Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 13:13
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
13. honestly ] Margin, decently, i.e. becomingly; with the true decorum of a life of obedience to the will of God.
as in the day ] Here again the metaphor slightly varies its point. The Gr. is, nearly lit., as by day; “as men walk by day.” The Christian is thus bidden to think of himself as in the daylight; with light on him and around him. This is probably here the “light” of 1Jn 1:7; the light of the knowledge of the Holy One, and of His felt presence. (See Psa 139:12.) Such “light” is the dawning of that Day in which “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is;” and this accords with the imagery of Rom 13:12.
rioting ] Cp. Gal 5:21; 1Pe 4:3.
drunkenness ] The Gr. (as in Gal. and 1 Pet. just quoted) is plural; drinking-bouts.
chambering ] Again plural: indulgences of lustful pleasure.
wantonness ] Again plural: the varieties of lascivious sin are suggested.
Such warnings as these, addressed to the justified and believing, not to a mass of merely conventional Christians, are indications of the immense force of moral corruption in the heathen world out of which the Christians had lately come, and which everywhere surrounded them. But they also indicate the permanent fact that the most sincere Christian, in the happiest times, is never in his own strength invulnerable even by gross temptation.
not in strife and envying ] Sins of the temper are here classed with lusts of the flesh; as often. See e.g. Gal 5:19-20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let us walk – To walk is an expression denoting to live; let us live, or conduct, etc.
Honestly – The word used here means rather in a decent or becoming manner; in a manner appropriate to those who are the children of light.
As in the day – As if all our actions were seen and known. People by day, or in open light, live decently; their foul and wicked deeds are done in the night. The apostle exhorts Christians to live as if all their conduct were seen, and they had nothing which they wished to conceal.
In rioting – Revelling; denoting the licentious conduct, the noisy and obstreperous mirth, the scenes of disorder and sensuality, which attend luxurious living.
Drunkenness – Rioting and drunkenness constitute the first class of sins from which he would keep them. It is scarcely necessary to add that these were common crimes among the pagan.
In chambering – Lewd, immodest behavior. (Webster.) The Greek word includes illicit indulgences of all kinds, adultery, etc. The words chambering and wantonness constitute the second class of crimes from which the apostle exhorts Christians to abstain. That these were common crimes among the pagan, it is not necessary to say; see the Rom. 1 notes; also Eph 5:12 note. It is not possible, nor would it be proper, to describe the scenes of licentious indulgence of which all pagans are guilty. Since Christians were to be a special people, therefore the apostle enjoins on them purity and holiness of life.
Not in strife – Strife and envying are the third class of sins from which the apostle exhorts them. The word strife means contention, disputes, litigations. The exhortation is that they should live in peace.
Envying – Greek, Zeal. It denotes any intense, vehement, fervid passion. It is not improperly rendered here by envying. These vices are properly introduced in connection with the others. They usually accompany each other. Quarrels and contentions come out of scenes of drunkenness and debauchery. But for such scenes, there would be little contention, and the world would be comparatively at peace.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 13:13-14
Let us walk honestly, as in the day.
Rules for walking in the day
I. In general. Walk honestly (Tit 2:12).
1. Soberly.
2. Righteously.
3. Godly.
II. In particular.
1. Not in rioting and drunkenness (Isa 5:13).
(1) This deprives us of the use of reason.
(2) And so, for the present, blots out the image of God.
(3) Makes men unfit for duty (Luk 21:34; Hos 4:11).
(4) Exposeth a man to all other sin.
(5) Hath a particular curse entailed upon it (Isa 5:11; Pro 23:29-30, etc.).
2. Not in chambering and wantonness (Heb 13:4). To avoid this–
(1) Be careful to keep a good conscience (Gen 39:9).
(2) Watch over your spirits (Mal 2:16).
(3) Pray against it (Psa 119:37).
3. Strife and envying.
(1) They are signs of a carnal mind (1Co 3:3; Gal 5:19-20; Jam 3:14-15).
(2) Proceed only from pride and ignorance (1Ti 6:4).
(3) Produce confusion and evil works (Jam 3:16-17).
4. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) By baptism (Gal 3:27).
(2) By faith, we put on–
(a) His righteousness.
(i) Christ took our nature upon Him (Joh 1:14).
(ii) Suffered for our sins (Isa 53:5-6).
(iii) By this He expiated our sins, and purchased righteousness for us (1Jn 2:2).
(iv) All believers are interested in all His sufferings and righteousness (Gal 2:16).
(v) Hence their sins are hid, as it were, from the eyes of God (Rom 8:33-34; Php 3:8-9).
(b) His graces.
(i) Humility (1Pe 5:5; Mat 11:29).
(ii) Self-denial (Mat 16:24).
(iii) Temperance (1Co 7:31).
(iv) Patience (Luk 21:19; Jam 1:3).
(v) Thankfulness (1Th 5:18).
(vi) Heavenly-mindedness (Php 3:20).
(vii) Charity (Act 10:38; Jam 1:27).
(viii) Constancy and perseverance (Rev 2:26).
III. Use.
1. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider–
(1) Your sins are many, and it is only by Him they can be pardoned (1Jn 2:1).
(2) Your sins are strong, and only by Him subdued,
(3) God angry, only by Him appeased (Mat 3:17).
(4) Your hearts corrupted, only by Him cleansed (1Co 1:2).
(5) Your souls are immortal, and it is only by Him that they can be saved (Act 16:30-31). (Bp. Beveridge.)
How the Christian ought to walk
I. Consistently–as in the day.
II. Temperately–subjecting–
1. Appetite.
2. Sense.
3. Passion.
III. Like Christ.
1. Denying himself.
2. Condemning sin in the flesh. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Christian sincerity
Standing near the remarkable spring at Ewell, in Surrey, and watching the uprising of the waters, one sees at the bottom of the pool innumerable circles with smaller circles within them, from which extremely fine sand is continually being upheaved by the force of the rising water. Tiny geysers upheave their little founts, and from a myriad openings bubble up with the clear crystal. The perpetual motion of the water and the leaping of the sand are most interesting. It is not like the spring-head in the field, where the cooling liquid pours forth perpetually from a spout, all unseen, till it plunges into its channel; nor like the river head where the stream weeps from a mass of mossy rock; but here are the fountains of earths hidden deeps all unveiled and laid bare, the very veins of nature opened to the public gaze. How would it amaze us if we could in this fashion peer into the springs of human character and see whence words and actions flow! What man would wish to have his designs and aims exposed to every onlooker? But why this aversion to being known and read of all men? The Christians motives and springs of action should be so honest and pure that he might safely defy inspection. He who has nothing to be ashamed of has nothing to conceal. Sincerity can afford, like our first parents in Paradise, to be naked and not ashamed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Put on Christ
I. There is a wonderful fitness in Christs character to meet the condition of sinners. Put on Christ as–
1. Your hope before God.
2. Your sanctification.
3. Your help.
4. Your exemplar.
II. There is this fitness in nothing else than Christ.
III. Therefore, if we would be happy, we must make use of Christ for ourselves. Put Him on in your–
1. Thoughts.
2. Affections.
3. Conversation.
4. Profession. (Matthew Wilks.)
How and why we are to put on Christ
I. What is intended by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the East garments are of greater importance than with us. The finest were there accumulated, preserved with the greatest care, and constituted a considerable part of wealth. Hence more frequent allusions are made to this than we are accustomed to use. In the Bible, qualities of character are often represented by clothing. Job says, I put on righteousness as a robe. In Isaiah the Messiah is introduced as clad with zeal as with a cloak. Our Lord represents the accepted character of a believer by the wedding garment of a guest, and Peter exhorts us to be clothed with humility, etc. We put on Christ–
1. When we make an open profession of His name. It is not enough to believe. Latent faith can at the best only edify its possessor. But the Church is intended to be the light of the world. Whoever conceals his religion must accept the consequence. Whoso is ashamed of Me, etc.
2. By cultivating an acquaintance with the doctrines, imbuing our minds with the spirit and sentiments, of the gospel. All the doctrines of Christianity are intended to expel our native corruption, and raise us nearer to the character and will of God. We cannot then put on Christ, without the serious perusal of the Scriptures, and the devout contemplation of the Cross.
3. When we imitate His example. Other models are imperfect, and unsafe for universal imitation: but that challenges our entire pursuit. One great end of His obedience unto death was that He might leave us an example whose steps we might follow. In order to obey the will of God you cannot adopt any method so simple and sure as to inquire, How can I this day act in a manner most consonant to the mind of Christ?
II. Why are we to put on Christ?
1. That Christ may be glorified by us. If we love Him, we shall desire to glorify Him: but what can tend so much to His glory, as to let men see the efficacy of His doctrine on our character? Nothing can be so calculated to counteract infidelity and convince men that there is a Saviour.
2. That we may experience religious peace and joy, by making it clear to ourselves that we belong to Him. You never knew a person, however depressed by poverty or sickness, who, if he sincerely served the Lord, was not happy.
