19    Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (13:11-14)

And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (13:11–14)

Following his declaration that godly love fulfills the law (13:8–10), Paul next focuses on the urgency of believers becoming more and more like their Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, who is Himself the source and power of that divinely-required love. We are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 14a). That phrase summarizes sanctification (the theme of chapters 12–16), the continuing spiritual growth of those who have become children of God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. The faithful, obedient, loving Christian grows spiritually by becoming increasingly like Jesus Christ. As we clothe ourselves with Christ, His righteousness, truth, holiness, and love become more and more evident in our own lives. His character becomes reflected in us.

It is interesting that Gentile unbelievers in Antioch of Syria were the first to refer to Christ’s followers mockingly as Christians (Acts 11:26), a name that carried the diminutive sense of “little Christs.” Christian soon came to be used as a term of disdain by both Gentile and Jewish unbelievers during the time of the early church. When King Agrippa, an unbelieving Jew, “replied to Paul, ‘In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian’” (Acts 26:28), the obvious derision did not indicate that he considered the name to be one of honor and respect. The only other use of Christian in the New Testament is in Peter’s first letter, in which he encourages fellow believers with the words, “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God” (1 Pet. 4:16). He seems to be saying, in effect, “If your persecutors deride you with the name Christian, do not be ashamed, but rather accept ‘that name’ as a badge of honor, because it identifies you with God’s Son and your Savior and thereby glorifies your heavenly Father. As Christians, you should want to be identified with Christ and be like Him.”

The practical meaning of becoming like Christ can be understood through the simple imagery of putting on clothing. Sanctification is to be clothed with Christ. The figure of putting on clothing as symbolic of moral and spiritual behavior was used by the ancient rabbis, who spoke of true worshipers putting on the cloak of the Shekinah glory, meaning that they were to reflect and become like the God they worshiped. Jesus used the figure of clothing several times and it is found in numerous other places throughout the New Testament.

Paul admonished the Ephesians to “lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,” and to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:22–24, emphasis added). “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord,” the apostle told the Colossians, “so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith” (Col. 2:6–7).

In some places, the figures of taking off and putting on are used in the past tense, indicating the time of conversion, when a believer is justified, accounted righteous because of his trust in Jesus Christ. The old nature dies and a new nature is created. Paul used the figure when he admonished the Christians at Colossae, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:9–10). “Laid aside” and “have put on” refer to what those believers already had experienced. “Is being renewed” refers to what was then happening in their lives. The first two phrases refer to justification, the aspect of salvation that occurs and is made permanent at the moment of belief. The third phrase refers to sanctification, the aspect of salvation that the Holy Spirit continues to achieve in believers’ lives until glorification when their time on earth is ended, either by death or by rapture.

There is something that is already true about our spiritual life and something that should be true about it, an indicative and an imperative. There is a holiness that we already have and a holiness that we should continue to pursue. We have been made righteous, yet we strive to live righteously.

Speaking about the time of their conversion, the apostle reminded believers in Galatia that all who “were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Earlier in his letter to Rome, Paul assures Christians that “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” is bestowed on “all those who believe” (Rom. 3:22). He also declares that “to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5; cf. 5:17; 6:1–11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Matt. 22:11–12). By the grace of God the Father, we “are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

Those passages, and many others in the New Testament, make clear that every true Christian already has been clothed with Christ and His righteousness. Long before the time of Christ, the prophet Isaiah exclaimed, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness” (Isa. 61:10).

It is of great importance to distinguish between justification, which has been accomplished once and for all, and sanctification, which is a continuing process. Justification refers to declared and positional righteousness, sometimes called forensic righteousness. Sanctification refers to the life-long process of growing in practical righteousness.

In the present passage (Rom. 13:11–14), Paul uses the figure of taking off and putting on clothing to represent sanctification, the Christian’s forsaking the sins that remain in his remaining fallenness or flesh and embracing the righteousness of his new self, his new creation in Jesus Christ. But before the apostle presents that vital truth, he wants to have his readers’ full attention and urges them to wake up from their spiritual lethargy and sin.

WAKE UP!

And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. (13:11–12a)

The phrases it is already the hour… now salvation is nearer … the night is almost gone … and the day is at hand all express urgency. Time is limited, opportunity is brief. The time to heed and to obey is now. There is no time for apathy, complacency, or indifference.

If that admonition was urgent during Paul’s day, how much more urgent is it today! It has always been urgent and will always continue to be urgent until the Lord returns, when our opportunities for earthly faithfulness, obedience, and evangelism will end and judgment will fall.

