

What happens when what I want and what God says are not the same thing?

Jesus gives us the pattern.

The question isn’t whether God’s instruction is convenient. It isn’t whether our family agrees with it, our culture accepts it, or we’ve always done things differently.

The question is simply:

What is God’s will?

Discovering that requires more than sincerity. It requires knowing His Word—and being willing to follow what we find there.

Walking as Jesus walked begins with deciding whose will gets the final word.

Reflect

• What does John 6:38 reveal about Jesus’ priorities?
• When your preferences, traditions, or assumptions conflict with Scripture, which one actually determines what you do?

Go Deeper: Psalm 40:8; Matthew 7:21; Matthew 26:39; Romans 12:1–2

Read: John 8:28–29

Consider

Jesus said something here that gives us another glimpse into the way He lived:

“I do always those things that please Him.”

Always.

That’s a challenging word.

It’s easy to think of obedience primarily in terms of avoiding obvious sin. But Jesus gives us a richer way to think about our relationship with God.

What pleases Him?

That question shifts our attention away from asking, “How much can I do and still be okay?” or “Do I really have to do that?”

Instead we begin asking:

What delights God? What does He value? How does He want me to live?

That’s the heart of obedience.

And Scripture gives us the ability to find those answers. Throughout the Bible, God reveals what He loves, what He hates, what He calls good, what He calls sin, and what He desires from His people.

Walking as Jesus walked means we don’t merely ask God to bless the life we’ve chosen.

We allow His Word to shape the life we choose.

Jesus lived to please God.

If we’re following His footsteps, that’s a question worth carrying with us:

Does the way I live please Him?

Reflect

• What is the difference between simply avoiding sin and intentionally seeking to please God?
• Where do you look to determine what pleases God?

Go Deeper: Micah 6:8; Colossians 1:9–10; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; Hebrews 11:6

Read: John 14:15, 21

Consider

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Jesus connects two things we often separate: love and obedience.

We tend to think of love primarily as a feeling. We love God, so we worship Him. We pray. We sing. We tell Him that we love Him.

But obedience is God’s love language.

Praying, worshipping, singing—all those can certainly be expressions of love, but Jesus points to something much more concrete in John 14:15.

Obedience.

Then, in verse 21, He says it again. The person who has His commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Him.

That makes love more than something we say. It becomes something visible in the way we live.

It becomes a language that we speak that demonstrates our love, devotion, and commitment to Him.

Think about our human relationships. If someone continually disregarded everything that mattered to you while insisting, “But I love you,” eventually those words would begin to sound hollow.

Why would a relationship with God be different?

Obedience isn’t a way to earn God’s love or salvation. It is a response to Him, a demonstration of the love we have for Him.

We don’t obey God so He will love us.

We obey Him because we love Him.

That leaves us with an important question as we learn to walk as Jesus walked:

If obedience is an expression of love, shouldn’t we want to know what God has asked us to do?

Reflect

• How does Jesus describe the relationship between loving Him and keeping His commandments?
• How might your approach to obedience change if you viewed it as an expression of love rather than simply a list of requirements?

Go Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:4–6; John 14:23–24; 1 John 5:2–3; 2 John 1:6

Read: John 15:9–10

Consider

Jesus didn’t ask His followers to live by a standard He was unwilling to live Himself.

He said:

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”

There it is again.

Obedience.

But this time Jesus points to His own life as the example.

This matters for our study because we’re asking what it means to walk as Jesus walked. If Jesus says that He kept God’s commandments, then obedience wasn’t merely something He taught other people to do.

It was how He lived.

And He lived in a way that exemplified what we would be commanded to do—walk as He walked.

As God manifest in flesh, He gave us a living example of how we are to live, how to be holy as He is holy.

That should make us curious.

What commandments did Jesus keep?

What did obedience look like in His everyday life?

What did He consider holy?

How did He worship?

How did He treat people?

What did He refuse to compromise?

We don’t need to answer all of those questions today. We’re going to encounter many of them as we continue studying His life.

Jesus is God, bit He gave us an example to follow how we as believers should live our lives. Notice the pattern.

Jesus loved God.

Jesus obeyed God.

And Jesus tells His followers to walk in that same kind of love and obedience.

If we want to walk as He walked, it is wise to pay very close attention to how He actually walked.

Reflect

• What does Jesus tell us about His own obedience in John 15:10?
• What questions about Jesus’ way of life do you want Scripture to answer as you continue this study?

Go Deeper: Psalm 40:7–8; John 4:34; John 8:29; Hebrews 5:8–9

Read: Matthew 4:1–4

Consider

Jesus had been fasting for forty days when satan challenged Him to turn stones into bread.

Jesus answered with Scripture:

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Notice what Jesus didn’t say.