3. That we may best prepare for a dying hour, and for the solemn scenes beyond. This is to put on the wedding garment; the want of this, in the day when the King comes in to see the guests, will leave a man speechless! (Robert Hall, M.A.)
Putting on Christ
The Hebrew language one continual picture. Every fact and emotion rendered by an image. The truth, e.g., that Christ is life, and that apart from Christ is no life, is act forth most often by vivid metaphors. The general significance of the present metaphor is that the old sinful life is to be doffed like a soiled and sordid garment, and the new nature which Christ gives and inspires, is to be put on like a new and shining robe.
I. Try to be like Christ. Love what Christ loved, hate what Christ hated. The next clause helps to explain this part of the meaning, by giving us its opposite.
II. But perhaps you will say, If that be all, any moralist might, in other language, tell us the same. We read something like it in every noble teacher. We know in our best moments that we arc mean, guilty creatures, but we do not know how to be otherwise. You bid us seek for nobler manners and purer tastes; you might as well bid the snared bird to fly, or the worm to throw off the rock which is crushing it to earth. Well, the gospel of Christ has broken the snare, and rolled away the rock. To put on Christ is to share His might, to come into quickening electric personal contact with Him, to derive magnetic force from His personality, to live by His Spirit, and so to be born again and to become a new creature.
III. We look at our ruined selves, our corrupted hearts, our wasted lives, and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes. How can we ever stand before God, who chargeth even the angels with folly, and in whose sight the very heavens are not clean? Ah, but there is yet another and more blessed meaning of putting on Christ, and it is to be found in Him; not trusting in our own righteousness which is as filthy rags, but being clad in the white robe of His forgiving grace. How heart-broken have been the last utterances of even the greatest men! (Grotius. Bacon and Shakespeare in their wills.) Conclusion: Such, then, is the meaning of this Divine message. Break with your past self; come to Christ for strength, and by prayer to Him and earnestly seeking Him, be quickened and transformed. And as it means this hope for the future, and this strength in the present, so also it means forgiveness for the past. Say not, then, that the meaning is not clear; strive rather to make it yours by blessed experience. (Archdn. Farrar.)
Putting on Christ
I. What is implied in this? This is a figurative expression for an interest in Christ, union with Him, and conformity to Him.
1. As our wisdom, for our illumination.
(1) To give light to our understanding in the knowledge of the Scriptures.
(2) To correct and rectify our judgment on all points of necessary belief.
(3) To inform our conscience in all matters of practice.
(4) To guide our will, and influence our affections, in the subjects of our choice, desire, pursuit, and expectation.
2. As our righteousness, for our justification.
3. As the source of the Spirit, and of grace, for our sanctification.
4. As our example, for our direction and improvement in holiness. This is considered by interpreters as the chief thing meant. Chrysostom remarks, It is a common phrase that a person has put him on, whom he imitates. The kings of Persia, on their coronation-day, put on a robe which the first Cyrus wore before he was king, to remind them of imitating his exemplary temper and behaviour. Certainly one grand end of the appearance of Christ in our nature, was to set us an example of blamelessness, usefulness, holiness (Joh 12:26; Col 2:6; 1Pe 2:21; 1Jn 2:6). Hence, those that have put on Christ will conduct themselves as directed in the context. They will walk honestly, in a manner becoming their privileges.
II. Why we ought to do so.
1. That being clothed, we may not be found naked, destitute of the robe of righteousness, and garment of salvation.
2. For decency, it being a shame to be unclothed, especially garments being provided for us.
3. For defence against error, sin, misery, the wrath of God, an accusing conscience, and all the consequences of neglect.
4. For ornament; that we may not be without the wedding garment, and therefore be excluded from the marriage feast. (J. Benson.)
Putting on Christ
I. The duty enforced.
1. Toput on Christ is to endeavour to be like Him, to have Him on is to succeed in the attempt. It is the investment of the soul with the virtues which adorned His character, just as a man clothes his body with articles of dress. Many a man has so done this as to put others in mind of Christ; he was so Christlike; just as if one of His followers after His departure had put on the garments which Christ had worn. Does any one of us put others in mind of Jesus?
2. To put on Christ does not mean any mechanical attempts after mere external likeness, as clothes may be put on a lay figure, or a portrait wrought on canvas. What is meant is not so much a studied imitation of what in Him may have met the eye of observers, as the culture of a deep internal sympathy with His Spirit which manifested itself in words and deeds. You may put royal robes on a corpse, and in particular lights and distances it may seem alive. In the same way a mere simulated likeness to Christ may be put on a dead spiritual nature; but this, so far from representing Him, presents only an aggravated image of His worst enemies whom He denounced as whited sepulchres. Christ is not to be put on over the natural man, but the natural man becoming spiritual, a visible Christ comes out as an emanation from within; just as His inward essential glory came out on the Mount of Transfiguration.
3. To put on Christ is not synonymous with the being clothed with Christs justifying righteousness, and so hiding our sins from the sight of God; it rather refers to sanctification–a subjective participation of life through Christ, and the consequent outgrowth of conformity to Him. It comes after justification. As many as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ, etc.
4. The precept suggests the moral perfection of Christ. No caution is given, as if there were some things which were not to be put on. There is no fear of your being too much like Him. It would not do to speak thus of any one else, however distinguished. In every other character there is something to be excepted, e.g., Abrahams duplicity, Davids bloodguiltiness, etc. Nevertheless
(1) There were things in Christ we cannot and must not imitate. Here we distinguish between an example and a pattern. The latter is to be literally traced, just as the engraver produces the facsimile of a painting; the former may be something whose form we cannot repeat, but whose principle we may imbibe and infuse into other acts different in form but of the same kind. Thus we cannot like Christ perform miracles, but we can cultivate the spirit of love which moved Him to do what He did. We shall not be tempted as He was; but the same parts of our nature will be assailed; and we can learn to resist as He resisted, with the sword of the Spirit. It might not be right for us to go into the company of sinners as He did, nor employ His terrible invectives; but we can cherish the spirit which led Him to seek the lost, and sympathise with His repugnance to evil. We have not Christs personal religion which had no repentance.
(2) There were many acts of personal holiness and relative virtue which our Lord could not exercise. He was not a merchant, magistrate, or head of a household. But He embodied the principle of universal obedience, and fulfilled every obligation arising from all the relations which He could or did sustain towards God and man. This is what we are to do, and to learn from Him to do.
II. To whom the duty appertains. The words are addressed to a Christian Church, who have received the gospel. Those who believe in Christ, and are reconciled to God by Him, are required to put Him on. But let no man go on sinning in the supposition that some day by Divine grace he may become converted and then put on Christ. This should be remembered by the children of Christian families particularly. Let their earliest lesson be to strive to be like Christ, and after many a failure they may gradually come to a sense of forgiving mercy which will not be lessened by their endeavours before they knew the precise nature cf their obligations to Him.
III. How it is to be carried out. To put on Christ there must be–
1. A thoroughly honest desire to be like Him. This needs deep consideration and prayer for the grace of the Holy Spirit.
2. A frequent and devout study of the character of Jesus in order to understand both its form and spirit.
3. A study of what Christ taught and required.
4. A deliberate and habitual effort to realise all this in personal character and life.
5. Seasons of special self-examination as to likeness or unlikeness to Christ.
6. Carefulness to guard against religious acts becoming formalities.
IV. The blessedness of fulfilling this duty.
1. It constitutes the most solid and satisfactory proof of inward religion. The spiritual processes of contrition, faith, forgiveness, dec., are all inward and secret, and so there is a necessity for the practical fruits of these in likeness to Christ, to be brought forth, so that the Christian and others may have full demonstration that he is born of God.
2. It is the only way of securing that peace and comfort which specifically belong to the religious life. The peace of the sinner flows into him entirely from without; the peace of a saint from purified affections and Godlikeness, and in proportion as he puts on Christ will this be secured to him in Christs companionship.
3. It is the great secret of spiritual strength, safety, and perseverance. The text gives us the meaning of the armour of light.
4. It is the best preparation for the day of His coming, when they only who are like Him will be able to see Him as He is. (T. Binney, LL.D.)
Christs character the souls true garment
The soul requires a garment as well as the body, and the true garment of the soul is the character of Christ. This is–
I. A most indispensable garment. Sin has stripped the soul of its true attire, and three things mark its history everywhere.
1. Moral shame. It shrinks from the eye of scrutiny.
2. Painful exposure. It is at the mercy of the elements around it.
3. Robing expedients. From the time that our first parents sewed their fig leaves, every, soul has been busy at some garment. The old Pagan world was full of such manufactures, nor is the modern religious world destitute of such self-made robes, but they are all filthy rags.
II. A most precious garment. The most valuable thing in the world is moral goodness, whose most perfect form is the character of Christ. This garment is–
1. Ever beautiful. How great is His beauty. We beheld His glory, etc. The highest beings in the universe admire this robe.
2. Ever enduring. The costly robes of princes shall rot, even the heavens themselves shall be folded up as a vesture, but the character of Christ shall last for ever.
