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both passages we have darkness and light, sleep and wakefulness, armour and the hope of
salvation. Let us see the two passages together.
Romans 13: 11-14.
I Thessalonians 5: 1-10.
"But the times and seasons (kairon) you
"Knowing the season" (kairon).
know perfectly."
"Ye are all the children of light, and the
"It is high time to awake out of sleep
children of the day: we are not of the
. . . . . the night is far spent, the day is at
night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us
hand . . . . . let us walk honestly as in the
not sleep as do others, but let us watch
day: not in rioting and drunkenness . . . . .
and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
make not provision for the flesh to fulfil
the night, and they that be drunken are
the lusts thereof. Let us put on the
drunken in the night. Putting on the
armour of light, for now is our salvation
breastplate of faith and love; and for an
nearer than when we believed."
helmet, the hope of salvation . . . . . to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus
Christ."
The two passages follow their own order, but the parallel between them is plain.
While the particular phase of the Lord's Coming may be different in different
passages, the practical influence of this "blessed hope" remains the same:
"Teaching us that, having denied ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for that blessed hope, and the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2: 12, 13).
"I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the
quick and the dead at His appearing and kingdom, preach the word . . . . . love His
appearing" (II Tim. 4: 1-8).
In Rom. 13: 12 we have the exhortation: "Let us put on the armour of light." In
verse 14 we read: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." After the first reference to "putting
on", the Apostle mentions certain particular activities of the flesh--rioting, drunkenness,
etc. After the second reference, we have the all-inclusive statement: "Make no provision
for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." It is evident that the putting on of "the armour of
light" is but a figurative way of describing the full equipment of the believer who stands
in all that Christ is made to him. Comparing this passage with Ephesians, we read in
Eph. 4: of "having put off . . . . . the old man, and having put on the new man", while in
Eph. 6:, what is true of every believer in Eph. 4: is put into practical effect when the
armour is "put on"--the armour being specified as being either the gifts of grace in
Christ, or the Word of God itself. In Eph. 6: the foes in view are "spiritual
wickednesses", but in Rom. 13: the enemy is nearer home. The enemy in Romans is
"the flesh"--not the flesh in others, but the flesh in ourselves.
It is important here to keep close to the actual teaching of the passage. There is
nothing to justify the idea that the believer cannot fall into sin, or that he will not
sometimes be "overtaken in a fault". Even those described in Galatians as "ye which are
spiritual" are exhorted to "restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Gal. 6: 1). What we are warned against here is
"making provision for the flesh"--a provision which is made by conforming to this age,