He didn’t say we live by the parts of God’s Word we find easiest.

He didn’t say we live by the parts our denomination emphasizes.

He didn’t say we live by the parts our family has always practiced.

He didn’t say we live by isolated portions of Scripture, read without context.

No, He said every word.

Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. Jesus and His disciples taught from the Torah—the first five books of the Bible. His answer reminds us of something important: Jesus did not treat the Scriptures that came before His earthly ministry as irrelevant or inferior. He used them as authoritative truth.

That gives us a valuable principle for studying the Bible.

We should be careful about building our beliefs from a handful of favorite verses while ignoring the rest of Scripture.

If all Scripture is God’s Word, then we need the whole counsel of God.

Sometimes that means encountering verses that challenge what we have always believed.

That’s not something to fear.

It’s an opportunity to learn.

It is a doorway to growth.

We don’t study Scripture merely to confirm that we were already right.

We study because we want to know what God actually said.

And if Jesus said man lives by every Word of God, then every Word deserves our attention.

Reflect

• What does Jesus’ response reveal about the importance He placed on Scripture?
• Are there portions of the Bible you tend to value, study, or apply more than others? Why?

Go Deeper: Deuteronomy 8:1–3; Psalm 119:160; Acts 20:27; 2 Timothy 3:16–17

Read: Matthew 4:5–7

Consider

Something interesting happens during Jesus’ temptation.

Satan quotes Scripture.

That’s worth noticing.

Simply quoting a Bible verse does not automatically mean Scripture is being understood or applied correctly.

Satan takes words from Psalm 91 and twists them, using that distorted interpretation to attempt to encourage Jesus to do something God had not told Him to do.

Jesus answers Scripture with Scripture:

“Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

This is one reason context matters so much.

A verse pulled away from its setting can be made to sound as though it supports something the Bible never actually teaches. We can also inherit an interpretation, hear it repeated for years, and eventually stop asking whether the Scripture really says what we’ve been told it says.

Jesus gives us a better pattern.

Let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Read the surrounding verses. Look at the larger biblical context. Compare what you’re reading with other scripture addressing the same subject.

And don’t be intimidated by questions.

If something seems to contradict another Scripture, dig deeper rather than immediately choosing whichever verse fits what you already believe.

Truth doesn’t need us to protect it from examination.

Our responsibility is to handle God’s Word carefully enough that we don’t make it say something God never said.

Reflect

• What does this portion of Scripture teach us about the difference between quoting Scripture and understanding Scripture?
• When you encounter a verse that seems to support something you’ve been taught, how can you test whether that interpretation fits the rest of Scripture?

Go Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:16; Psalm 91:9–12; Acts 17:10–11; 2 Timothy 2:15

Read: John 17:14–17

Consider

Jesus prayed:

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

That’s a simple statement with enormous implications.

God’s Word doesn’t become true because we agree with it.

It doesn’t become false because it makes us uncomfortable.

And truth isn’t determined by how long we’ve believed something, who believes it, how many people believe it, who taught it to us, or how sincerely we hold that belief.

God’s Word is truth.

That distinction matters because sincere people can sincerely believe something that isn’t true.

All of us have learned from parents, pastors, teachers, churches, books, organizations, traditions, and our culture. Some of those influences have taught us wonderful things.

But none of them is the final authority.

Scripture is.

That doesn’t mean we become suspicious of everyone who teaches us. God gives us teachers for a reason.

It means every teaching must ultimately be measured against the Word of God—with the understanding that what we currently believe to be true may not be.

And notice what Jesus says truth does:

It sanctifies us.

Truth changes us. It separates us from what is false and draws us toward the life God desires for us.

But that can only happen if we’re willing to let Scripture correct us.

Walking as Jesus walked requires more than knowing truth when it agrees with us.

It requires loving His truth, loving Him, enough to follow it when it doesn’t.

Reflect

• What does it mean for God’s Word—not tradition, culture, personal preference, or even a trusted teacher—to be the final authority for what you believe?
• How willing are you to change a long-held belief if careful study of Scripture shows you something different?

Go Deeper: Psalm 119:105; Psalm 119:160; Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 3:14–17

Read: Luke 4:16–21

Consider

We’ve spent the last several days talking about walking as Jesus walked, obedience to Him, and allowing Scripture to be our authority.

Now let’s just watch Him walk.

Luke tells us that Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and:

“as was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.”

As was His custom.

This wasn’t an unusual event. It was Jesus’ normal practice.

He kept the Sabbath.

He gathered with others. He stood to read Scripture. And on this particular Sabbath, He read from the prophet Isaiah and announced the fulfillment of those words before the people listening to Him.

Sometimes we read accounts like this and hurry toward what Jesus said while overlooking what He was doing.

