July 27, 2003

THE ARMOR OF LIGHT

Romans 13:1-14

 

   We enter the closing section of Romans 13 addressing "the night," "the flesh," and "the light," and what we are to "put on" and "put off." The time is: "knowing the season," which calls upon us to "awake out of sleep." Next, the time is that our "salvation is near... night is far spent...the day is at hand." We are called to "put off the works of darkness...and put on the armor of light, and to walk honestly [decently] as in the day..." We are to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ ...and to put off all "provision for the flesh" and its lusts.

  The parallel passage, 1 Thess. 5:1-9 employs the same wording. In both we have "knowing, seasons, darkness and light, day and night, sleep and wakefulness, armor and the hope of salvation. Side by side this similarity is more evident.

 

"And that, knowing the time [ season ], that now it is high time to awake out of sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

   The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off [put off] the works of darkness , and let us put on the armor of light.

   Let us walk honestly, as in the day : not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, and not in strife and envying.

   But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." ( Rom. 13:11-14).

"But of the times and the seasons , brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For your selves know perfectly..."

   "Ye are all the children of light , and the children of the day : we are not of the night , nor of the darkness . Therefore let us not sleep , as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night ; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night . But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation ...to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5:1-9).

 

Ivan L. Burgener