Every generation has had its share of skeptics who ask, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet. 3:4). No believer who honestly holds God’s Word to be inerrant could think that Paul and Peter were simply over-anxious about the imminency of Christ’s second coming. But the majority of Christians throughout most, if not all, of church history have lived believing that was true.

And this do carries the idea of achieving something in addition to what Paul has just been stressing, especially in verses 8–10 regarding love. J. B. Phillips broadly paraphrases verse 11a as, “Why all this stress on behaviour? Because, as I think you have realised, the present time is of the highest importance.” We are never to stop offering our “bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual service of worship” (12:1). We are always to be properly related to unbelievers as well as believers, to civil leaders as well as church leaders, to enemies as well as friends and neighbors—fulfilling God’s law through love (12:2–13:10).

Paul is not referring to chronological time (chronos) but to kairos, time as an era, epoch, or age. This term and its Hebrew equivalent are frequently used in Scripture. During the reign of King David, “the sons of Issachar” were described as “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” (1 Chron. 12:32).

When a group of Pharisees and Sadducees tried to test Jesus’ authority, they demanded that He perform “a sign from heaven. But He answered and said to them, ‘When it is evening, you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.” And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times [kairos]?’” (Matt. 16:1–3). Jesus was speaking about their understanding of what God was then doing before their very eyes. The Messiah, the divinely promised Redeemer, the incarnate Son of God, was standing before them, yet they did not recognize Him or accept anything He taught or did. They were in the very midst of the season [kairos] of redemption, but their spiritual blindness prevented their seeing it.

Such distinct periods or epochs of special importance in God’s redemptive history are referred to in many other New Testament passages (see, e.g., Matt. 26:18; Mark 1:15; Rom. 3:26; Rev. 1:3). The particular time of redemptive history of which Paul is speaking in the present text is that which precedes the parousia of Christ.

Because they are untaught or wrongly taught in God’s Word or have little interest in spiritual things, many believers voluntarily share some of the spiritual blindness of unbelievers. Especially lamentable is their ignorance of and lack of interest in the return of their Lord. That spiritual malady plagued believers in the early church, obviously including some in Rome. It was for that reason that the apostle seems almost to shout: It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep.

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines sleep as “a state of inactivity, with a loss of consciousness and a decrease in responsiveness to events taking place.” Paul calls them to awaken from spiritual sleep—from unconsciousness, unresponsiveness, and inactivity concerning the things of God.

The apostle also cried out to certain believers in Ephesus, saying, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:14). He was not speaking to the unsaved, to those who were spiritually “dead,” but to genuine believers whose spiritual lethargy and laziness made them appear and act as if they had no spiritual life. Such indolence is intolerable in light of the urgency of spiritual matters.

Paul both warned and appealed to believers at Corinth: “Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame” (1 Cor. 15:34). As with the Ephesian believers just spoken of above, the apostle was not accusing those Corinthians of not knowing God as Savior but of being ignorant of God’s Word. They were unaware of and unconcerned about what the Lord was then doing in the world and even less concerned about what He promised He would yet do—in particular the promise that Christ would come again to earth, not as a humble servant but as Conqueror, King, and Judge.

In declaring that now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed, Paul obviously is speaking about the completion of salvation. He is addressing Christians, those who already had believed and been converted. The salvation that is becoming nearer refers to the future and final dimension of redemption, namely, glorification. As mentioned above, justification refers to declared and positional righteousness that happens once and saves the believer from the penalty of sin. Sanctification refers to the life-long process of the believer’s growing spiritually in practical righteousness. Glorification refers to the believer’s ultimate perfection as a child of God.

Earlier in this letter, the apostle has spoken of “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23), referring to this third and final aspect of salvation, when the Lord takes us to be with Him for all eternity. That is the future aspect of salvation which he here says is nearer to us than when we believed.

It is to that eschatological motive, the hope of Christ’s imminent return, to which the apostle appeals. Throughout the New Testament, Christians are called to holy living in anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ. That should be the utmost incentive for living according to His will and for His glory.

Paul reminds Titus that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:11–13). The writer of Hebrews admonishes believers to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24–25). James counsels: “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord; … strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (James 5:7–8). Peter warns: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:7–8). Paul reminds us that, even as believers, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).

We already are eternally freed from condemnation and punishment for our sins. Christ’s taking upon Himself the sins of the world (John 1:29) became permanently effective for us the moment we received Him as Lord and Savior. But when He returns, there will be a judgment of our efforts on behalf of the kingdom, when He “will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor. 4:5).

