Romans 13:11 - Meaning and Application

We are taught here a lesson of sobriety and godliness in ourselves. Our main care must be to watch over ourselves. Four things are set before us as a Christian guide for daily living: when to wake up, how to dress ourselves, how to walk, and what provision to make.

I. When to wake up: it is high time to wake up (Romans 13:11), to wake from the sleep of sin, because a sinful life is a sleeping life, from the sleep of false safety, laziness, and neglect, and from spiritual death and dullness. Both the wise and foolish virgins slumbered and slept (Matthew 25:5). We need to be stirred up often to wakefulness. The command to all Christ's disciples is, Watch. Wake up, be concerned about your souls and your eternal good. Guard against sin, be ready for what is good, and live in constant expectation of our Lord's coming.

Think about the time we are living in. Know the time, and you will see that it is high time to wake up. It is gospel time, the accepted time, working time. It is a time when more is expected than in the days of ignorance, when God overlooked such things, and people sat in darkness. It is high time to wake up, because the sun has been up a long while and shines in our faces. Have we been given this light to sleep in? See (1 Thessalonians 5:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:6). It is high time to wake up, because others are awake around us. Know the time to be busy, for we have much work to do, and our Master keeps calling us to it. Know the time to be dangerous. We are among enemies and traps. It is high time to wake up, for the Philistines are upon us. Our neighbor's house is on fire, and our own is in danger. It is time to wake up, because we have slept long enough (1 Peter 4:3). It is high time indeed, for the bridegroom is coming.

Think also about the salvation we are close to. Now our salvation is nearer than when we believed, that is, than when we first believed and took up the profession of Christianity. The eternal happiness we chose as our portion is now closer than when we became Christians. So let us pay attention to our path and quicken our pace, for we are nearer our journey's end than when we first loved Christ. The nearer we are to our center, the faster we should move. If heaven is only a step away, should we be slow and dull in our Christian life? As the days grow shorter and grace grows stronger, our salvation draws nearer, and our spiritual movements should grow quicker and stronger too.

II. How to dress ourselves. This is the next concern once we are awake and up: the night is far spent, the day is at hand, so it is time to dress ourselves. Clearer light will soon be given in the gospel than has been given so far, just as light keeps advancing. The night of Jewish rage and cruelty is nearly over. Their power to persecute is close to ending. The day of deliverance from them is near, that day of redemption Christ promised (Luke 21:28). And the day of our full salvation in heavenly glory is also near.

Notice what we must put off. We must put off our night clothes, the things it would be shameful to appear in public wearing. Cast off the works of darkness. Sinful works are works of darkness, because they come from ignorance and error, they love secrecy and hiding, and they end in the darkness of hell and ruin. Let us, then, who belong to the day, cast them off, not only stop doing them, but hate and reject them, and have nothing more to do with them. Since eternity is right at the door, let us take care not to be found doing what will stand against us then (2 Peter 3:11, 2 Peter 3:14).

Notice also what we must put on. Our concern should be what clothes we will wear, how we will dress our souls. Put on the armor of light. Christians are soldiers in the middle of enemies, and life is a battle, so their clothing must be armor, that they may stand ready to defend themselves. It is the armor of God, which we are told to use (Ephesians 6:13 and following). A Christian may count himself poorly dressed if he is unarmed. The graces of the Spirit are this armor, guarding the soul against Satan's temptations and the attacks of this present evil world. It is called the armor of light, perhaps because of the bright armor Roman soldiers wore, or because it is fitting for those who walk in daylight. The graces of the Spirit are fitting and beautiful ornaments, precious in God's sight.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14). This stands opposite many ugly sins mentioned earlier in Romans 13:13. Rioting and drunkenness must be cast off. One might expect the next words to be, "Put on sobriety, self-control, and purity," but instead it says, Put on Christ, because that includes all of them. Put on the righteousness of Christ for justification, that is, being counted right with God. Be found in him (Philippians 3:9), as a person is found by the clothes he wears. Put on the priestly garments of the elder brother, so that in them you may receive the blessing. Put on the Spirit and grace of Christ for sanctification, that is, being made holy. Put on the new man (Ephesians 4:24). Strengthen the habits of grace and stir up their actions.

Jesus Christ is the best clothing Christians can wear, both to adorn themselves and to protect themselves. He is fitting, marks us out as his people, gives honor, and defends us. Without Christ, we are naked and deformed. All other coverings are like filthy rags and fig leaves, a poor shelter. God has provided us coats of skins, large, strong, warm, and lasting. By baptism, in outward profession, we have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). Let us do so in truth and sincerity. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put him on as Lord to rule you, as Jesus to save you, and as Christ, the one anointed and appointed by the Father for this ruling and saving work.

III. How to walk. When we are up and dressed, we are not to sit still in a forced privacy like monks and hermits. What are good clothes for if not to be seen outside? Let us walk. Christianity teaches us how to walk so as to please God, whose eye is on us: walk honestly as in the day (1 Thessalonians 4:1). Compare (Ephesians 5:8), walk as children of light. Our conduct must fit the gospel. Walk honestly, that is, decently and properly, so that you honor your profession, adorn the teaching of God our Savior, and make religion attractive to others in its beauty. Christians should be especially careful in the things people watch closely, and they should seek what is lovely and well spoken of.

In particular, we are warned against three pairs of sins. We must not walk in rioting and drunkenness. We must avoid all excess in eating and drinking. We must not encourage wild feasting, and we must not give free rein to bodily appetite in secret excesses. Christians must not burden their hearts with overeating and drunkenness (Luke 21:34). This is not walking as in the day, for those who are drunk are drunk at night (1 Thessalonians 5:7).

Not in sexual immorality or wild lust, not in any of those fleshly desires and dark works forbidden by the seventh commandment. Open adultery and fornication are the clear sins meant by sexual immorality. Lustful thoughts and desires, lustful looks, words, books, songs, gestures, dances, and flirtations, anything that leads to uncleanness or is a step toward it, belong here under wild lust. In short, this covers whatever breaks the pure and holy law of chastity and modest behavior.

Not in strife and envy. These are also works of darkness. Even though acts of fighting and jealousy are common, few people are willing to admit that those are their real motives. God’s best people may be envied and opposed, but it does not fit the followers of the peaceful and humble Jesus to be contentious or jealous. Where there is drunkenness and wild living, there is usually also sexual sin, fighting, and envy. Solomon groups them together in (Proverbs 23:29-33). Those who stay too long at the wine have quarrels, needless wounds, and eyes that look on forbidden women.

What then should we do? “Make no provision for the flesh” (Proverbs 23:14). Do not be overly focused on the body. Our main concern must be to care for our souls, but that does not mean we should ignore our bodies when they have real needs. The command here forbids two things. First, it forbids anxious worry, the kind of careful planning that keeps the mind tied up and strained over bodily needs, like the worry Jesus warned against in (Matthew 6:31). Second, it forbids giving in to wrong desires.

We are not forbidden to provide for the body. It is like a lamp that needs oil. But we are forbidden to satisfy its sinful cravings. Natural needs should be met, but wild appetites must be restrained. Asking for food to meet real need is right, and we are taught to pray for daily bread. But asking for food to feed sinful desire is provoking to God, as in (Psalm 78:18). Those who say they walk by the Spirit must not give in to the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).