III. A most available garment. We are constantly putting on the characters of others. This assimilation is a law of our social being. Our characters are formed on the principle of imitation. The character of Him is most easily attainable by us. He has the most–
1. Lovableness. He whom we love most we shall imitate most. Christ is infinitely lovable.
2. Accessibleness. He, if lovable, with whom we can have the most free, constant, and uninterrupted access, will impress us most easily with his characteristics. Christ is ever with us. Our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The garment of salvation
I. What is it to put on the Lord Jesus Christ? It implies the taking of–
1. His merit.
2. His spirit and temper.
3. His badge, and making a public profession of being His servants.
II. How are we to do this? By–
1. An internal application of Him. Thus we put on Christ before God, and make Him our only–
(1) Plea.
(2) Ground of justification.
(3) Hope of glory.
2. An external profession of Him, by works before men. (R. Cecil, M.A.)
The believers dress
cast every other in the shade.
I. Costly. It cost the King of Glory His life and death (Php 2:6-8).
II. Comfortable. It fills the soul with peace and joy (Rom 15:13).
III. Complete. It leaves not part of body or soul exposed (Col 2:10).
IV. Comely, in the eyes of God, angels, and men (Eze 16:14).
V. Glorious (2Co 3:18).
VI. Durable (Heb 13:8).
VII. Divine (Jer 23:6). (T. Robinson, D.D.)
The best dress
(Childrens Sermon):–It is–
I. A new dress.
1. It is not our natural dress.
2. It is of peculiar excellence.
II. A rich dress. To put on Christ is to put on–
1. Humility, as the tunic, always worn, fitting the body close.
2. Love, as the cloak, often taken off to cast round others.
3. Truth, as the girdle, making the wearer strong and ready for work.
4. Obedience, as the sandals.
III. A Church dress, because–
1. It is the best. It is right to wear the best dress in church.
2. It is sacred.
IV. A court dress. You will wear this dress in heaven. Keep it well, then; you are to see the King in it. (J. Edmond, D.D.)
The drama of life
The apostle meant, Personify Christ; act His part Never it is true, shall we be perfect as the Master was; but by patience, prayer, and effort we may come to resemble Him closely. A young artist may be twitted as he sits before his model with, Are you vain enough to think that you can paint as well as Titian or Turner? He will reply, No, but I hope by industry to make fair copies of their pictures.
I. Directions.
1. Study your part well. No success without this. Alexander carried a copy of Homer with him in all his campaigns. Eminent orators have studied Demosthenes and Cicero. Lord Wolseley has made war his one study. How widely Dickens observed! So success in our line cannot be achieved without habitual regard to Christ. Beholding as in a glass, etc. A saint had a vision of Christ on which he gazed so long that he afterwards found in his own hands and feet the marks of the nails. A mere fable, but one with an impressive moral.
2. Attend to private preparation. Solitary discipline has ever preceded public proficiency in musicians, soldiers, etc. Communion with God will keep us right in our fellowship with man.
3. Be an enthusiast. He who has no higher ambition than to get through his part will never be a good actor. How comes it, asked a bishop of Garrick, that I, in expounding Divine truths, produce so little effect, while you so easily rouse the deepest feelings of your audience by the representation of your fiction? Because, said the actor, I recite fiction as if it were truth, while you deliver truth as if it were fiction.
II. Encouragements.
1. You have a prompter–the Holy Ghost, He shall bring all things to your remembrance, etc. Napoleon III. wrote, I always make my great uncle my model, his spirit accompanying me, and enabling me to succeed in the same. We may make a higher boast than that.
2. Others have acted their part well.
3. Never mind though you act badly at first. When Kemble made his first appearance he was laughed down; so was Disraeli.
4. You will be applauded if you act your part well–by God and the good. (T. R. Stephenson.)
Persuasives and dissuasives
Here is–
I. A persuasive to holiness–put on Christ.
1. His humility and self-denial.
2. His meekness and patience.
3. His purity and fervent zeal.
II. A dissuasive from sin.
1. Guard against its occasions.
2. Check the first desire.
3. Mortify its lusts. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ
There are two methods of moral improvement: first, acting from ourselves according to an abstract principle; and, secondly, living over again the example of actual excellence. It is the latter method to which the text points. It is certainly a very remarkable power which God has given us, of realising in ourselves a character different from our own. We cannot fail to see in such a constitution the Divine purpose, not only that we should enter into the feeling of others, but moreover that we should enrich our own nature; not be confined strictly to our native tendencies and original biases, but borrow others wisdom, copy others virtue, and incorporate into our own being a thousand exotic excellences. A consideration of some of the modes in which this representing, realising power operates may help us to understand it as a moral faculty, and consecrate it to the highest uses. Do we not see a very familiar display of it in the genius of the poet, by which he conceives of characters–creatures of his imagination, yet true to nature–distinguished from one another and from himself in their modes of thought and actuating passions, and, through all the variety of situations in which they may be placed, severally well sustained? Nothing is more common than this representation in the Bible itself. Sacred historian, psalmist, and prophet are continually figuring certain characters before our minds as examples or warnings. The parables of our Lord are commonly but portraitures to our spiritual fancy of diverse moral characters; and we can learn the lesson He intends only by a vigorous use of this representing and reproducing power. The exercises, too, of the human voice in recitation and oratory, only set before us in tones what the pen has first traced in simple words. From the child that is taught to speak the sentiments of some saint or martyr in his earliest declamations at school, to the grave debater in legislative halls; from the narrator at the fireside, to the lively rehearser of inspired pages of human composition, or the edifying reader of the sacred Word of God, what do we see throughout but this very endeavour of the soul to personate and put on the meaning and feeling of some other character, and, so far as it is understood and believed to be a noble character, to adopt, appropriate, and live over again its nobleness? Or, to illustrate the subject from more homely, universally known facts, the strong working of this assimilating power of the soul will not be doubted by any who have noticed how in daily life we continually fashion each other, and are fashioned by those we are with; who have observed the contagion of custom in a community, the transfer of manners, the mutual likeness often obtaining both of moral traits and visible expression between husband and wife, and more or less all the dwellers under a single roof, and, in short, the transforming force upon our own hearts from the scenes we enter, the presence we stand in, the books we read, the images we contemplate. This impersonation of the soul, in the use and actual bearing of every man, exceeds in subtlety and extent all the imaginations that poetry has ever expressed. Therefore is not the Divine wisdom toward us shown, when the Scripture fixes on this fundamental instinct as a moral power to be dedicated, for its main employment, to our spiritual growth? Like the painter who drew in a single likeness the transcript of what was best in each selected countenance, we shall be continually transferring from the vast galleries of Providence and Holy Writ, from the society of the present and the past, and from the face of those on earth or in heaven, the manifold moral beauty which is every creatures best, and thus put that imitative and personating faculty, by which we pass into anothers heart, to its highest designed use. The justice we admire, the charity we love, the holy zeal and endurance we revere, the fervent adoration and self-devotion which makes our hearts burn–all these we possess and become. The whole gospel is preached and summed up in that single exhortation. To put on Christ; to be found in Him, not having our own righteousness; to be clothed with His meekness and humility; to have His spirit, and the same mind in us that was also in Him; to open our hearts for His abode, and have Him formed within us, the hope of glory–who but recognises at once, in this so controverted and abused language, the burden of the New Testament? And wherein is the sense of this language, if not in the appropriation of His worth to our nature, by the force of sympathy, and of a twofold spiritual consciousness operating to unite Him to ourselves? Thus the Divine graces of His character are not impressed in the way of mere commandment alone; but, as the beauty of the landscape and the fragrance of flowers possess our outward senses, so these finer influences sink into the deeper perceptions of the spirit. No poets imagination, no speakers expression, no artists fancy, no friendships experience, and no other character on the historic pages can work on us the elevating transformation which we feel in gazing on our Master as He appears in the artless evangelic accounts, till our whole thought becomes identified with the object of our regard, and He appears to us, not in human articles of theoretic belief, but shines with a living glory into our real knowledge and love. Neither can any simple self-culture, which has perhaps been too much our method, any laborious efforts of will, any works or merits of ours, suffice for our salvation, and lift us into the highest Divine frame, without this admiring absorption of mind into the model and mould of perfection, by which we put on Jesus Christ. (C. A. Bartol.)
