Reading… and Thinking

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.

— Romans 13:11-14 (ESV)

There is a word picture here. It’s early morning, just before dawn. It’s time to get up. Instead of an alarm clock, there is someone standing beside your bed. They’re saying, “Come on, you know what time it is. It’s time to get up!” What went on in the night is past. The party, the fight, the sleep. It’s daytime, and a whole different set of behaviors is appropriate for the day.

On one level, this is you waking up to the truth about God, realizing that all the world is in darkness, and is involved in things that belong to the night. On another level, the end of the world’s long night is near, the Sun of Righteousness is about to rise. Salvation is close now, with the arrival of the Lord just around the corner. Paul seems to mix these two together.

And both levels bring us to the same conclusion. It’s completely inappropriate for us to be involved in the works of darkness. The Lord is the light of the world, and we are his. He said that we are the light of the world. God dwells in light. This light, Paul says, is our armor. So, we indeed should conduct ourselves properly, as in the daytime.

Perhaps the key point is the last line. “Make no provision for the flesh.” We do that, don’t we? We have great intentions, we even do a lot that’s right. But we always make provision for the flesh. We always want to be comfortable, to be stimulated, to be entertained. So we set aside some time, some money, some of who we are…in short we make provision that our flesh will be able to enjoy the things we like so much.

“Make no provision for the flesh.” I don’t think I’ve ever run across an exhortation in Scripture that’s tougher than this one. It’s simple, clear, uncompromising. It is, in fact, a distillation of the way of life of the Lord Jesus. What we must not do is say, “Ah, well, he could do it. But he was perfect and I’m not. So there you have it. Can’t be done.” Paul didn’t write this to Jesus. He wrote it to you and me.