Romans 13:13-14

“ Let us walk becomingly, as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and passion; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be not preoccupied with the flesh to excite its lusts. ”

The words ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ signify: “as is done in full day;” but not without allusion to the fact that the light which shines in the believer's soul is the very light which shall break on the world in the day of salvation, in the hour of the Parousia; comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

Christian holiness is represented here as the highest decency (εὐσχημόνως, decently), to be compared with that full attitude of dignity which the rising of the sun enjoins on the man who respects himself. Worldly conduct resembles, on the contrary, those indecencies to which men dare not give themselves up except by burying them in the shades of night. Such a mode of acting is therefore incompatible with the situation of a man who is already enlightened by the first rays of the great day.

The works of night are enumerated in pairs: first, sensuality in the forms of eating and drinking; then impurity, those of brutal libertinism and wanton lightness; finally, the passions which break out either in personal disputes or party quarrels. This last term seems to me to express the meaning of the word ζῆλος, in this passage, better than the translations jealousy or envy. Comp. 1 Corinthians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:20.

Vv. 14. To lay aside what belongs to the night of worldly life, is only the first part of the preparation to which we are called by the rising of the great day. Our concern must be, besides, to put on the dispositions which are in keeping with so holy and brilliant a light. What is this new equipment which we must haste to substitute for the old? Paul indicates it in the expression: to put on Jesus Christ. He certainly speaks of Christ here not as our righteousness, but as our sanctification, 1 Corinthians 1:30. The toilet of the believer, if one may venture so to speak, in view of the approaching salvation, consists solely in putting on Christ, in appropriating by habitual communion with Him all His sentiments and all His manner of acting. He thus becomes for His redeemed ones Himself the robe for the marriage-feast. The Christian will be unable to stand before Him except in so far as he is “found in Him ” (Php 3:9).

It seemed as if this forcible recommendation: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,” should close the passage. But the apostle adds a last word, which is certainly intended to form the transition to the following passage.

This pure garment of the believer (Christ's holiness which he appropriates) should be kept free from every stain. But the apostle here perceives a very common infirmity, which is not made greatly matter of selfreproach, and against which he feels the need of putting his readers particularly on their guard. It is a sensuality which has not the gross character of the works of night, and which may even assume a lawful form. The body being an indispensable servant, is it not just to take care of it? The apostle does not deny this. But to take care of the body and to be preoccupied with its satisfaction are two different things. The expression πρόνοιαν ποιεῖσθαι, to give oneself up to preoccupation, clearly indicates a thought directed with a certain intensity toward sensual enjoyment. I do not think the notion of sin is contained in the word flesh, which simply denotes here our sensitive nature; it is rather to be found in the term: to preoccupy oneself with. Paul does not forbid the believer to accept a pleasure which comes of itself; comp. the touching expression, Acts 27:3, where it is said of Julius the centurion that he allowed Paul to repair to his friends to enjoy their attentions (ἐπιμελείας τυχεῖν). But to accept with pleasure the satisfaction which God gives, is quite another thing from going in quest of pleasure. In this second case there is a weakness, or, to speak more properly, a defilement which spoils the marriage garments of many Christians.

The last words: εἰς ἐπιθυμίας, literally, for lusts, may be regarded either as expressing the aim of the preoccupation: “Do not preoccupy yourselves with a view to satisfying lusts,” or, as a reflection of Paul himself, intended to justify the previous warning: “Do not preoccupy yourselves with the satisfaction of the flesh so as to (or: which would not fail to) give rise to lusts.” Both constructions are possible. But the second meaning seems to us simpler. The clause εἰς ἐπιθυμίας thus understood well justifies the warning: “Be not preoccupied with”...

These verses, Romans 13:13-14, have acquired a sort of historical celebrity; for, as related by St. Augustine in the eighth book of the Confessions, they were the occasion of his conversion, already prepared for by his relations with St. Ambrose. If Romans 13:13 had been the inscription of his past life, Romans 13:14 became that of his new life.

We may now be convinced that the practical treatise, which serves as a complement to the doctrinal, is not less systematically arranged than the latter was. The four parts of which it is composed: faith in the mercies of God as the basis of Christian life (Romans 12:1-2); the realization of this life in the two spheres, religious and civil, under the supreme law of love (Romans 12:3-21 and Romans 13:1-10); finally, the eye of hope constantly fixed on the coming of Christ as the spring of progress in sanctification (Romans 13:11-14; these four parts, we say, which may be reduced to three, bring us without straining to Paul's ordinary triad: faith, love, and hope (1Th 1:3; 1 Corinthians 13:13, etc.). It might be asked, no doubt, how it comes that in this summary of Christian morals he omits family duties, so well set forth in the Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians. But perhaps the subject of domestic life appeared to him too particular to find a place in so general an exposition.