Robed in Christs righteousness
The moment the man believes in Jesus Christ he is in the righteousness of Christ–perfectly righteous; he has put upon him the Saviours garments. You heard Mr. Weaver say on this platform–I thought it was a good illustration–that one day he met with a very poor man who was in rags. This man being a Christian, he wished to befriend him; he told him if he would go home with him, he would give him a suit of clothes. So, said Richard, I went upstairs and took off my second best, and put on my Sunday best, for I did not want to give him my best. I sent the man upstairs, and told him he would find a suit which he could put on; it was my second best. So after he had put on the clothes, and left his rags behind, he came down and said, Well, Mr. Weaver, what do you think of me? Well, I said, I think you look very respectable. Oh, yes, but, Mr. Weaver, it is not me; I am not respectable, it is your clothes that are respectable. And so, added Mr. Weaver, so is it with the Lord Jesus Christ; He meets us covered with the rags and filth of sin, and He tells us to go and put on not His second best, but the best robe of His perfect righteousness; and when we come down with that on, we say, Lord, what dost Thou think of me? and He says, Why, thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee. We answer, No, it is not me, it is Thy righteousness; I am comely because Thou art comely; I am beautiful because Thou art beautiful. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Let us walk honestly, as in the day] Let us walk, , decently, from , well, and , mien, habit, or dress. Let our deportment be decent, orderly, and grave; such as we shall not be ashamed of in the eyes of the whole world.
Not in rioting, and drunkenness] , rioting, according to Hesychius, signifies , , , unclean and dissolute songs, banquets, and such like. signifies drunken festivals, such as were celebrated in honour of their gods, when after they had sacrificed ( , SUIDAS) they drank to excess, accompanied with abominable acts of every kind. See Suidas and Hesychius, under this word.
Not in chambering] This is no legitimate word, and conveys no sense till, from its connection in this place, we force a meaning upon it. The original word, , signifies whoredoms and prostitution of every kind.
And wantonness] , All manner of uncleanness and sodomitical practices.
Not in strife and envying.] , Not in contentions and furious altercations, which must be the consequence of such practices as are mentioned above. Can any man suppose that this address is to the Christians at Rome? That they are charged with practices almost peculiar to the heathens? And practices of the most abandoned and dissolute sort? If those called Christians at Rome were guilty of such acts, there could be no difference except in profession, between them and the most abominable of the heathens. But it is impossible that such things should be spoken to the followers of Christ; for the very grace that brings repentance enables the penitent to cast aside and abominate all such vicious and abominable conduct.
The advices to the Christians may be found in the preceding chapter; those at the conclusion of this chapter belong solely to the heathens.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Let its walk honestly, as in the day: q.d. Let us behave ourselves decently, and with a holy shamefacedness, as becomes those to whom the grace of God, and the glorious light of the gospel, hath appeared. This honest walking is expressed by three adverbs in Tit 2:12; i.e. soberly, righteously, godly. He enumerates divers vices, which are contrary to this honest walking, and he sets them down by pairs. He makes three pairs of them: the first is
rioting and drunkenness; by which he means intemperance, or excess in eating and drinking: see Luk 21:34. The second is
chambering and wantonness; by which he means actual uncleanness, and all lustful and lascivious dalliances: see Gal 5:19; Eph 5:3; Col 3:5; 1Th 4:3-5,7; 1Pe 4:3. The third pair is
strife and envying. All these vices are twisted and connected: intemperance causeth uncleanness, and both cause contention and emulation, Pro 23:29,30. The famous St. Augustine confesseth, that he was converted by reading and pondering this text.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Let us walkhonestly“becomingly,” “seemingly”
as in the day“Menchoose the night for their revels, but our night is past, for we areall the children of the light and of the day (1Th5:5): let us therefore only do what is fit to be exposed to thelight of such a day.”
not in rioting anddrunkennessvaried forms of intemperance; denoting revels ingeneral, usually ending in intoxication.
not in chambering andwantonnessvaried forms of impurity; the one pointing todefinite acts, the other more general.
not in strife andenvyingvaried forms of that venomous feeling between man andman which reverses the law of love.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let us walk honestly as in the day,…. Being under the day of the Gospel dispensation, and the day of grace having dawned, and the daystar of spiritual light and knowledge being risen in our hearts, and we being exposed to the view of all men in broad daylight, ought not to lie down and sleep, but to arise and be active, and walk decently with the armour of light on us, as becomes the Gospel of Christ; not naked and unclothed, which would expose us and the Gospel to shame and contempt:
not in rioting; the Syriac and Arabic versions read, “in singing”, or “songs”; meaning lewd ones, sung at riotous feasts and banquets, made not for refreshment, but for pleasure and debauchery, what the Romans i call “comessations”; feasts after supper in the night season, and design all sorts of nocturnal revels: “Comus”, the word here used, is with the Heathens the god of feasts, perhaps the same with “Chemosh”, the god of the Moabites, 1Ki 11:33.
And drunkenness; which always attended such unseasonable and immoderate festivals:
not in chambering; in unlawful copulations, fornication, adultery, and all the defilements of the bed:
and wantonness; lasciviousness, unnatural lusts, as sodomy, c.
not in strife and envying contention and quarrels, which are usually the consequences of luxury and uncleanness.
i Seutonius in Vita Vitell. c. 13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Honestly (). Paul is fond of the metaphor “walk” (), 33 times though not in the Pastoral Epistles. This old adverb (from , graceful) occurs also in 1Thess 4:12; 1Cor 14:40. The English word “honest” means honourable (Latin honor) and so decent. Wycliff translates 1Co 12:32 by “unhonest,” “honesty,” “honest” for “less honourable, honour, honourable.”
Not in revelling ( ). Plural “revellings.” See on Ga 5:21.
Drunkenness (). Plural again, “drunkennesses.” See on Ga 5:21.
In chambering (). Plural also. See on Ro 9:10.
Wantonness (). Plural likewise. See on 2Cor 12:21; Gal 5:19.
Not in strife and jealousy ( ). Singular here, but some MSS. have the plural like the previous words. Quarrelling and jealousy go with the other vices (Shedd).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Honestly [] . Honest is originally honorable, and so here. Compare Wyclif’s version of 1Co 12:23 : “And the members that be unhonest have more honesty; for our honest members have need of none.” From euj well, schma fashion. See on Mt 17:2. Hence becomingly. Compare 1Co 14:40; 1Th 4:12. The word refers more particularly to the outward life, and thus accords with walk, and in the day the time of observation.
Rioting [] . Lit., revellings. See on 1Pe 4:3.
Drunkenness [] . See on Luk 21:34; Joh 2:10.
Wantonness [] . See on lasciviousness, Mr 7:22. All these three are plural : riotings, drunkennesses, wantonnesses.
Envying [] . Rev., jealousy. See on Jas 3:14.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Let us walk honestly, as in the day,” (hos en hemera euschemonos peripatesomen) “Let us walk in a becoming manner, as in the day,” when people are looking on; Let us walk decently, in a becoming manner, with decorum that befits our profession as Christians and our positions as members of his church in the community, Eph 5:14-15; Php_4:8; Gal 5:25.
2) “Not in rioting and drunkenness,” (me komois kai methois) “Not in revellings and in drunken-bouts”; the way of the Gentiles, heathen, or unbelievers; Luk 21:34; 1Pe 4:3. Avoid rioting, reveling, debauchery, or drunken bouts, in the light of your salvation and the soon coming of Christ, lest you be not “accounted worth to escape,” the things of tribulation, See also Heb 9:28; Mat 25:1-10; Luk 21:36.
3) “Not in chambering and wantonness,” (me koitois kai aselgeiais) “Not in beds and excesses”; immoral, illicit, sex-pleasures of the lust of the flesh –and not with lasciviousness in words, thoughts, looks, and deeds of immoral suggestion and “dirty joke”, “smutty tale” kind; Gal 5:21 asserts that those who practice such shall not have an heir-setting, a ruling part in the kingdom of God.
4) “Not in strife and envying,” (me eridi kai zelo) “Not in strife or contention and in jealousy:- those who are awake to truth and the voice of God in the light of coming judgment must put off the practices of carnality, to be ready when Jesus comes, 1Co 3:3; Mat 24:42; Mat 25:13; “When the master” of the house returns, it will be too late to watch, Mar 13:33-37. It is a fearful thought that should give pause to every slumbering believer and saint, (church member), that it is possible that some may not be “accounted worthy” of escaping the tribulation judgment merely by having been under the blood, and then slumbered while the bridegroom tarried –It was to such he warned “watch ye” –the warning, if not possible, would involve our Lord in folly!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. Not in reveling, etc. He mentions here three kinds of vices, and to each he has given two names, — intemperant and excess in living, — carnal lust and uncleanness, which is connected with it, — and envy and contention. If these have in them so much filthiness, that even carnal men are ashamed to commit them before the eyes of men, it behooves us, who are in the light of God, at all times to abstain from them; yea, even when we are withdrawn from the presence of men. As to the third vice, though contention is put before envying, there is yet. no doubt but that Paul intended to remind us, that strifes and contests arise from this fountain; for when any one seeks to excel, there is envying of one another; but ambition is the source of both evils. (411)
(411) The case is the same with the two preceding instances; the vice which seems to follow is placed first. Revelling is first mentioned, though drunkenness goes before it; and “chambering,” or concubinage, or indulgence in unlawful lusts is first stated, though lasciviousness or wantonness is the source from which it proceeds. It is an example of the Apostle’s mode of writing similar to what we find in Rom 11:29, as to “the gifts and calling of God,” and in Rom 11:33, as to “the wisdom and knowledge of God.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 13:13., beautiful and symmetrical. Banquets, drinking feasts. Noisy crowds of drunken men ran dancing and singing through the streets. Lascivious banquets.