But our question this month is about both.

How did Jesus walk?

Here Scripture gives us one answer plainly: Sabbath was part of the regular rhythm of His life.

Don’t rush past that observation, but don’t rush ahead of it either.

For today, simply sit with what scripture says.

If we’re examining Jesus’ life because Scripture tells us to walk as He walked, then His customs are well worth noting.

Reflect

• What does the phrase “as was his custom” tell you about Jesus’ relationship with the Sabbath?
• Before reading this portion of scripture today, how much had you considered Sabbath observance as part of Jesus’ example?

Go Deeper: Exodus 20:8–11; Isaiah 58:13–14; Mark 1:21; Luke 13:10

Read: Mark 2:23–28

Consider

Jesus and His disciples were walking through grainfields on the Sabbath when the disciples began plucking heads of grain.

The Pharisees were greatly offended.

Why?

They believed the disciples were violating the Sabbath.

But notice Jesus’ response.

He did not say the Sabbath no longer mattered.

He challenged their understanding of it.

Jesus reminded them of David eating the showbread when there was a genuine human need. Then He made an important statement:

“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

The Sabbath was not given as a burden designed to make people miserable. It was made for man.

It was a gift – a day set apart by God for rest, worship, and relationship with Him.

Then Jesus declared Himself Lord also of the Sabbath.

Sometimes disagreements about God’s commandments aren’t really about whether we should obey God. They’re about whether our understanding of His commands reflect what He actually intended.

Human beings have a habit of adding rules, traditions, and expectations until God’s instruction becomes almost unrecognizable.

Jesus didn’t destroy the Sabbath here.

He corrected what people had done to it.

Reflect

• What does Jesus mean when He says the Sabbath was “made for man”?
• Is it possible for human traditions surrounding a commandment to distort the purpose God intended for it? What does this portion of scripture reveal?

Go Deeper: Genesis 2:1–3; Exodus 20:8–11; Matthew 12:9–13; Isaiah 58:13–14

Read: Matthew 5:17–20

Consider

Few subjects create more confusion among Christians than the relationship between Jesus and the Law.

Fortunately, Jesus addressed it Himself.

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”

Many Christians understand fulfill to mean that Jesus completed everything at the cross and, therefore, the Law had accomplished its purpose and passed away.

But keep reading.

Jesus gives us a timeline in the very next verse:

“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

The cross was an essential part of Jesus’ work, but it was not the fulfillment of every prophecy concerning Him.

Jesus rose from the dead.

He lives.

Scripture still tells us of His return, the resurrection of the dead, judgment, His Kingdom and reign, and ultimately a new heaven and a new earth.

There is still prophecy concerning Jesus that has not yet been fulfilled.

And notice what Jesus did not say.

He didn’t say, “until I die on the cross.”

He said until heaven and earth pass and all is fulfilled.

He then immediately speaks about doing and teaching these commandments.

So before deciding what Jesus meant by “fulfill,” we have to allow the rest of His statement to define it.

Look around.

Heaven and earth have not passed away.

All has not yet been fulfilled.

And according to Jesus Himself, until then, not one jot or one tittle passes from God’s Law.

Reflect

• What timeline does Jesus Himself give in Matthew 5:18?
• What prophecies concerning Jesus and His Kingdom have yet to be fulfilled?

Go Deeper: Isaiah 9:6–7; 1 Corinthians 15:20–28; Revelation 20:4–6; Revelation 21:1–5

Read: Matthew 22:35–40

Consider

A lawyer asked Jesus which commandment was greatest in the Law.

Jesus answered:

Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

Then He gave the second:

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Many Christians know these as the two great commandments.

But notice what Jesus says next:

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Jesus didn’t replace God’s Law with love.

He showed us what God’s Law hangs on.

Love for God and love for people are the foundation underneath the commandments.

That makes sense when we think about it.

Why don’t we steal from our neighbor? Love.

Why don’t we bear false witness against someone? Love.

Why do we honor God rather than worship other gods? Love.

Why do we care for the poor, deal honestly with others, honor our parents, and protect what belongs to someone else?

Love.

God’s commandments aren’t opposed to love. They teach us what love looks like when it moves beyond emotion and becomes action.

Remember Day 6?

Obedience is God’s love language.

Jesus has brought us right back to the same connection.

Love and obedience were never enemies.

Reflect

• What do you think Jesus meant when He said the Law and the Prophets “hang” on love for God and love for our neighbor?
• How does viewing God’s commandments through the lens of love change the way you understand obedience?

Go Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:4–5; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:8–10; 1 John 5:2–3

Read: Matthew 23:23

Consider

Jesus had strong words for the scribes and Pharisees.

