Romans 13:11–14
“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.”
Paul has spent the opening portion of Romans 13 describing the Christian’s obligations toward others. Believers are to submit to governing authorities, give what is owed, and recognize love as a continuing debt toward the neighbor. He now adds urgency to the life he has been describing.
“Knowing the time.”
The saving work of God has already entered history through Christ. Believers have been justified, reconciled to God, and given the Spirit, yet salvation still has a future completion toward which they wait. Paul therefore tells people who already believe that “salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.”
Paul describes their position through the contrast between night and day. The night is far gone, and the day is near. Because believers know where they stand within God’s saving work, their conduct should correspond to the day that is approaching rather than the darkness that is passing away.
His final command reaches beyond avoiding a list of particular sins: “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The alternative to conformity with darkness is a life increasingly shaped by the Christ to whom the believer already belongs. Christian hope therefore does not produce passive waiting for the day. It changes how believers live while the day approaches.
Knowing the Time
Romans 13:11
“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep”
“Do this” connects Paul’s exhortation with what he has already commanded. Love of neighbor, honorable conduct, and the obligations of Christian life are not detached moral instructions. They are practiced by people who understand their place within God’s saving work.
Paul is not merely observing that time has passed. Something decisive has happened through Christ, and something still lies ahead. The Romans live after the death and resurrection of Christ while awaiting the completion of the salvation those events secured.
That makes sleep inappropriate. Paul uses sleep as an image of moral and spiritual inattentiveness. The sleeping person lives without regard for the approaching day. Paul tells believers to awaken because their knowledge of what God has done and what he will complete should affect their present conduct.
This continues the appeal of Romans 12:1–2. Christians are not to be conformed to the present age but transformed through the renewing of their minds. Part of that renewal is learning to understand the present in light of God’s work rather than allowing the surrounding age to determine what appears normal.
Knowing the time therefore creates responsibility. Christ has come, salvation has been revealed, and its promised completion draws nearer. The believer should live awake to that reality.
Salvation Is Nearer
Romans 13:11
“for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.”
Paul speaks to believers and says their salvation is nearer than when they first believed. That statement only appears contradictory if salvation is reduced to a single moment.
Romans itself has already shown that Paul can speak about salvation from more than one temporal perspective. Believers have been justified and reconciled to God, yet they also await what God will complete. Romans 5:9–10 spoke in precisely those terms:
Romans 5:9–10
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.”
Romans 8 likewise described believers waiting for the redemption of their bodies. They possess the Spirit as firstfruits while still groaning within a creation that has not yet been delivered from corruption.
Paul therefore does not suggest that the Romans remain unjustified until some future salvation finally occurs. They already belong to Christ, but the salvation they possess has not yet reached its final expression in resurrection, glory, and complete deliverance from sin and death.
The future dimension of salvation becomes a reason for present faithfulness. Paul does not tell Christians that because God will complete his work, present conduct matters less. He draws the opposite conclusion. Salvation is nearer, so believers should awaken and live accordingly.
The Night Is Far Gone
Romans 13:12
“The night is far gone, and the day is near.”
Paul compresses the situation into two images: night is passing and day is approaching.
The contrast is moral as well as temporal. Paul immediately speaks about “deeds of darkness” and “the armor of light,” so night represents more than the period before a particular date arrives. Darkness characterizes the sinful order whose conduct believers are commanded to reject, while the approaching day corresponds to the completion toward which their salvation moves.
Paul’s language holds together the present and future dimensions of Christian existence. The day has not fully arrived; it is “near.” Yet the night is not described as though nothing decisive has happened; it is “far gone.”
Christians still live in a world where the deeds of darkness remain present, and they remain capable of participating in them. Yet those deeds no longer correspond to who they are or where God is bringing them.
Their conduct should therefore anticipate the day rather than imitate the darkness that is passing away.
Throw Off the Deeds of Darkness
Romans 13:12
“Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light.”
Paul moves from waking to dressing. The person who has awakened removes what belongs to the night and prepares for the day.
The command assumes that conversion does not make exhortation unnecessary. Paul is speaking to Christians, yet he still commands them actively to reject sinful conduct. The gospel has changed their relationship to sin, but believers are not therefore passive in the life that follows.
Romans 6 established the same pattern. Christians have died with Christ and are no longer slaves of sin, and precisely because that is true Paul commands them not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies or present their members to sin.
Paul then replaces the discarded deeds with “the armor of light.” The Christian does not merely cease one kind of conduct. He takes up another. The language of armor also introduces the reality of conflict. Living consistently with the approaching day requires resistance against desires and patterns that belong to the darkness.