Rom. 13:14. Be clothed.Exhibit Him both before men and God, both outwardly and inwardly. Put Him on, so that He only may be seen in you. Care of the flesh permitted, but not its lusts. Put on, invest yourselves with, Christ in the exercise of that union with Him which is already yours in possession. Chrysostom says it was a common phrase, Such a one hath put on such a onethat is, he is an imitation of him; so to put on the new man is to walk as new men, in newness of life and conversation.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 13:13-14
A graceful walk.It would be a gain to the cause of holy living if Christians could be led to feel and to act as if the daylight were round about them, making bare all their actions, words, and thoughts. Men and women have too great a tendency to act as if they were children of the night. They have the vain fancy that they are shrouded by the darkness, but the mistake is seen when a beam of light falls upon their pathway, and tells them that there can be no such thing as darkness in Gods nature and in Gods moral government. There is night to the children of men, but there is no night to God, and there should be no night to the children of eternity. They should walk as children of the day. The clear day reveals blemishes which escape notice in the murky light. We are to think of ourselves as walking in the clear day, in the revealing sunlight. When the sun shines into the room it reveals dust dancing in the atmosphere; and so when the sun of divine requirements shines into the chambers of our souls it shows our own imperfections. Let us not be afraid of the light, but let us be afraid of that which the light makes known. Let us walk honestly, gracefully, handsomely, as in the day. What are the characteristics of a graceful Christian walk? How is a Christian to bear himself handsomely?
I. The man will walk handsomely who exercises the knowing faculty.This is the proud prerogative of manthat he knowsand which sets him at the head of the lower creation. The perfect flower is well shaped in form, beautiful and attractive in colour, and sweet in fragrance; but it has not the power of rejoicing in its own beauty, and of inhaling its own fragrance. The landscape is charming, and yet it does not rejoice in its own attractiveness. The nightingale chants its lays in the lonely forest, floats its sweet liquid notes on the still surface of the midnight air, but is itself unconscious of the wealth of song. The horse shows its power as it draws the heavy load, as it fleets over the greensward, and bounds with wondrous agility over the high-raised fence. Though the horse is superior to other animals, it does not know its advantages. At times it may appear to catch a glimpse of its greatness, and to make a grasp at power; but it cannot link cause and effect, it cannot be said to know. Man rises in excellency above all other creatures in the fact that he is a knowing animal. He knows what he iswhat he is in part; for his ignorance is still very great. The degree in which the knowing faculty is exercised by man is the degree in which he walks handsomely. The man does not walk gracefully who walks as in the night of ignorance. When the knowing faculty is oppressed by the mist and fog and cold of the night, then the man walks dishonourably; but when the faculty is developed by the daylight of goodness, then the man walks handsomely. Knowledge is good, but knowledge handled and controlled by evil must lead to impious results; so that for the man to walk handsomely it is needful that the knowing faculty be directed in the right channel of truth and of goodness. We must know ourselves, and we must know God in and through Jesus Christ; we must know how great and vast are our possessions, our privileges, our dignities, our glories, our honours, and our destiny. This is the first and last great step in knowledgeto know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. This knowledge is life eternal. This knowledge gives eternal life, and requires eternal life for its completion. Eternal life is an ever-unfolding scene, and the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ is an ever-developing knowledge. Growth in this knowledge is growth without cessation; and the more we increase in this knowledge the more do we possess the power of walking handsomely. So that we must begin here, at the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ, if we are rightly to obey the apostles exhortation. Let us walk gracefully, handsomely, as in the day.
II. The man will walk handsomely who keeps in view the nobility of his origin.The question Whence is man? is variously answered, and is the cause of discussion in some quarters; but there is no occasion for misgiving on our part, for we believe that God is the father of men. They are Gods children, made in His image and likeness, and capable of rendering Him reasonable service. In this sense man has a noble origin. He is the highest of creatures, the link between earth and heaven. On one side of his nature he touches the lowest, and on the other side he reaches to heaven. He overtops the material universe, and stands amid the immensities of eternity. But the question with which we are now concerned is as to the origin of the spiritual man. On this question the New Testament alone can be our guide. The spiritual man boasts not his first but his second birth. He is born, not of corruptible seed, but of God; he need not glory in earthly ancestors, for he is united to Jesus Christ; he does not require to speak of royal blood, since by the new birth he is linked to Him who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. There is not always with noble descent the transmission of noble qualities. Sometimes as the race proceeds the quality of the stock degenerates; but in the spiritual descent there must be the transmission of noble qualities. The man is born again that he may be made a new creature in Christ Jesus; he is born from heaven, and receives heavenly qualities which he himself must develop. How gracefully the man should walk who is thus fashioned anew, who draws a new life from the very source of life, who is begotten again by the incorruptible word and power of God, who is lifted up amid the sublime hierarchy of Gods redeemed and chosen children! Art thou a Kings son? Then be noble in thy doings, right royal in thy actions.
III. The man will walk handsomely who constantly regards the large extent of his sphere.The man is apt to get careless who feels that he has no sphere, and that there is nothing in his surroundings demanding the exercise of his powers. He has only one talent, and so he wraps it up in a napkin, and binds himself in cerecloths. The poet who had produced his great work, and felt that life was finished, passed his days in indolence, consoling himself with the thought and the expression, There is no motive. Paleys great powers were lying waste and useless until the voice of a fellow-student called him to action and opened out to him the vast possibilities of his nature. But surely there is a sphere and there is a work for all. Man may rouse himself by the thought of the philosopher who said that man is the end of all things in a semicirclethat is, all things in the world are made for him, and he is made for God. Man is not an insignificant creature shut up in a shell, covered with which he crawls about in a little space. No doubt by the body man is confined; but by the spirit he strips himself of the burden of fleshly covering and travels through infinite spaces. He lives in the mighty past, in the ever-working present, and even in the unenacted future. This time world, changing, moving, passing away, is his sphere. Then the no-time world, the life unknown, unseen, immeasurable, and infinite, is also his sphere by anticipation and by expectation. The spiritual man acts not in a semicircle merely, but in a vast circle. He is the source of undying influences. The spiritual man touches on all sides wherever he moves. An atom of influence for good set in motion must affect other atoms, and the motion will continue through unknown regions. The mountains appear strong and immovable, but motion in the material world reaches to distances beyond our comprehension. And much more is this true with reference to motion in the moral world. The good man is the centre and source of vast outlying and fertilising regions of goodness. He is surely the good seed from which other good men spring. They in their turn are good seed giving birth to other noble spirits. The upper room at Jerusalem did not seem a large sphere; it had no architectural glory. Yet there met in that place twelve of the mightiest spirits of all time. There a force was being developed which was to subdue the material power of Rome, to confute the wisdom of Greece, to give laws and rules which should influence and control the mightiest forms of civilisation, and the greatest nations of all periods. A certain widow with only two mites had, to human seeming, no extensive sphere of usefulness. She had no costly offerings; and yet those mites have been of more value to the Church of Christ than the thousands of pounds she has since received. Here indeed we require to exercise the knowing faculty, and to take broad views, and to consider our sphere as much larger than might be supposed by shallow thinking. We rise in manhood; dormant faculties are called into action as we consider the vast possibilities of the meanest life. We shall no longer creep as if going a monotonous round of mean duties, but we shall walk with stalwart spirit and with hopeful mien, as men appointed to do great works which shall in one way or other be finally successful and triumphant.
IV. The man will walk handsomely who wisely considers the glory of his final destiny.What a man may become will have an important bearing upon the way in which he treats himself and the way in which he is treated by his fellows. Wisely did that man conduct himself with respectful bearing in the presence of every schoolboy, for he viewed him in the light of a possibly great future. There he saw the ruling statesman, the thrilling orator, the conquering general, the stately bishop, or the world-renowned author. There is to the spiritual man a positive great future, not after the dreams of earth-bound souls, but according to the revelations and provisions of infinite love, wisdom, and power. The spiritual man is a king on earth. The kingdom over which he rules is his own inner nature, but his kingship is imperfect and oft contested. Sometimes he is ensnared and taken captive; but in Gods great future he shall be a king, and his kingship will not be contested, and he shall never be brought into bondage. The sceptre of royalty will never be wrested from his grasp. The golden crown will never be taken from his head; he shall reign for ever and for ever. In this world he is often as a king in exile, but in the other world he will be a king acknowledged. In this world he is a king in poverty, but in the other world he will be a king surrounded with untold wealth. In this world he is a king in sorrow, but in the other world he will be a king in unspeakable happiness. Here he is a king in a cottage, but there he will be a king in a house of many mansionsin a city whose walls are jasper, whose streets are gold, whose gates are pearl, whose fruits and flowers are perennial, whose society is angels, archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs. What manner of person ought such a man to be who has before him such a glorious prospect? The wise heathen said he was greater and born to greater things than that his soul should be the slave of his body. Surely the wise Christian may say in far larger sense that he is greater and born to greater things than that the soul should be slave of the body. He will walk honestly, gracefully, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy; but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and making provision for the enlargement and development of his nobler nature.