They were meticulous about certain acts of obedience—even tithing tiny herbs such as mint, anise, and cumin—while neglecting what Jesus called the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith.

It would have been easy for Jesus to say:

Forget the little things. Just concentrate on mercy and faith.

But He didn’t.

Instead He said:

“These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

That’s a powerful principle.

Sometimes we create choices God never asked us to make.

Truth or mercy.

Obedience or grace.

Commandments or love.

Doctrine or compassion.

Jesus didn’t walk that way.

He cared deeply about obedience while also condemning religious behavior that neglected justice, mercy, and faith.

The problem with the Pharisees wasn’t that they cared too much about obeying God.

It was that their obedience had become selective and distorted.

They could carefully measure herbs while overlooking hurting people.

Walking as Jesus walked means allowing God to shape the whole of us.

Our doctrine.

Our conduct.

Our thoughts.

Our habits.

Our worship.

And the way we treat the person standing in front of us.

We don’t have to choose between truth and mercy.

Jesus didn’t.

Reflect

• What were the Pharisees doing correctly, and what had they neglected?
• Are there areas of your faith where you may emphasize one biblical truth while unintentionally neglecting another?

Go Deeper: Micah 6:8; Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:10–13; James 2:8–13

Read: Matthew 9:35–38

Consider

Jesus went through the cities and villages teaching, preaching, and healing.

There were crowds everywhere.

But Jesus didn’t just see a crowd.

He saw people. He saw souls.

Matthew tells us that when Jesus saw the multitudes, “he was moved with compassion on them.”

Why?

Because they were weary, scattered, and like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus noticed their condition.

Think about that for a minute. It’s definitely possible to be surrounded by people without really seeing them.

How many times have you gone through the checkout line at the grocery store, completed your transaction, and walked away without even knowing what color eyes the cashier had?

I believe we’re all a little guilty of that. We get so wrapped up in our own affairs that we forget to see the humans who are right in front of us.

Oh, but we can see those who don’t fit our mold!

We can see the person who irritates us.

The person who believes differently.

The person whose life is a mess.

The person who asks the same question for the tenth time.

The person whose choices we don’t understand.

And we can begin to see them as the enemy—an adversary.

But Jesus looked beyond behavior and saw need.

That didn’t mean He ignored sin or compromised truth. Jesus could speak truth very directly.

But truth did not make Him less compassionate.

It made Him more aware of why people needed Him.

Then Jesus turned to His disciples and told them the harvest was plentiful, but the laborers were few.

Those people weren’t interruptions or inconveniences.

They were the harvest.

If we’re going to walk as Jesus walked, we may need to learn to look at people differently.

Before we decide what someone deserves, perhaps we should stop long enough to actually see them.

Reflect

• What did Jesus see when He looked at the multitudes?
• Are there people you tend to see primarily through their behavior, beliefs, or problems rather than through their need for compassion?

Go Deeper: Ezekiel 34:11–16; Matthew 14:13–14; Mark 6:34; Luke 19:41–44

Read: John 13:12–17

Consider

Jesus had just done something that shocked His disciples.

He washed their feet.

This was the work of a servant.

Yet Jesus—their Lord and Master—knelt down and did it Himself.

Then He asked:

“Know ye what I have done to you?”

Jesus wasn’t simply giving them a lesson about clean feet.

He was giving them an example.

“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

Then He said:

“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”

There is our theme again.

Walk as He walked.

Following Jesus isn’t only about believing the right things.

It fundamentally alters who and what we are.

It changes how we treat people.

The world often measures greatness by position, influence, recognition, authority, or how many people serve us or admire us.

Jesus turned that upside down.

He had all authority—and He served.

He was Lord—and He knelt.

He knew exactly who He was, so serving someone else did not diminish Him.

Sometimes we want to do something great for God while overlooking the ordinary person right in front of us who needs to be served.

Jesus showed us another way.

In His Kingdom, greatness is willing to kneel.

Reflect

• Why do you think Jesus chose such a humble act to demonstrate how His followers should treat one another?
• Where might God be giving you an opportunity to serve someone in a way that receives little recognition?

Go Deeper: Matthew 20:25–28; Mark 9:33–35; Philippians 2:3–8; 1 Peter 4:10

Read: John 8:1–11

Consider

The woman brought to Jesus had been caught in adultery.

The scribes and Pharisees weren’t really asking Jesus for help.

They were using her to trap Him.

She stood publicly accused, humiliated, and surrounded by people prepared to condemn her.

Jesus responded:

“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

One by one, they left.

Then Jesus spoke to the woman.

“Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

Notice both parts.

Neither do I condemn thee.

And:

Go, and sin no more.

Jesus did not humiliate her.

He didn’t treat her as disposable.