The believer does not create the light or bring the day. God does that. His responsibility is to live consistently with the day to which he belongs.
Let Us Walk Properly, as in the Day
Romans 13:13
“Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy.”
Paul now identifies several deeds belonging to darkness. Reveling and drunkenness describe indulgence in which appetite governs conduct. Sexual promiscuity and lust likewise describe desires refusing the boundaries God has established. Strife and jealousy may appear less dramatic beside them, but Paul places all of them together as conduct inappropriate for people of the day.
That final pairing is important because Christians can create their own hierarchy of respectable and disreputable sins. Drunkenness and sexual immorality may be recognized immediately as incompatible with Christian conduct while hostility, rivalry, and jealousy are tolerated with considerably less concern.
Paul gives no such distinction. Strife and jealousy belong to the same darkness.
Their inclusion also connects this warning with everything Paul has taught since Romans 12. Believers are members of one another, are to prefer one another in honor, pursue peace, refuse retaliation, and love their neighbors. Strife and jealousy work directly against that life together.
Walking properly therefore means more than avoiding conduct scandalous enough to damage a Christian reputation. It means living openly before God in a manner appropriate to the approaching day.
Put On the Lord Jesus Christ
Romans 13:14
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
Paul’s positive command reaches beyond the individual prohibitions that precede it. The Christian answer to sinful conduct is not merely an expanding list of forbidden behaviors. Paul directs believers toward Christ himself.
The clothing imagery suggests a life in which belonging to Christ becomes visible in conduct. Paul has already told believers to put on the armor of light. He now describes that life explicitly in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This brings the exhortation back to the foundation Paul has established throughout Romans. Believers have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection. They belong to him, stand without condemnation in him, and cannot be separated from God’s love in him. The Christ through whom salvation comes therefore also shapes the life salvation produces.
Putting on Christ cannot mean adding a religious appearance to a life still deliberately ordered around sinful desire. Paul immediately contrasts putting on Christ with making provision for the flesh. The two describe opposing directions of life.
The believer is called to live consistently with the Lord to whom he already belongs.
Make No Provision for the Flesh
Romans 13:14
“and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.”
Paul ends by addressing sin before the final sinful act occurs.
To make provision involves forethought. Sinful conduct is often prepared for long before the moment when a person finally acts. Circumstances can be arranged, opportunities preserved, habits cultivated, and desires repeatedly fed until sin has been made increasingly convenient.
Paul therefore commands Christians not to organize their lives around satisfying the desires of the flesh.
That does not mean every temptation can be prevented. Believers continue to encounter temptation, and Romans has not suggested otherwise. Paul’s concern is whether the Christian actively supplies sinful desire with what it needs.
The principle reaches beyond any single sin. Someone seeking sobriety cannot continually arrange life around drunkenness and treat the final decision to drink as an isolated event. Someone resisting sexual sin cannot deliberately cultivate what feeds lust while expecting desire to weaken. Someone seeking peace cannot continually rehearse injuries and nourish resentment while wondering why bitterness remains.
Paul’s command therefore extends Christian obedience into the decisions that precede temptation. The believer does not merely resist sin when it reaches the point of action. He refuses to arrange the conditions for its satisfaction.
The Night Is Far Gone
Paul’s exhortation rests upon the Christian’s place within the saving work of God. Believers can look backward to when they first believed and forward toward a salvation that is now nearer than it was then. They live after the decisive work God has accomplished through Christ while awaiting its completion.
That position gives urgency to ordinary obedience. The night is far gone and the day is near, so believers should not continue living according to the order that is passing away. The deeds of darkness no longer correspond to the future toward which God is bringing his people.
Paul’s examples also prevent Christians from limiting darkness to the sins they find most publicly scandalous. Drunkenness and sexual immorality belong there, but so do strife and jealousy. The life of the approaching day reaches private desires, public conduct, and relationships with other people.
Paul’s alternative is centered upon Christ. The Lord through whom believers have received justification and reconciliation is the Lord they are now commanded to put on. Their lives are to become increasingly consistent with the Christ to whom they already belong, while the desires of the flesh are denied the deliberate provision that would allow them to govern conduct.
Nothing in this exhortation changes the foundation Paul has established throughout Romans. God has acted to save sinners who could not establish their own righteousness. The obedience Paul now commands is the life of people who have already received mercy and whose salvation is moving toward its promised completion.
Because the day is near, the Christian does not live as though the night will last forever.