In Romans 13:11-14, the Apostle Paul uses a simple metaphor of waking up and getting dressed in the proper clothes as a powerful call for followers of Christ to practice following Him.
In the last post, we briefly examined the New Testament concept of “the last days” and why the New Testament writers cannot be credibly accused of believing that they were living in the last few 24-hour periods of time. Now we turn our attention to Paul’s actual instruction in this passage in vv.11-13a.
Jesus said His Second Coming would happen at an hour that we do not expect. That He would come like a thief in the night. Therefore, though the world around us slumbers in darkness, and walks about as if they are sleepwalking, followers of Jesus are called to awaken from their sleep, knowing the time – that the night is almost gone and the day is near. We are called to be awakened to the fact that our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed – that every day that passes, the return of Christ is closer than it was the previous day. And having woken up (through repenting of our sins and believing on Christ for salvation), we are to lay aside the deeds of darkness and “put on the armor of light.” The Scripture tells us to wake up and get dressed. As those living in a world of darkness, we are to put on the armor of light.
Armor signifies that we are in a spiritual battle (see Ephesians 6:10-17), but we know that our warfare is not of a physical, violent nature. Rather, as followers of Jesus Christ, we wage war in this world of darkness by releasing the captives of satan through the preaching of the Word of God. We bring light into the world by proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord. And in order to stand firm in the strength of the Lord, we must put on the full armor of God, so that we may resist the schemes of the devil (again, Ephesians 6).
And here in Romans 13:13-14, we’re told to “behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
To “behave properly [or: “walk decently”] as in the day” is a call to live as the glorified, sinless people we will be in the Resurrection. Ethically speaking, as Christians who will be raised on the Day of the Lord to eternal life in the Resurrection, the highest form of righteous living we can aspire to is to live as the new creation people we have been saved to be; to turn away from sin and to live holy before the Lord. It is, of course, impossible for us to live perfectly sinless lives before we are glorified (either in death or at the Second Coming of Christ), nevertheless we are called to be sanctified, to repent of sin, to obey God, and to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
This is quite the opposite of what many false teachers have taught today: that God does not take our sins seriously and does not expect them to be dealt with. As Christians, we know that God has dealt with all of our sins on the cross. On the cross of Christ, God poured out His wrath for sin so that anyone who would repent and believe on Christ for salvation would be saved. Therefore, in Christ, we no longer have to fear God’s wrath for sin because He has poured out His wrath for our sins (past, present, and future) on Christ. However, no one who is truly in Christ desires to live in sin any longer. No one who is truly in Christ embraces a participation in sin any longer (see John 14:15, 23; Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; James 2:14-26; Hebrews 10:26-31; 1 John 1:5–2:6; et al.). We are called to behave properly as in the day; to walk in righteousness as we will in that Day when Christ will have returned and made all things new. We are called to strive for repentance and for the mortification of our sins, relying upon the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit. We are called to wage war against our own sin, and against the power of sin in the world, through the proclamation of the gospel. And so it is imperative that we lay aside the deeds of darkness, recognizing that our Lord Christ is coming again!
In Romans 13:13b-14, Paul lists three pairs of vices for Christians to avoid, and gives us the alternative for how we are to live. We will examine these vices in the next post. God bless and thanks for reading!
Chase Thompson 