He didn’t join the crowd eager to condemn her.

But He also didn’t pretend sin didn’t matter.

He extended mercy and called her away from sin and to repentance.

Sometimes we act as though we must choose.

If we speak truth, we cannot show grace.

If we show grace, we must avoid saying something is wrong.

Jesus did neither.

He showed us that compassion does not require compromising truth, and truth does not require abandoning compassion.

That’s a difficult balance.

But if we’re going to walk as Jesus walked, it’s one worth learning.

Reflect

• What do you notice about the way Jesus treated the woman compared with the way her accusers treated her?
• Do you tend to find it easier to emphasize truth or grace? What can you learn from Jesus’ example?

Go Deeper: John 1:14–17; Romans 2:1–4; Galatians 6:1; James 2:12–13

Read: Matthew 5:43–48

Consider

Loving people who love us isn’t terribly difficult.

Jesus said even publicans do that.

Then He raised the standard.

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

That’s uncomfortable.

Jesus didn’t say we have to agree with everyone.

He didn’t say harmful behavior becomes acceptable.

He didn’t say wisdom, consequences, or boundaries disappear.

He said love them.

Biblical love is not the same thing as approval.

Love looks like kindness.

Love looks like forgiveness.

Love means praying for someone we would much rather complain about.

Love means blessing someone who has hurt you.

Love speaks truth.

And most of all, love refuses to retaliate when retaliation would feel very satisfying.

Jesus gives us a powerful example—God sends sun and rain upon the just and the unjust.

Then Jesus asks a piercing question.

If we only love the people who love us, what are we doing differently?

This is not to say that loving people who are difficult is an easy thing to do. It takes effort and commitment.

Pray for God to put the love that He has for those people in your heart. Ask Him to let you see them through His eyes.

Walking as Jesus walked becomes considerably harder when the person in front of us is difficult.

But perhaps that’s where our walk becomes most visible.

Reflect

• According to Jesus, what does loving an enemy actually look like in practice?
• Is there someone you find difficult to love? Which of Jesus’ instructions in these verses challenges you most?

Go Deeper: Proverbs 25:21–22; Luke 6:27–36; Romans 12:17–21; 1 Peter 2:21–23

Read: Matthew 6:14–15

Consider

Jesus’ words about forgiveness are difficult to soften.

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Forgiveness matters deeply to God.

But forgiveness is often misunderstood.

Forgiving someone does not mean pretending they didn’t hurt you.

It doesn’t mean calling evil good.

It doesn’t mean trust must instantly be restored.

And it doesn’t necessarily mean a relationship returns to what it was before.

In fact, sometimes ending or changing a relationship is the wisest thing to do. Forgiveness does not eliminate the need for boundaries.

After all, Jesus had boundaries.

You can forgive someone and still recognize that they are not a safe or wise person to have close access to your life.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same thing.

Neither are forgiveness and trust.

Most of all, for the person doing the forgiving, forgiveness is not a feeling.

Forgiving is an action—and you might not actually feel it for a while.

Forgiveness releases the debt.

It means we surrender our personal claim to vengeance and place justice into God’s hands.

That can be especially difficult when the person who hurt us isn’t sorry.

We may feel as though refusing to forgive somehow holds them accountable.

Usually, it holds us to the injury.

Jesus calls His followers to something different.

We have received mercy we could never earn, and He expects that mercy to affect the way we deal with the debts of others.

Forgiveness may happen in a decision, while healing takes much longer.

You may still remember.

You may still grieve.

You may still need boundaries.

But you don’t have to keep carrying the debt.

Walking as Jesus walked means learning to release into God’s hands what we were never meant to carry forever.

Reflect

• What is the difference between forgiveness, reconciliation, and restored trust?
• Is there a debt you are still trying to collect from someone who hurt you? What would placing that debt into God’s hands look like?

Go Deeper: Matthew 18:21–35; Luke 23:33–34; Romans 12:17–19; Colossians 3:12–13

Read: Luke 5:15–16

Consider

Jesus was busy. He was being pulled in a lot of different directions. Sound familiar? People wanted to hear Him teach. They wanted to be healed. Crowds were gathering. And He ministered to them. But there was still work to do.

And in the midst of it all, Jesus walked away.

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

I think sometimes we read right past that. There were legitimate needs around Him. People needed Him.

And He still withdrew to pray.

Jesus didn’t treat prayer as something He squeezed into whatever time was left after everything else was done. He made room for it.

That’s convicting.

We can become so busy doing good things—even things for God—that spending time with God gets pushed aside. There is always something else that needs to be done. Another person who needs something. Another problem to solve. Another task waiting. Another notification. Another item on your to-do list. Just “one more thing” to finish at work.

