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by forgetting that we are of the day and that it is high time for us to awake out of sleep,
and by forgetting the nearness of our hope. Just as we are to "provide things honest in
the sight of all men" (Rom. 12: 17), so we must be careful not to provide for the
satisfaction of the lusts of the flesh.
The word translated "armour" has already appeared in Romans, but in its previous
occurrence it is rendered "instruments":
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments (Margin `arms' or `weapons') of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6: 12, 13).
The "yielding" here in Rom. 6: is the "presenting" of Rom. 12: 1 and 2. The
"mortal bodies" in Rom. 6: are those that are yielded as living sacrifices in Rom. 12:,
for they are yielded "as those that are alive from the dead". The strength for this is in our
"reckoning"--according to Rom. 6: 11--or, in our "putting on the Lord Jesus Christ"--
according to Rom. 13: 14.
It is our reasonable service thus to present our bodies; it is a logical outcome of grace
not to think highly of ourselves; it is rational to endeavour to serve the Lord in the place
and with the gift that He has been pleased to bestow. It is our reasonable service to
refrain from avenging ourselves; it is our reasonable service to render to all their dues
and to recognize that He Who has so sovereignly given to every believer some gift for
His glory, has also, in His wider providential dealings with the world, ordained the
powers that be. It is a logical conclusion that love fulfils all law, and that we who are
saved by grace and are waiting for glory, should stand complete in all the fullness of the
gift of Christ.
"I beseech you", writes the Apostle, at the beginning of this section, "I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God". May this beseeching and our contemplation
of these "mercies of God" not be in vain.