The life-long putting on of Christ.
I. What this is that is put on.It is Christ Himself that we put on; not one thing merely, such as righteousness, but everything which makes us comely and acceptable to God. Christ Himself is here described as a robe. The figure is not of His giving us a robe, but of His being that robe. It is a whole Christ whom we put on; it is with a whole Christ that God deals in dealing with us.
II. How this putting on is done.The link by which we become personally connected with Christ is our own believing. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. We put on Christ simply in believing. Our reception of the Fathers testimony to the work and person of Christ is the putting on. There is no other.
III. What is the effect?There are two aspects or sides which are to be regarded in this:
1. Gods side;
2. The believers.
1. Gods side. God looks at us and sees us as if we were His own Son. He sees not our deformity and imperfection, but His beauty and perfection.
2. Our side.
(1) Our consciences are completely satisfied. Not only have we the blood to purge the guilt, but we have the perfection to cover all imperfection, so that we feel that God sees no iniquity in Jacob, and no transgression in Israel.
(2) Our bands are completely loosed. The certainty of possessing Gods favour in such surpassing measure gives the fullest liberty.
(3) Our joy overflows. Such love! such favour! such nearness! such dignity!
(4) Our motives to a holy life are increased. What manner of persons ought we to be who are so regarded by God, so beloved of Him!
(5) Our zeal is quickened. Loved with such a love, and treated in so divine a way, what is there that we are not willing to do for Him?H. Bonar.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 13:13-14
Pilgrims of the dawn.The pilgrims of the dawn tolerate nothing in themselves that the light of day would rebuke. Hence it is the counterpart of this that they make no provision for the flesh; whatever provision they take for their heavenly journey, the flesh has no share in it. The sin adhering to their natures, the old man not yet dead, is an enemy whose hunger they do not feed, to whose thirst they do not administer drink, whose dying solicitations they regard not, but leave him to perish by the way. But the supreme preparation, uniting all others in one, is the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him alone the dignity and the purity of our nature meet; transformed into His character, we need nothing more to fit us for the holiest heavens. But nothing less will suffice His expectation at His coming. He will come to be glorified in His saintsalready the likeness in ten thousand reproductions of Himself; and they shall in turn be glorified in Him. Hence the great business of the pilgrims is to occupy the precious moments of the morning in weaving into their nature the character of Christ as the apparel of the eternal day. And if in faith that worketh by lovethe love that fulfilleth the lawthey diligently co-operate with the Holy Spirit, it will be His blessed function to see to it that before the Bridegroom cometh His bride, and every individual soul that makes up her mystical person, shall be found clothed in His spiritual perfection as with a garment without seam, woven from the top throughout. Beyond this we cannot go. This is the close and the secret of the whole exhortation to the pilgrims of the dawn. They have come up out of the night at the sound of His awakening voice, and have left their Egyptian darkness for ever. They are wrestling with the dangers of the morning, rejoicing in its partial satisfactions. But supremely and above all they are intent upon the coming day; in their pathway there is no death, but they wait for the more abundant life; they are full of trembling, solemn expectation of all that the day will pour out of its unfathomable mysteries. But the end of all their expectation is the person of their Lord. And to prepare for Him by being like Himself is the sum of all their preparation.Popes Kingdom of Christ.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Rom. 13:14. The story of St. Augustines repentance.Sometimes mothers and fathers eyes are sealed in death before the one whom they gave really gives himself to God. You have all heard of the great Augustine. There are few stories more interesting, few for which the Church has had greater cause to thank God, than the story of his repentance. His mothers heart was nearly broken by his profligacy and folly. She, like Hannah, had consecrated him from birth. She had watched over him, taught him, prayed for him. But he gave no heed to her counsel. Her patience was sorely taxed. An old bishop one day found her almost in despair. O woman, woman! he said, the child of so many prayers will be saved! And so it was. When he was on a visit at Milan, God found him. One day, sitting with a friend, there arose a mighty storm of grief, bringing a mighty shower of tears. He left his friend, hastened to the garden, cried, How long? how long? Why not now? when lo! he seemed to hear a voice as of a child repeating, Take up and read, take up and read. And he rose from the ground, opened his Bible, and read the first verse which he found. It was, Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh. As he read darkness vanished. His mothers prayers were answered.Rev. J. Marshall Lang, D.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) Honestly.Decorously, becomingly, as men do when their actions are seen.
It is interesting to know that this verse, happening to catch the eye of St. Augustine, had a great effect in leading to his baptism and change of life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Walk The rapid apostle now changes his figure from that of war to revelry.
Walk honestly That is, walk becomingly or decently; not like revellers who race shamefully through the nightly streets.
Rioting In the streets. Drunkenness In the drinking houses.
Chambering Literally, beds; that is, of debauchery.
Wantonness Loose immorality of any kind.
Strife and envying Vices more decent, but not less malignant.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in revelling (disorderly behaviour) and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy,’
One consequence of putting on the armour of light is that we will walk becomingly as in the day, as men do walk when they are under scrutiny. It is to walk in godliness and purity and true love, eschewing excesses which take place when it is dark. It is to put on the LORD Jesus Christ. Such works of darkness which have to be eschewed include revelling and drunkenness as people let themselves go at parties, they include free unrestricted sexual behaviour, they include being at loggerheads with others, and what results from jealousy of others.
Christians therefore are to ‘walk becomingly, as in the day.’ They have left behind the darkness of night and live in the light of the Day of the Messiah which has dawned. This picture of the Christian life as ‘walking in the light’ is a common one in the New Testament. It was introduced by Jesus in Joh 8:12 when He said, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life’. There He is revealed as present as the light which is to guide those who follow Him in their walk. And His purpose was that all should come to His light. It was for any who would respond. As He repeated in Joh 12:46, ‘I am come a light into the world, that whoever believes on me may not abide in darkness’. Thus He called on believers to ‘Walk while you have the light — while you have the light, believe on the light, that you might become the sons of light’ (Joh 12:35-36). All this points to seeing Him as the light, in consequence of which, having received from Him the light of eternal life, we are to walk continually in His light and in the light of His teaching. In accordance with this we should therefore all be walking in His light, living our lives in the radiance of the light of His presence, and knowing that all things are open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.
Paul also uses the same idea elsewhere. ‘You were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth’ (Eph 5:8-9). And he adds, ‘You are all the children of the light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness’ (1Th 5:5). Note the paralleling of ‘the light’ and ‘the day’. To walk in the day is to walk in His light. So those who walk as children of the day, as children of light, will produce the fruit of goodness and truth, because if their lives are being lived in His continual light, and in the light of His word, that light, like the sun, will shine on them and produce fruitfulness, and it will allow nothing of the darkness to survive.
John continues in similar vein. However, in his case he recognises, as Paul did in Romans 6-7, that in walking in that light there will be things revealed that need forgiveness, so he assures his readers, ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the light, (openly admitting our sin daily), we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son goes on cleansing us from all sin’ (1Jn 1:7).
Walking in the light is thus to be very much a part of the Christian life. But because of the cleansing of the blood of Jesus we do not need to be afraid of the light. Rather we should embrace it, and, as we come continually to Him day by day, ask that the searchlight of His presence might shine on us continually. Then it will lead the way before us so that all that is of darkness is put away. In that way we will be ready for that Day.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 13:13. Let us walk honestly ‘, honourably, or gracefully. Dr. Milner renders the passage, Let us walk with a grace. The word for chambering is , which Leigh explains of lying long in bed. It implies effeminacy and luxury of that kind. The word , rendered wantonness, properly signifies a soft and dissolute manner of life, attended with an affected delicacy, very detrimental to that resolution which is so necessary an ingredient in the character of one who would approve himself a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The general meaning may be, “Do not indulge any intemperate lewd conversation among your heathen acquaintance, nor any strife or envy against your Christian brethren.” See Doddridge, Stockius, and Milner’s “Fading Flowers of Life,” p. 38.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 13:13 . ] as one walks in the day (when one avoids everything unbecoming). This in a moral sense, Paul desires, should be the ruling principle of the Christian, who sees the day already dawning (Rom 13:12 ).
] becomingly , 1Th 4:12 ; 1Co 7:35 ; 1Co 14:40 . It is moral decorum of conduct.
. . .] The datives are explained from the notion of the way and manner in which the , i.e. the inner and outward conduct of life, ought not to take place (Khner, II. 1, p. 382), namely, not with revellings ( ; see respecting this, on Gal 5:21 ; Welker in Jacobs, Philostr . i. 2, p. 202 ff.) and carousals (comp. Gal 5:21 ), etc. The local view (Philippi) is less in keeping with the particulars mentioned, and that of dativus commodi (Fritzsche, comp. van Hengel) less befits the figurative verb.
