Section 5
steicho, which means to range in regular line, to march in military rank, to keep step, to conform to virtue and piety, as used in Romans 4:12; Ga latians 5:25; 6:16. It is different from the word walk in Philippians 3:17 and 18, which means to live, to deport oneself, to be occupied with, to walk about, as used in Romans 6:4; 8:4; 13:13; 1 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians 5:16; and Ephesians 4:1, 17. By this word the apostle charges us to walk and order our lives by the same rule, in the same line, in the same path, in the same foot steps, whereunto we have attained, at the state to which we have attained. Whatever state we have attained to in our spiritual life, we all must walk by the same rule, in the same path, as the apostle did; that is, to pursue Christ toward the goal that we may gain Him to the fullest extent as the prize of God's calling from above.
The Greek word stoicheo is a verbal form of the noun which means element. We do not have an English equivalent for this word. In English we can use element as a noun, but not as a verb. One version adopts the rendering "observe the ele ments." This conveys much of the original mean ing; however, I do not care to use the word observe here. Perhaps the Greek should be rendered "walk according to the elementary principles," since the