Near the end of his remarkably fruitful ministry, Paul rejoiced: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7–8). The Lord Himself promises His people: “Let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me” (Rev. 22:11b-12a; cf. Rom. 14:10).

We do not know and cannot know the hour of Christ’s coming. But we know that it is some 2,000 years closer than when Paul wrote his letter to Rome. We do not know how much sand remains in the top of the Lord’s “hour glass” of human history as we know it, but there is abundant evidence that not much time is left. We know that we are nearer to the coming of our Lord “with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30) than any other generation in history. Every day we live, we come one day closer to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the final events in God’s redemptive plan.

The promise of the two angels to the disciples immediately after Jesus’ ascension should be the constant watchword and the continual hope of every Christian: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). In the meanwhile, they were to obey the Lord’s own last command to them: “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (1:7–8).

Paul’s declaration that the night is almost gone, and the day is at hand means that man’s time of spiritual unbelief, rebellion, and sin is about to end and God’s time of judgment, glory, and righteousness is about to begin.

In the New Testament, the term day is often used to signify the dawning, as it were, of Christ’s imminent return, and is used here in contrast to the night of man’s spiritual darkness, which is almost over.

Speaking of His return, Jesus warned, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:22–23, emphasis added). Speaking of the rebellious “angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode,” Jude affirms that God “has kept [them] in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6, emphasis added).

From the human perspective, it sometimes seems that the night of man’s depravity is interminable and that Satan’s dominion over man is becoming stronger and more unalterable. The world as a whole is certainly not becoming more godly and peaceful but more ungodly and violent (cf. 2 Tim. 3:13). Every day, the news of man’s inhumanity to man becomes more dreadful and his repudiation of God more blasphemous and presumptuous.

But this increasing degeneracy was not unforseen by God, nor should His people be surprised by it. Through Peter, the Lord long ago declared:

In a word of great encouragement to believers, the apostle goes on to say, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (vv. 8–9).

The writer of Hebrews consoled the believers to whom he wrote, saying, “Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay” (Heb. 10:35–37).

Throughout the New Testament, the Lord encourages the saved and warns the unsaved that the return of Christ is near. Paul gives that combination of assurance and warning in his second letter to persecuted believers in Thessalonica. Their suffering for Christ’s sake was

In his first letter, Peter admonished believers that “the end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7). James wrote, “Be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (James 5:8).

The nighttime of world history will soon give way to the daylight of Christ’s glorious kingdom. And in that day, “loud voices in heaven” will proclaim, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). As for our expectation of and preparation for that great day, Paul tells us:

THROW OFF!

Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. (13:12b-13)

The imagery here pictures a soldier who has been engaged in a night orgy and drinking bout and, still clad in the garments of his sin, has fallen into a drunken sleep. But the dawn is approaching and the battle is at hand. It is time to wake up, throw off the clothes of night, and put on the battle gear.

Lay aside here carries the idea of forsaking, or renouncing, and in this context obviously refers to repentance from the deeds of darkness, a general term that includes all sins in which a believer may indulge. The Lord is grieved by all sin, but the sins of His own children bring special grief to “the Holy Spirit of God, by whom [we] were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

David spoke of a man who “clothed himself with cursing as with his garment” (Ps. 109:18). We sin by choice, voluntarily clothing ourselves with its evil. In the Spirit’s power we can reverse that decision and lay aside sin, disrobe ourselves of it. Paul uses the same figure in admonishing believers at Ephesus to “lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit” (Eph. 4:22). He told believers in Colossae to put away “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices” (Col. 3:8–9). As noted above, when we received Christ, all of our sin was removed before God. We were justified, counted to be perfectly righteous before God because He applied Christ’s own righteousness to our spiritual account. Paul was telling the Colossians to keep on laying aside, to continually cast off particular sins—in this case, “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech”—the dirty, unspiritual clothes they kept putting back on.

Through the writer of Hebrews, the Lord tells us to “lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us” (Heb. 12:1). Through Peter He tells us to put “aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Pet. 2:1). And through James He tells us to put “aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, [and] in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

Scripture frequently uses the figure of darkness to represent sin, here described as deeds of darkness. Crimes are frequently committed at night, the time of darkness, because they can more easily go unnoticed. Job spoke of “those who rebel against the light; they do not want to know its ways, nor abide in its paths. The murderer arises at dawn; he kills the poor and the needy, and at night he is as a thief. And the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ And he disguises his face. In the dark they dig into houses, they shut themselves up by day; they do not know the light. For the morning is the same to him as thick darkness, for he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness” (Job 24:13–17).