] congressibus venereis (comp. on Rom 9:10 ), Wis 3:13 , and see Kypke, II. p. 185.
] wantonnesses (especially of lust). See Tittmann, Synon . p. 151. On the sense of the plural , see Lucian, Amor . 21: .
] jealousy (1Co 1:11 ; 1Co 3:3 ); neither anger (Fritzsche, Philippi, and others), which is not denoted by (not even in 1Co 3:2 ; 2Co 12:20 ; Gal 5:20 ), nor envy (Photius, Luther, and others), which is less in accordance with the preceding ( . . .), whilst strife and jealousy follow in the train of the practice of lust.
The three particulars adduced stand in the internal connection of cause and effect.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
Ver. 13. Let us walk honestly ] Handsomely, fashionably, mannerly, with a holy shamefacedness ( ).
Not in chambering ] Properly, lying a-bed or long-lying ( ).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] , in a bad sense: the act itself being a defilement, when unsanctified by God’s ordinance of marriage. See reff.
, plural of various kinds of wantonness: so , , , 1Pe 2:1 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 13:13 . : as one walks in the day, so let us walk . The same adverb is found with the same verb in 1Th 4:2 : A.V. in both places “honestly”. The meaning is rather “in seemly fashion,” “becomingly”; in 1Co 14:40 it is rendered “decently,” where also regard for decorum (the aesthetic side of morality) is in view. and are again found conjoined in Gal 5:21 ; and in Gal 5:20 and 1Co 3:3 . W. and H. following . put in margin; the plurals in this case as in the others would indicate the various acts or manifestations of excess, whether in self-indulgence or self-will.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Romans
LOVE AND THE DAY
Rom 13:8 – Rom 13:14
The two paragraphs of this passage are but slightly connected. The first inculcates the obligation of universal love; and the second begins by suggesting, as a motive for the discharge of that duty, the near approach of ‘the day.’ The light of that dawn draws Paul’s eyes and leads him to wider exhortations on Christian purity as befitting the children of light.
I. Rom 13:8 – Rom 13:10 set forth the obligation of a love which embraces all men, and comprehends all duties to them.
That is the first plain truth taught here. Love is not an emotion which we may indulge or not, as we please. It is not to select its objects according to our estimate of their lovableness or goodness. But we are bound to love, and that all round, without distinction of beautiful or ugly, good or bad. ‘A hard saying; who can hear it?’ Every man is our creditor for that debt. He does not get his due from us unless he gets love. Note, further, that the debt of love is never discharged. After all payments it still remains owing. There is no paying in full of all demands, and, as Bengel says, it is an undying debt. We are apt to weary of expending love, especially on unworthy recipients, and to think that we have wiped off all claims, and it may often be true that our obligations to others compel us to cease helping one; but if we laid Paul’s words to heart, our patience would be longer-breathed, and we should not be so soon ready to shut hearts and purses against even unthankful suitors.
Further, Paul here teaches us that this debt debitum , ‘duty’ of love includes all duties. It is the fulfilling of the law, inasmuch as it will secure the conduct which the law prescribes. The Mosaic law itself indicates this, since it recapitulates the various commandments of the second table, in the one precept of love to our neighbour Lev 19:18. Law enjoins but has no power to get its injunctions executed. Love enables and inclines to do all that law prescribes, and to avoid all that it prohibits. The multiplicity of duties is melted into unity; and that unity, when it comes into act, unfolds into whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. Love is the mother tincture which, variously diluted and manipulated, yields all potent and fragrant draughts. It is the white light which the prism of daily life resolves into its component colours.
But Paul seems to limit the action of love here to negative doing no ill. That is simply because the commandments are mostly negative, and that they are is a sad token of the lovelessness natural to us all. But do we love ourselves only negatively, or are we satisfied with doing ourselves no harm? That stringent pattern of love to others not only prescribes degree, but manner. It teaches that true love to men is not weak indulgence, but must sometimes chastise, and thwart, and always must seek their good, and not merely their gratification.
Whoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of working no ill to others, will find it positive enough. We harm men when we fail to help them. If we can do them a kindness, and do it not, we do them ill. Non-activity for good is activity for evil. Surely, nothing can be plainer than the bearing of this teaching on the Christian duty as to intoxicants. If by using these a Christian puts a stumbling-block in the way of a weak will, then he is working ill to his neighbour, and that argues absence of love, and that is dishonest, shirking payment of a plain debt.
II. The great stimulus to love and to all purity is set forth as being the near approach-of the day Rom 13:11 – Rom 13:14.
But, whether we take this as the meaning of the phrase, or regard it simply as pointing to the time of death as the dawning of heaven’s day, the weight of the motive is unaffected. The language is vividly picturesque. The darkness is thinning, and the blackness turning grey. Light begins to stir and whisper. A band of soldiers lies asleep, and, as the twilight begins to dawn, the bugle call summons them to awake, to throw off their night-gear,-namely, the works congenial to darkness,-and to brace on their armour of light. Light may here be regarded as the material of which the glistering armour is made; but, more probably, the expression means weapons appropriate to the light.
Such being the general picture, we note the fact which underlies the whole representation; namely, that every life is a definite whole which has a fixed end. Jesus said, ‘We must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh.’ Paul uses the opposite metaphors in these verses. But, though the two sayings are opposite in form, they are identical in substance. In both, the predominant thought is that of the rapidly diminishing space of earthly life, and the complete unlikeness to it of the future. We stand like men on a sandbank with an incoming tide, and every wash of the waves eats away its edges, and presently it will yield below our feet. We forget this for the most part, and perhaps it is not well that it should be ever present; but that it should never be present is madness and sore loss.
Paul, in his intense moral earnestness, in Rom 13:13 , bids us regard ourselves as already in ‘the day,’ and shape our conduct as if it shone around us and all things were made manifest by its light. The sins to be put off are very gross and palpable. They are for the most part sins of flesh, such as even these Roman Christians had to be warned against, and such as need to be manifested by the light even now among many professing Christian communities.
But Paul has one more word to say. If he stopped without it, he would have said little to help men who are crying out, ‘How am I to strip off this clinging evil, which seems my skin rather than my clothing? How am I to put on that flashing panoply?’ There is but one way,-put on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we commit ourselves to Him by faith, and front our temptations in His strength, and thus, as it were, wrap ourselves in Him, He will be to us dress and armour, strength and righteousness. Our old self will fall away, and we shall take no forethought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
honestly = decently. Greek. euschemonos. Only here, 1Co 14:40. 1Th 4:12.
rioting = revelling. Greek. komos. Only here, Gal 1:5, Gal 1:21. 1Pe 4:3.
wantonness = lasciviousness. Here, Mar 7:22. 2Co 12:21. Gal 1:5, Gal 1:19. Eph 4:19. 1Pe 4:3. 2Pe 2:7, 2Pe 2:18. Jud 1:4.
envying = jealousy. See Act 5:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] , in a bad sense: the act itself being a defilement, when unsanctified by Gods ordinance of marriage. See reff.
, plural of various kinds of wantonness: so , , , 1Pe 2:1.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 13:13.[141] ) with good clothing (honestly, Engl. Vers., in the archaic sense, = becomingly; in becoming attire).- , not in riotings and drunkenness) as to ourselves. , feasting, a lascivious banquet, with dancing and various disorderly acts.-Wis 14:23; 2Ma 6:4.- , in chamberings and wantonness) accompanied with others.- , in strife and envying) directed against others. In Rom 13:13-14, there is a chiasmus:[142] . not in rioting-. not in strife and envying: . but put on, in love [opposed to strife, and inseparable from Christ], the Lord Jesus Christ-. and-not-for the lusts. and correspond, and .
[141] , as in the day) See that you bear yourself so now, as you would desire to be seen to be at the last day.-V. g.