Life gets busy – the world is busy – and it’s easier to shove God to the back burner because He doesn’t complain when you cast Him aside.

But Jesus showed us that every need does not require our immediate attention.

Sometimes the spiritual thing to do is walk away from the noise and pray.

If Jesus deliberately made time to withdraw and pray, how is it reasonable to think that anyone can live faithfully without doing the same?

Walking as Jesus walked includes knowing when to stop.

It includes quiet.

It includes prayer.

And sometimes it means leaving something unfinished because time with God matters more.

Reflect

• What does Jesus’ willingness to leave the crowds teach you about the priority He placed on prayer?
• What tends to crowd prayer out of your life?

Go Deeper: Psalm 46:10; Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12–13; Luke 9:18

Read: Luke 22:39–46

Consider

Obedience sounds wonderful when it doesn’t cost us anything.

Then we come to Gethsemane.

Jesus knew what was ahead. This wasn’t a minor inconvenience. He was in agony. And He prayed:

“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

Remember Day 4?

Whose will comes first?

Here we see the answer when obedience becomes painful. Jesus didn’t pretend He wanted the suffering. He didn’t call pain pleasant. He set the example for us to walk as He walked by demonstrating how we are to seek God’s will.

He showed us what to do when we encounter things that are difficult or painful or that we just don’t really want to do. He brought what He wanted honestly before God.

But He surrendered His will.

That is obedience. And we all know that it’s easy to obey when God’s Word agrees with what we already want to do. The real test comes when it doesn’t.

What happens when obedience costs comfort?

Approval?

Convenience?

A tradition we love?

Something we’ve always believed?

Something we simply don’t want to give up?

At some point, every believer has to decide whether “Thy will be done” is something we say—or something we’re actually willing to live. Jesus lived it. If we’re going to walk as He walked, eventually we will have to as well.

Reflect

• What does Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane teach you about the relationship between obedience and surrender?
• Where in your life is it hardest to sincerely say, “Not my will, but thine, be done”?

Go Deeper: Psalm 40:7–8; John 6:38; Philippians 2:5–8; Hebrews 5:7–9

Read: John 7:1–10

Consider

Jesus’ brothers were preparing to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus went as well. That detail may not seem especially important. But remember what we’re doing in this study.

We’re watching Jesus walk.

So when Scripture tells us where He went, what He observed, and how He worshiped, we should pay attention.

The Feast of Tabernacles—also called Sukkot—was not a man-made religious tradition. God commanded it in the Torah.

And Jesus observed it.

That shouldn’t surprise us. We’ve already seen that Jesus kept the commandments. But for many Christians, the biblical feast days are almost completely unfamiliar.

We know Christmas.

We know Easter.

We know Good Friday.

But ask many Christians about the Feast of Tabernacles and you’ll probably get a blank stare. So here’s a question worth asking:

If we’re trying to walk as Jesus walked, shouldn’t we at least know something about the days He actually observed?

You don’t have to settle every question about the biblical feasts today. Start simpler than that. Jesus attended the Sukkot celebration. He participated in it. Why?

What was this feast?

Who commanded it?

What did it mean?

And what might we learn by following Jesus there?

This is worth examining. If you are going to walk as He walked, you need to look at where His steps took Him.

Reflect

• Before today, what did you know about the Feast of Tabernacles?
• Why do you think it matters for followers of Jesus to understand the biblical feast days that were part of His life?

Go Deeper: Leviticus 23:33–44; Deuteronomy 16:13–17; Zechariah 14:16–19; John 7:37–39

Read: Leviticus 23:33–43

Consider

Yesterday we followed Jesus to the Feast of Tabernacles.

Today let’s find out what He was keeping.

God told Israel to observe the Feast beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and to celebrate for seven days.

They were to dwell in temporary shelters—sukkot—as a reminder that God caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths when He brought them out of Egypt.

But don’t miss something near the beginning of God’s instructions:

“Ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.”

Rejoice.

God actually commanded His people to celebrate.

Think about that.

Sometimes we imagine obedience as solemn, restrictive, and burdensome.

Yet here God commands His people to stop their normal work, gather together, remember what He has done, and rejoice before Him.

This feast taught Israel to remember.

God delivered them.

God sustained them.

God provided for them in the wilderness.

And generation after generation was supposed to remember.

Now think back to yesterday.

Jesus was there.

The One we’re learning to follow participated in this appointed time established by God.

Suddenly John 7 isn’t merely telling us where Jesus traveled.

It’s showing us another part of how He walked.

Reflect

• What reasons for keeping the Feast of Tabernacles do you find in Leviticus 23?
• What does God’s command to rejoice reveal about the way He intended His people to experience this feast?

