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Duties toward One Another
Romans 13.11-14
Good News Translation (GNT)
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11 You must do this, because you know that the
time has come for you to wake up from
your sleep. For the moment when we will be
saved is closer now than it was when we first
believed.
12 The night is nearly over, day is almost here.
Let us stop doing the things that belong to the
dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting
in the light.
13 Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people
who live in the light of day-no orgies
or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency,
no fighting or jealousy.
14 But take up the weapons of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention
to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
Duties toward One Another
Romans 13.11-14
The word slumber (or sleep) means "spiritual slumber."
The time of our salvation, which Paul refers to here, is the end of the world,
when Jesus will come again and destroy the works of Satan
The bodies of all believers will be resurrected.
That is the final step in our salvation - the resurrection or redemption of our bodies.
To believe in Jesus was the first step;
now as each day passes, that final stage of our salvation draws nearer.
But exactly when that final day will be, no one knows but God
We need always to keep in mind that one day Jesus will come again and
then this world will end.
Jesus could come tomorrow. He will come by surprise.
That final day will come like a thief in the night
Jesus says to all believers:
"Be on your guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come - Watch!".
In other words: "Wake up!"
Ifs time for us to wake up from our spiritual slumber;
from now on we must remain alert and ready.
How can we remain ready?
By always doing Jesus' will. If we are walking according to His will,
then we will be ready.
Imagine an angel from heaven coming and saying that Jesus was going to return
to earth in one month. If we received such news, would it make a difference
to how we lived?
Would our spiritual lives be any different during that last month than
they were before we got the news? For most of us, the answer would be yes.
But, in fact, receiving such news should not make that much difference in our lives.
Even though we Christians should not love ourselves,
there is an important sense in which we should value ourselves as cherished
and beloved children of God.
We must not despise ourselves.
If we have a negative and unhealthy image of ourselves,
we will not be able to love God and others as we should.
We should right now be living each day as if Jesus was going to come tomorrow.
When he comes (suddenly), do not let him find you sleeping.
The night of darkness and sin - the reign of Satan - is nearly over;
the day is almost here, when Jesus will come again and defeat Satan once and for all.
Therefore, let us get up at once and put aside the deeds of darkness -
that is, take off our night clothes-and put on the armour of light - our day.
When Jesus comes, which clothes will He find us wearing?
Our night clothes, or our day clothes?
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is our day clothing.
Jesus is our armour of light.
Jesus is all that we need.
Before we can clothe ourselves with Jesus,
we must first put aside our night clothes, our old sinful self.
To clothe ourselves with Jesus is to live by the Holy Spirit,
so that we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
We must make provision for normal bodily necessities -
food, clothing, shelter, fellowship -
but for the desires of the sinful, nature, we must make no provision.
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