Paul next moves from the negative to the positive, from emphasizing confession and genuine repentance in the laying aside of the destructive darkness of sin to putting on the protective light of righteousness.

Paul uses the imagery of a soldier who had dressed himself in party clothes and spent the night in reveling. As the day dawns, the commander orders him to wake up, take off his night clothes, and put on the armor he needs to fight the day’s battle. Armor is made for warfare, and its purpose is to protect the one who wears it. By the indwelling Spirit working through our new nature in Christ, we not only have every resource necessary to forsake the deeds of darkness but also every resource we need to put on the armor of light. God’s own light provides divine protection in our battle against Satan’s supernatural powers of darkness as well as against the natural darkness of human sin, to which, even as believers, we still are so prone.

The armor of light is “the full armor of God,” which we are to put on in order “to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:11–12). We cannot be spiritually and morally safe in anything less than “the full armor of God,” in order to “be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (v. 13). God’s full armor of light includes the girdle of “truth, … the breastplate of righteousness,” feet shod “with the preparation of the gospel of peace, … the shield of faith with which [we] will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one,” and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (vv. 14–17).

In his gospel account, John describes Jesus as “the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9), and in his first letter he proclaims that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He goes on to say that those who truly belong to God are also characterized by the light of divine righteousness. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (vv. 6–7; cf. 2:6). Sin and righteousness are as incompatible and mutually exclusive as darkness and light.

Paul admonished Ephesian believers to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:23–24), reminding them a few verses later, “You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (5:8). The Christian’s spiritual armor is the light of God’s own holiness and purity, with which He desires His children to be constantly clothed. It is the clothing of spiritual purity and integrity, a reflection of our Lord’s holiness that—whether they recognize it or not—all the world can see.

Therefore, because we are children of light and have available the Lord’s own armor of light, we should behave properly as in the day.

To behave properly is to live in a way that pleases God. It is to live honestly before our Lord and before men, to live an outward life that is consistent with our inner nature in Christ, to live a sanctified life that reflects our justified life. It is to live a life that has “no spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27), and it is “to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Pet. 3:14).

The Christian who is not living a holy and obedient life is a Christian who does not comprehend the significance of the Lord’s return. On the other hand, the believer who understands the coming judgment and is daily looking for His Lord to appear is a believer whose overriding purpose is to please and honor His Lord by consistent holy living. The Christian who longs for Christ’s coming is characterized by “holy conduct and godliness,” because he is “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, … looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:11–13).

After Paul admonished Colossian believers to consider themselves dead to the various sins to which they were prone and to “put them all aside” (Col. 3:5–9a), he reminds them that, when they were saved, they had “laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and [had] put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (vv. 3:9b-10). And, “as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,” they were to devote themselves to righteousness, putting “on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (vv. 12–14).

We are to behave properly as in the day, because, as children of God, “we are of the day” and therefore should “be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:8–9, emphasis added).

Returning again to the negative, Paul, as he often does, mentions a number of specific sins, characteristics of our lives that reflect spiritual darkness rather than light, the night of unrighteousness rather than the day of righteousness.

First on the list is carousing, which translates kōmos, a term often used of a military or athletic victory celebration. Because such revelry frequently turned into drunken and immoral disorder, kōmos came to be used of any wild partying, sexual orgies, brawls, and sometimes even rioting (as in the King James of this verse), especially when associated with drunkenness, the second sin mentioned here. Methē (drunkenness) most often was used of intentional and habitual intoxication. It is interesting that in Galatians 5:21 and 1 Peter 4:3 carousing and drunkenness are also found side-by-side.

The next two sins mentioned here, sexual promiscuity and sensuality, also are closely associated. Sexual promiscuity does not translate porneia, the most common Greek term for sexual immorality, but rather koitē, which literally refers to a bed or bedroom. But it came to have the same connotation that the phrase “going to bed” with someone of the opposite sex carries today. In the New Testament the word is used both of the honored marriage bed (Heb. 13:4) and of illicit sexual promiscuity, as here.

Sensuality translates aselgeia, which has the basic meaning of shameless excess and the absence of restraint. Like koitē, it was used almost exclusively of especially lewd sexual immorality, of uninhibited and unabashed lasciviousness. It refers to the kind of sexual debauchery and abandonment that characterizes much of modern society and that is often flaunted almost as a badge of distinction.