[142] See Appendix.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 13:13
Rom 13:13
Let us walk becomingly, as in the day;-To live a life of purity and holiness rather than what is usually called fleshly is what is meant here. [Avoid every word or action even remotely tending to evil; do our best to commend our faith to others by remembering such words as: Let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Mat 5:16) ; Abstain from every form of evil (1Th 5:22) ; or, Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Eph 5:15-16).]
not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.-That life that becomes the day of the gospel life is here contrasted with the licentiousness, drunkenness, and degrading lusts, strife, and envyings that pertained to the life of idolatrous darkness. Only a life of responsibility toward God can deliver man from the degrading rule of fleshly lusts and passions.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
us: Luk 1:6, Gal 5:16, Gal 5:25, Eph 4:1, Eph 4:17, Eph 5:2, Eph 5:8, Eph 5:15, Phi 1:27, Phi 3:16-20, Phi 4:8, Phi 4:9, Col 1:10, 1Th 2:12, 1Th 4:12, 1Pe 2:12, 1Jo 2:6, 2Jo 1:4
honestly: or, decently
as: Act 2:15, 1Th 5:17, 2Pe 2:13
rioting: Pro 23:20, Isa 22:12, Isa 22:13, Isa 28:7, Isa 28:8, Amo 6:4-6, Mat 24:48-51, Luk 16:19, Luk 17:27, Luk 17:28, Luk 21:34, 1Co 6:10, Gal 5:21, Eph 5:18, 1Pe 2:11, 1Pe 4:3-5
chambering: 1Co 6:9, 1Co 6:10, Gal 5:19, Eph 5:3-5, Col 3:5, 1Th 4:3-5, 2Pe 2:14, 2Pe 2:18-20, Jud 1:23
strife: Gal 5:15, Gal 5:21, Gal 5:26, Phi 2:3, Jam 3:14-16, Jam 4:5, 1Pe 2:1, 1Pe 2:2
Reciprocal: Gen 9:21 – and was Lev 7:23 – fat 1Sa 25:36 – merry Psa 31:20 – the strife Isa 5:11 – rise Mat 24:38 – they Luk 15:13 – wasted Rom 6:4 – even 1Co 5:11 – or a drunkard 1Co 13:4 – envieth 1Co 14:40 – General 2Co 6:7 – the armour 2Co 12:21 – uncleanness 2Co 13:7 – honest Col 3:8 – anger 1Th 5:7 – they that sleep 1Th 5:8 – who 1Ti 6:4 – words Tit 2:12 – denying Heb 13:18 – in all Jam 1:21 – lay Jam 5:5 – been 1Pe 1:13 – be sober 1Pe 4:4 – excess
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:13
Rom 13:13. Honestly means “decently,” and the day here means the condition of spiritual light. Chambering is from KOITE which Thayer defines “cohabitation,” then explains it to mean, “whether lawful or unlawful.” Wantonness is from ASELGEIA and Thayer’s definition is more specific than on the preceding word: “Unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness,” etc. He then explains it at our passage to mean, “filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females.” Such a life as the foregoing describes will not prepare one for salvation when the “day arrives.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 13:13. Let us walk seemly, as in the day. Both honestly (E. V.) and decently (E. V. margin) are too limited, the reference being to decorum, such as befits the day when conduct is open to observation.
Not in rioting and drunkenness. The former refers to nocturnal revels, and was probably suggested by the figures of night and day; the latter means drunken carousals; both are plural in the original.
Not in chambering and wantonness. Various forms of secret vice are here indicated by the plural. These sins are closely connected with the preceding, often caused by them. In Gal 5:19; Eph 4:19 and elsewhere, the word rendered wanton ness occurs, but is translated lasciviousness. It points to an abandoned sensuality.
Not in strife and jealousy. These follow in the train of sensuality, as Roman life was then testifying most sadly. (Envying is inexact.) The entire family of vices is well-known, and the relationship obvious.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Rom 13:13. Let us walk honestly Greek, , decently, or in a manner becoming those to whom the glorious light of the gospel has appeared: as in the day Namely, of gospel light, already shining about us, which requires that we conduct ourselves with great wisdom, and exemplary holiness; not in rioting Greek, , a word derived from Comos, the god of feasting and revelling; that is, feasting with lascivious songs, accompanied with music. These revellings among the heathen were performed in honour of Bacchus, the god of wine, who, on that account, was named , Comastes, and were acted in the night-time, for the most part without arms. However, the actors in these revellings were sometimes armed, and insulted those whom they happened to meet. The youth among the heathen, especially in cities, when they were enamoured, used, after they had got themselves drunk, to run about the streets by night, having crowns made of the branches and leaves of trees upon their heads, and torches in their hands, with musical instruments of various kinds, upon which some of them played soft airs, while others accompanied them with their voice, and danced in the most lascivious manner. These indecencies they acted commonly before the house in which their mistress lived, then knocked at the door, and sometimes brake in. Hence, in the book of Wisdom, they are called, chap. Rom 14:23, , mad revellings. From all this it appears with what propriety the apostle joins , drunkenness, and the other vices here mentioned, together, and opposes , the instruments, or weapons of light, to these nocturnal dresses and revellings. See Macknight. Not in chambering In fornication, adultery, and fleshly lusts. The original expression, , is interpreted by Leigh, of lying long in bed. I will not defend that sense of the word, says Dr. Doddridge; but I will here record the observation which I have found of great use to myself, and to which, I may say, that the production of this work, and most of my other writings, is owing; namely, that the difference between rising at five and at seven oclock in the morning, for the space of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same hour of the night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a mans life; of which, (supposing the two hours in question to be so spent,) eight hours every day should be employed in study and devotion. And wantonness , lasciviousness, any kind of uncleanness, or lewd practices. In vices, alas! such as those here censured by the apostle, many, even professing Christians, are wasting and polluting the hours which nature has destined to necessary repose. Not in strife and envying In contention about riches, or honours, or opinions; or envying the prosperity of others.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 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 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. 1Th 5:5; 1Th 5:8.
Christian holiness is represented here as the highest decency (, 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 , in this passage, better than the translations jealousy or envy. Comp. 1Co 3:3; 2Co 12:20; Gal 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, 1Co 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 , 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, Act 27:3, where it is said of Julius the centurion that he allowed Paul to repair to his friends to enjoy their attentions ( ). 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: , 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 thus understood well justifies the warning: Be not preoccupied with…
These verses, Rom 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 Rom 13:13 had been the inscription of his past life, Rom 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 (Rom 12:1-2); the realization of this life in the two spheres, religious and civil, under the supreme law of love (Rom 12:3-21 and Rom 13:1-10); finally, the eye of hope constantly fixed on the coming of Christ as the spring of progress in sanctification (Rom 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; 1Co 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.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Let us walk becomingly, as in the day [i. e., as if the day of salvation and the presence of God (Rev 21:3) were already here]; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. [Here are three couplets of vices. The first pair relate to intemperance in eating and drinking (Luk 21:34). The “revel” (komos) was a drunken carousal; it usually burst forth and paraded the streets, filling the night air with noisy songs, and annoying pedestrians with its buffoonery. Being a favorite entertainment among the devotees of Bacchus, the Romans were accustomed to it from their youth up, and found it hard to resist the old-time fun and frolic once so acceptable. The second pair described the varied forms of sexual lust, libertinism, lascivious dalliance, etc. “Chambering” means literally lying abed. It describes the more definite, and “wantonness” the more general, acts of lewdness and abandoned sensuality. The third pair portray the various forms of venomous and hateful feelings leading to discord, open rupture and brutal violence–feelings the very opposite of love of which the apostle has been discoursing. While these vices may be found singly, they normally go in pairs, and also naturally fall into the order here given. Beginning with revelry in the early evening, how many a poor, sinful youth has passed thence to drunkenness, and thence in turn to sexual uncleanness, and thence once more to strife and passion with his fellows, till, when the night was passed and morning broke, he was found either a murderer or murdered, to the disgrace of his friends and the broken-hearted sorrow of his kindred. Plain speech was needful in Paul’s day: alas that it should be so badly needed still!]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
13. Let us walk circumspectly as in the day; not in revelries and drunkenness, not in debaucheries and impurities, not in strife and jealousy, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the lusts of the flesh. Salvation (Rom 13:11) is in the final sense, involving glorification of spirit, soul and body. Justification is primary salvation, sanctification full salvation, and glorification final salvation. The apostle and his saintly contemporaries were on the constant lookout for the Lord to return and translate them to heaven, soul, mind and body all simultaneously glorified. The first day in the divine calendar was Eden blooming in its glory. This halcyon day went into dark eclipse when humanity fell, so remaining to the present day, Satans dreary night intervening and throwing its dark shadows over the whole earth, foreboding doom and damnation already about six thousand awful years, chronicling the fate of multiplied millions, amid the darkness deceived by the devil and plunged into hell. Glory to God, the star gleams of Gods millennial day, already heralded by the Holiness Movement, the bright morning stars shining in every land, are already bespangling every sky with the hallowed effulgence in Aurora splendors anticipating the glorious Son of Righteousness rising upon this dark world with healing in His wings, bringing back the Eden beauties, again to girdle the globe with the delectable splendors of Gods millennial day. If in Pauls time Satans night was far spent and Gods millennial day drawing nigh, oh how pre-eminently true it is now, since we are eighteen hundred years nearer to the glorious fulfillment of this inspiring Pauline prophecy. If it was pertinent then for them to awake out of sleep and regale themselves for translation, amid the retreat of Satans night and the glorious dawn of Gods millennial day, how infinitely more so is it now pertinent that we all awake, wash and dress and look out for our coming King! The preparation now as then is entire sanctification, expurgatory of all the debris of inbred sin, clothing us with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that people see, not our bodies, but our clothes, and utterly lose sight of us, and oblivious to our personalities, see Jesus only whithersoever we go.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Our behavior, and specially those things Paul called on his readers to do in Rom 13:1-10, should be distinctively Christian since we live among unbelievers. The practices he urged us to avoid here were common in Corinth where Paul wrote this epistle. He observed them constantly. Intemperance often leads to sexual sin that frequently results in contention and quarreling. [Note: See López, "A Study . . ."]