Genesis 17:1, commentary and pictures

When Abram was ninety-nine the Lord appeared to him as the Almighty God of almighty power to direct and sustain those who trust Him, and renewed the covenant of grace to multiply him exceedingly and make him a father of many nations. His command to walk before Him and be perfect upholds the authority of God's law within the covenant, requiring fidelity to His voice and commandments and separation from idolatry with circumcision as its seal and pledge of devotion. To walk before Him means to live in conscious awareness of His presence, faithfully and uprightly with integrity and wholehearted obedience. To be perfect means the whole being sanctified and made pure like Christ and fully conformed to God's will, through surrender to Christ and dependence on the Holy Spirit rather than self-reliance. It begins with justification by faith in an instant and continues as the lifetime work of sanctification by beholding Christ to be changed into His image, and it is God's present word calling for conversion without delay that none will dwell in His presence without.

Words and Covenant Setting

The word came when Abram was ninety-nine, after nearly twenty-five years dwelling in Canaan. He had obeyed the call to break with his father's idolatrous family and go into a strange land, that Jehovah alone might be his worship. There God was educating him to make him a chosen instrument, giving him the light of the laws of His kingdom and speaking to him in that strange land. The Lord appeared to him as the Almighty God, declaring almighty power able to direct and sustain those who trust Him amid uncertainty, and Abraham fell on his face in awe.

That appearing renewed the covenant of grace, in which God promised to make His covenant with Abraham and to multiply him exceedingly. He was to be made a father of many nations, and God would be God to him and to his descendants through their generations in an everlasting covenant. Abram was changed to Abraham, meaning father of a great multitude, and Sarai to Sarah, meaning princess, with the promise that she would be a mother of nations and that kings should be among her descendants.

The command to walk before God and be perfect upheld the authority of God's law within the covenant, requiring fidelity to His voice, charge, commandments, statutes and laws. It joined pardon with assisting grace for future obedience through faith in Christ, with the promise of eternal life on condition of obedience. Abraham and his descendants were to remain separate from other peoples to guard against idolatry and disobedience. Circumcision was given as the seal, token, sign and pledge of devotion, separation, faithfulness and keeping the covenant conditions. That same obligation was carried in the birthright, to devote life to God's service and to seek His will in family and public life.

Meaning of Walking Perfectly

To walk before God is to live in conscious awareness of His presence, discerning by His grace that He is present even when unseen and observing every path and action. It is to live in that presence faithfully and uprightly, with integrity, wholehearted obedience and blamelessness. Failing to live faithfully before Him places a person in danger. The command stands alongside the call to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, with blameless Christian living and walking with God as its examples.

The Almighty declares power able to direct and sustain those who trust Him in uncertainty, and joins the command to be blameless to the covenant promise to make Abraham exceedingly numerous and to be God to him and his descendants through their generations in an everlasting covenant, with separation from other nations and circumcision as sign and pledge of faithfulness to its conditions. Walking before Him in this way means living humbly and carefully, continually striving to form a character like the divine character. It means depending on God with the eye single to His glory, hiding self in God, having confidence in Him and holding communion by opening the heart to Him. Those who so walk have God as helper and God, and the Holy Spirit is freely bestowed on every soul exercising such faith.

Such walking moves with godly fear at every step because of belief in His Word, reaching greater and still greater heights of faith that honors God and is justified by works, so that He is not ashamed to be called their God. It looks to Jesus and trusts without discouragement rather than depending on outward illustrations and devices. It follows the path God has marked out instead of a self-chosen, self-righteous pattern of one's own choosing.

To be perfect is God's requirement of perfection of character from Genesis to Revelation, meaning the whole being sanctified, pure like Christ and fully conformed to God's will. It means being holy because He is holy and severed from other peoples to belong to Him, requiring daily conversion to dwell in His presence as His children. Perfection means self subdued and the heart conformed to God's love and perfect love through dependence on the Holy Spirit and surrender to Christ rather than self-reliance. It begins with justification by faith in a risen, ascended Saviour who does the work in an instant, and continues as sanctification, the lifetime work of following on to know the Lord and receiving the Holy Spirit to know God and Jesus Christ.

Obeying it requires a refined, purified, ennobled heart with faith working by love and purifying the soul, seeking Jesus and doing His will, denying self and taking up the cross to follow Christ. It keeps Christ's example ever before the mind, confesses one's own sins without confessing brethren's sins, studies Scripture and constantly beholds Christ to be changed into His image from glory to glory. Where this faith is wanting, love of self crowds out love of Jesus, leads into temptation and forms selfish character on selfish plans, seeing deformities in others when far more objectionable deformities exist in self. Where character is shaped by this love, believers are of one accord so petitions are acceptable, the will wholly submerged in God's will bringing peace and rest, loving one another as Christ loved and united rather than disunited until all dross is removed by the correcting, refining influence of the Spirit and His image is discerned and reflected in love.

Present Application for Believers

It is a present word to God's people now, commanding conversion without delay and daily conversion in order to walk perfect before the Almighty God. To walk perfect in this sense is to act as children of God, realizing that all possessions are His, lent to prove and try whether there is faithfulness, and to be holy unto Him because He is holy. It means being severed from other peoples to belong to Him, that His children may dwell in His presence. Without this conversion no one will dwell in His presence.

For those entrusted with responsibility, especially those in charge of the college at Takoma Park and its teachers, living perfect before Him means exercising wise judgment with more of the Holy Spirit and less self-importance. Those who direct the work of uplifting and saving people are to love God and walk before Him in humility, and by so living become effective instruments in His hands. Discerning the divine Presence and then walking before the Lord and being perfect through His grace given lifts the standard of education in every department of the work to a higher order.