Strife (eris) refers to persistent contention, bickering, petty disagreement, and enmity. It reflects a spirit of antagonistic competitiveness that fights to have its own way, regardless of cost to itself or of harm to others. It is produced by a deep desire to prevail over others, to gain the highest prestige, prominence, and recognition possible. Strife is characterized by self-indulgence and egoism. It has no place even for simple tolerance, much less for humility or love.

Zēlos (jealosy) is the term from which we get the English zeal and zealous, which often carry a positive connotation. It is also sometimes used positively in the New Testament. Earlier in this letter, Paul spoke of certain unsaved Jews who had an untaught and misdirected “zeal for God” (Rom. 10:2). And in his second letter to the church at Corinth, he expressed deep appreciation for their zeal (zēlos) for him (2 Cor. 7:7). But in the present passage, this word is properly translated in the very negative sense of jealousy (“envying,” KJV). James twice connects “jealousy” with “selfish ambition” (James 3:14, 16).

Strife and jealousy were the two specific fleshly sins that caused the deep, partisan divisions in the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 3:3). And, except for koitē, all of the sins mentioned in Romans 13:13 are specifically listed among the “deeds of the flesh” mentioned by Paul in Galatians 5:19–21. And the basic evil connoted by koitē is covered in that list by “immorality” and “impurity” (v. 19).

Paul never lost sight of the fact that he himself was once the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). He reminded Titus,

PUT ON!

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (13:14)

As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ represents the continuing spiritual growth of those who have become children of God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. “Having been firmly rooted” in Christ, we are “now being built up in Him” (Col. 2:7). And as we grow in Christ, the old clothing of sinful thoughts and habits is continually being discarded, and His divine clothing of righteousness, truth, holiness, and love is being put on. As the process of sanctification progresses, the Lord’s character becomes more and more our own character. In that sense, the single purpose of a Christian is to continually put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul had in mind when he said he had only “one thing” to do—pursue the goal of Christlikeness, which will be the prize in glory (Phil. 3:13–14).

“Beloved, now we are children of God,” John tells us, “and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2–3). Looking for Christ’s coming with loving expectation purifies our lives, because to long for Him is to want to please Him, and to want to please Him is to want to be like Him. Paul told the Galatian believers that he would not be content, that he would remain “in labor,” as it were, “until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Christ already is formed in us in the sense that He indwells us and has given us His own nature. But, like John, we should look forward to the glorious day when “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). We rejoice that “we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

We grow from one level of Christ’s glory to another as we faithfully study and meditate on His Word, as we commune with Him in prayer, as we rely on His Holy Spirit, and as we “stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24–25).

An athlete may don the uniform and take the name of a championship team, but it is his performance, not his team’s uniform or name, that determines his own value as a player. A judge may put on the appropriate robe of his office, but it is his judicial knowledge and wisdom that determine his own merit as a judge. In a much deeper, but some-what similar way, the person who receives Christ as Savior takes on the name of Christian. But the quality of his Christianity is determined by his own spiritual faithfulness.

Once again, Paul uses contrast to make his point, this time in reverse order from that of verse 12. Here the order is first to put on Christ and His righteousness and then to put off sin, by making no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Pronoia (provision) has the basic meaning of forethought, of planning ahead. More often than not, the sins we commit develop from wrong ideas and lustful desires that we have allowed to linger in our minds (cf. James 1:14–15). The longer we permit them to stay, the more provision we make for the flesh to bring them to fruition.

David understood that “transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. … He plans wickedness upon his bed; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he does not despise evil” (Ps. 36:1, 4). To one degree or another, most wickedness is planned. The ungodly person does not stumble into sin but “plans to do evil” (Prov. 24:8).

The devout Puritan preacher Thomas Manton wrote, “Every corruption has a voice,” meaning that every sort of sin finds a way to bring itself to man’s mind and heart. To feel the desire to sin is evidence of the presence of sin in us. To fulfill that desire is evidence of the power of sin over us. As long as we are in our mortal bodies we will experience the presence of sin within us. But at no time does a Christian have to yield to sin’s power. Because we have the provision of Christ’s own nature and Spirit within us, we do not have to make provision for the flesh by fulfilling its lusts.

The flesh does not refer primarily to our physical bodies but to our remaining humanness, our lingering proclivity to sin, which finds expression through our bodies. It is for that reason that, “having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). The provision for sin originates in our hearts, minds, emotions, and will, which are still influenced powerfully by the flesh. It is only as we “walk by the Spirit” that we “will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). And to walk by the Spirit is to live by the Word.

The urgency of obeying this command to put on Christ was expressed some years ago in a poem which beautifully communicates the sentiment of many Christians: