Romans 13:11-14 - Clothing Yourself with Jesus

Today, Thursday April 8 Romans 13:11-14 – Clothing Yourself with Jesus Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” In Romans 13, Paul has been giving to us reasons for obeying the law: We should fear the consequences of breaking the law and the punishment of the government. Even our conscience should warn us of the difficulties we will encounter if we do wrong. I’m convinced we are born with a conscience that has a sense of right and wrong. We should also do right for the sake of the Lord Jesus and because of our love and devotion to Him! The chapter ends with the motivation of doing good with the emphasis is on the imminent return of Christ. As His servants, we want to be found faithful when He returns. The completion of our salvation is near! The light is dawning! Therefore, we should be ready! Paul gave several admonitions in the light of the Lord's soon return. The first is, "Wake up!" Take time to look up 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, where Paul gives even more detail about how we should avoid evil because the day is coming when our Lord will return. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 25:1-13. The second is, "Clean up!" We do not want to be found dressed in dirty garments when the Lord returns (1 John 2:28-3:3). The Christian wears the armor of light, not the deeds of darkness. If we are wearing the light of Jesus we don’t have to fight with the darkness of evil, it will flee from the light! It always does! Yes, we as followers of Jesus have no reason to get involved in the sinful pleasures of the world. Finally, Paul admonished, "Grow up and dress properly" (vs. 13). To "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ means to become more like Him, to receive by faith all that He is for our daily living. We grow on the basis of the food we eat. This is why God warns us not to make provisions for the flesh. If we feed the flesh, we will fail; but if we feed the inner man the nourishing things of the Spirit, we will succeed. In other words, a Christian citizen ought to be the best citizen. Christians may not always agree on politics or parties, but they can all agree on their attitude toward human government and to each other! Remember Jesus gave us an example! God bless!