Go Deeper: Exodus 23:14–17; Deuteronomy 16:13–15; Nehemiah 8:13–18; Zechariah 14:16

Read: Deuteronomy 16:13–15

Consider

Read the instructions again and notice how often joy appears.

“You shall rejoice in your feast…”

Then:

“You shall be altogether joyful.”

God didn’t merely allow His people to enjoy Sukkot.

He told them to.

There is something beautiful about a God who commands His people to make room for joy.

Bring your family.

Bring the people around you.

Remember God’s provision.

Celebrate His goodness.

Rejoice before Him.

For seven days.

That tells us something about God that we can miss when our faith becomes nothing but rules, responsibilities, problems, and things we’re trying to get right.

God wants His people to rejoice in Him.

And biblical joy isn’t pretending life is perfect.

Israel had plenty to remember that wasn’t pleasant. Their history included slavery, wilderness, hunger, fear, rebellion, and loss.

Yet Sukkot reminded them that through all of it:

God was there.

He delivered them.

He sustained them.

He provided for them.

And He brought them through.

Maybe that’s part of why remembering matters so much.

When we remember what God has already done, we have a reason to trust Him with what hasn’t happened yet.

Walking as Jesus walked isn’t meant to produce a life of grim religious obligation.

There is obedience here.

There is remembrance.

There is gratitude.

And there is joy.

God commanded it.

Reflect

• What does the command to rejoice teach you about God’s character?
• What has God already brought you through that gives you reason to rejoice and trust Him now?

Go Deeper: Psalm 16:11; Psalm 100:1–5; Nehemiah 8:10; Philippians 4:4

Read: John 7:37–39

Consider

We’ve followed Jesus to Sukkot.

Now let’s listen to what He said while He was there.

John tells us:

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”

Stop there for a minute.

Jesus didn’t randomly choose a day to make this declaration.

He said it at the Feast.

We’ve already learned that Sukkot was a time of rejoicing and remembering God’s provision for His people.

Now Jesus stands in the middle of that celebration and cries out to anyone who is thirsty:

Come to Me.

Then He says:

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

John doesn’t leave us wondering what Jesus meant.

He tells us plainly that Jesus was speaking of the Spirit that believers would receive.

Think about where our study began.

We started with the Word made flesh.

We went to Acts 2 and saw people respond to the Gospel, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, and continue steadfastly.

Now here we are at Sukkot—and Jesus is talking about the Spirit that would be given to those who believe.

These aren’t disconnected pieces.

Scripture keeps connecting them.

So don’t hurry through this just because the language is familiar.

Jesus stood up during one of God’s appointed times and made an extraordinary invitation:

Are you thirsty? Come to Me.

Reflect

• Why do you think John specifically tells us that Jesus made this declaration on “the great day of the feast”?
• What does Jesus promise to those who believe, and how does John explain His words?

Go Deeper: Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 55:1–3; Ezekiel 47:1–12; Acts 2:37–39

Read: John 1:14

Consider

We read this verse on Day 1.

Let’s come back to it.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”

We’ve spent almost a month watching what the Word made flesh actually did.

He obeyed.

He prayed.

He served.

He showed mercy.

He spoke truth.

He kept the Sabbath.

He went to the Feast.

He loved difficult people.

He forgave.

He submitted His own will.

He lived what He taught.

But there’s something interesting about John’s choice of words here.

The word translated “dwelt” carries the idea of pitching a tent or tabernacling among us.

Think about that in light of what we’ve just been studying.

Sukkot is the Feast of Tabernacles.

Israel lived in temporary dwellings to remember how God brought them out of Egypt and dwelt with His people.

Then John tells us:

The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

God didn’t remain distant.

He came near.

He walked among people.

He ate with them.

He touched the sick.

He taught them.

He wept.

He confronted sin.

He extended mercy.

He showed them what God was like because He was God manifest in flesh.

Don’t miss the wonder of that because you’ve heard John 1:14 a hundred times.

God came near.

And He still isn’t finished.

Scripture points us toward the day when God will dwell with His people and His Kingdom will be fully established.

The story that began with God dwelling with His people doesn’t end with Him far away.

It ends with Him dwelling with them.

Reflect

• After spending this month watching Jesus walk, what does “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” mean to you now?
• What connections do you see between God’s desire to dwell with His people and the biblical Feast of Tabernacles?

Go Deeper: Exodus 25:8; Ezekiel 37:26–28; Colossians 2:9; Revelation 21:1–3

Read: Philippians 2:5–8

Consider

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

There it is.

This isn’t just about copying a list of things Jesus did.

God wants something deeper.

He wants us to think differently.

Look at the mind Paul describes.

Jesus humbled Himself.

He took the form of a servant.

He became obedient.

And that obedience continued even when it cost Him everything.

Does that sound familiar?

It should.

We’ve been watching it all month.

Jesus wasn’t humble on Tuesday and self-important on Wednesday.

He didn’t serve people when they were pleasant and retaliate when they irritated Him.

He didn’t obey God only when obedience was convenient.

These weren’t isolated behaviors.

They flowed from who He was.

And now Scripture says:

Let this mind be in you.

That’s where this gets personal.

It’s possible to learn biblical doctrine and still be proud.

It’s possible to know the commandments and treat people terribly.

It’s possible to win an argument and completely misrepresent the One you’re arguing about.

Knowing truth matters.

Obedience matters.

But if walking in truth makes us arrogant, cruel, impatient, or impossible to teach, something has gone wrong.

We aren’t merely trying to imitate Jesus’ schedule.

We’re allowing Him to change us.

Our thinking.

Our motives.

Our reactions.

Our priorities.

Our willingness to serve.

Our willingness to obey.

Walking as Jesus walked begins to change who we are from the inside out.

Reflect

• What characteristics of Jesus do you see in Philippians 2:5–8?
• When you compare your attitudes and reactions with His, where do you see the greatest opportunity for growth?

Go Deeper: Matthew 11:28–30; Romans 12:1–2; Ephesians 4:20–24; Colossians 3:12–14

Read: 1 Peter 2:21–23

Consider

Peter doesn’t leave much room for ambiguity:

“Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.”

Follow.

His.

Steps.

That’s what we’ve been doing all month.

We’ve watched where Jesus walked.

We’ve listened to what He taught.

We’ve looked at what He obeyed.

We’ve seen how He worshiped.

We’ve watched how He treated people.

We’ve seen what He did when obedience was difficult.

And now Peter tells us something that should sound very familiar:

Follow His steps.

Not admire them.

Not study them and then return to life exactly as we were living it before.

Follow them.

Of course, none of us will do that perfectly.

That’s not an excuse to stop walking.

When you discover that your footsteps are going in a different direction from His, you don’t need to defend your path.

Change direction.

That’s repentance.

And sometimes following His steps means discovering that something you’ve believed, practiced, defended, or simply never questioned doesn’t match what you now see in Scripture.

Good.

That’s why we study.

We’re not opening the Bible to prove that we already have everything right.

We’re opening it because we want to follow Him.

So when Scripture shows you His footprints, don’t be afraid of where they lead.

Follow.

Reflect

• Over the course of this study, which of Jesus’ “steps” has challenged you most?
• Have you discovered an area where your current walk may not match His? What are you going to do with what you’ve seen?

Go Deeper: Matthew 16:24–25; John 10:27; Ephesians 5:1–2; 1 John 2:3–6

Read: 1 John 2:3–6

Consider

Thirty days ago, we began with a question.

What does it actually mean to walk as Jesus walked?

Now you’ve spent a month looking.

So let’s come back to the verse that started this whole journey:

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”

Not as our denomination walks.

Not as our family has always walked.

Not as our pastor walks.

Not as Christian culture walks.

As He walked.

We’ve watched Jesus submit His will to God.

We’ve watched Him obey.

We’ve watched Him use Scripture as His authority.

We’ve watched Him keep the Sabbath.

We’ve followed Him to Sukkot.

We’ve watched Him serve people, show compassion, extend mercy, speak truth, forgive, pray, and love people who were difficult to love.

We’ve watched Him choose obedience even when obedience hurt.

Now comes the part nobody else can answer for you.

Does your walk look like His?

Don’t answer too quickly.

This isn’t about producing a scorecard of everything you’re doing right and wrong.

And it certainly isn’t about comparing your walk with someone else’s.

This is between you and God.

Maybe this study confirmed much of what you already believed.

Maybe something made you uncomfortable.

Maybe you discovered something in Scripture you’d never noticed before.

Maybe you now have more questions than you had when you started.

That’s okay.

Questions aren’t the enemy of faith.

Sometimes they’re the doorway to deeper faith.

But once God shows us something in His Word, eventually we have to decide what we’re going to do with it.

Remember where we started:

We don’t obey God so He will love us.

We obey Him because we love Him.

So don’t leave this study asking only:

What did Jesus do?

Ask the harder question:

What am I going to do now that I’ve seen it?

Keep opening your Bible.

Keep asking questions.

Keep testing what you’ve been taught against the Word.

Keep letting Scripture correct you.

Keep pursuing Him.

And when you can see His footsteps—

walk in them.

Reflect

• Looking back over the last thirty days, what have you learned about the way Jesus actually walked?
• What is one thing you’ve seen in Scripture that you now need to respond to?

Go Deeper: Psalm 119:33–35; John 14:15; James 1:22–25; 1 John 5:2–3