Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 3
December 20, 2020
Humble, Texas

⁽⁰⁸⁸⁾

1769 KJV Translation:
11 And that, knowing the time, that now [it is] high time to awake out of sleep: for now [is] our salvation nearer than when we believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfil] the lusts [thereof].

1901 ASV Translation:
11 And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than we first believed.
12 The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness.
13 Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

• I. Paul's Next Thoughts (What Does One Do Who Recognizes That "Love" Has Not Yet Taken Over One's Heart So That True Godliness Is As "Automatic" As We Wish It Was?).
  • A. "And this...".
    • 1. "This" is an accusative neuter, demonstrative pronoun. "The time" is masculine, singular, accusative. "This" does not modify "the time".
    • 2. The translators of the NASB recognize this dissonance and attempt to make sense of Paul's wording by adding "Do" as in "Do this...".
    • 3. The "problem": there is no primary verb stated in 13:11. Thus, we look for the implied verb. It is involved with "This" because it is accusative. Thus the NASB translators supply that verb: "Do".
      • a. We have a saying: "Put that in your pipe and smoke it". It means something like, "Take some time and ponder what you have just heard...". This seems to be Paul's meaning.
      • b. Paul has put forth the "bottom line": do not default on any debt, but especially the one placed upon us by "Love".
      • c. Now he moves to a declaration of the coming reality as the rationale for our "pondering": our salvation is moving toward us and we do not want to be caught asleep when it arrives.
      • d. The goal of Paul's instruction is to get his readers to "make the definitive decision to operate by 'love'" (Romans 12:1-2) so that the rest of the time in this world is not corrupted by "hate".
    • 4. A probable "solution": in seeking to see the "implied verb", we must carefully look into Paul's "desired outcome" from his words. If Paul's meaning is as stated above "Take some time and ponder this that you have just been told...", then his "implied meaning" is, rather than "Do this...", actually "Ponder this...".
      • a. So what are we to "ponder"?
        • 1) "This" -- that we have the inescapable 'debt' of "Love" at all times toward all people.
        • 2) And how are we to "ponder"? Be comparing this inescapable 'debt' to the character of this present season.
      • b. And what is the bottom line of our pondering?
        • 1) Because Paul's final words on this topic are "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to lusts", it seems that we are to "ponder" this -- that we are under permanent obligation to love; and this -- that we already know the season that it is the hour to be awake; and this -- that the day is near.
        • 2) In other words, our "pondering" is to be about "HOW" the obligation and wakefulness is to effectively addressed.
  • B. "...Having known (so that we are now knowing) the time...".
    • 1. Paul inserts a "time" orientation. We once lived in "times of ignorance" (Acts 17:30). We do so no longer (in a general sense; we are yet ignorant of much: Romans 8:26).
    • 2. "...The time..."; this is Paul's final reference to "time" in this letter, and it falls on the heels of five previous such references, all of which refer to "specific blocks of time" (seasons within the march of time in history).
    • 3. His declaration is that we have come to know, with the result that we do now know, "the season" in which we live.
  • C. "...that/because "hour" already for you to arise from sleep...".
    • 1. Again, the translators supply "...it is..." in respect to "...it is already the hour...". That is an acceptable "probability-assumption".
    • 2. Paul is insisting that his readers know "the time" by saying "...it is already an hour" for them to be awakened/raised (passive voice; someone has to do this awakening/raising) from sleep. The strong implication is that these words of Paul are his effort to "awaken/raise" his readers.
      • a. The metaphor of "sleep" is used because it carries the primary meaning of "being totally unaware". It is high time we woke up.
      • b. The "logic" is beyond simple: our salvation is nearer now than when we believed. That is a kind of "duh" statement (like John's "he that has the bride is the bridegroom"...duh). But, Paul's point is something like "...if you were going to 'sleep' you should have done that right after you believed because now enough time has gone by to make 'sleeping' a foolish action since the passing of time has brought our 'salvation' to a greater possibility in time...". In other words, since no one in his/her right mind wants to be asleep when the moment of "salvation" arrives, it is time to "wake up".
        • 1) At issue is Paul's particular concept of "salvation".
          • a) Clearly he means something akin to "the ultimate deliverance promised in the Gospel".
            • i. It is "ultimate" in the sense that he is saying "the hour of salvation is already so close that you need to be awakened from the sleep that is induced by the appearance that the promise is simply a delusion (an appearance foisted upon us by a real lack of the significant impacts of "salvation"; a concept that is put forward in several places in the New Testament, an example of which is Hebrews 11:13, and another is 2 Peter 3:4).
            • ii. As "ultimate" it is the actual event of our "hope": the appearing of our great God and Savior (Titus 2:13).
          • b) And, just as clearly, he acknowledges that the impact of the Gospel in the hearts and minds of those who have believed is not quite what they may have thought at the beginning: the actual transformation that a "new heart" would bring if, in fact, the "old heart" was destroyed.
      • c. Thus, after 2,000 years of non-arrival, it sounds a bit "off" to have said, in the first century, "You need to be awake". So, what is really going on? Apparently, it is needful for every generation to keep the "maybe today" mentality alive ... no matter how many of them live and die without the fulfillment. There is something to be said for keeping the ashes of the fire from smothering the fire: Matthew 24:48-51. If the Gospel has not yet produced the actual godliness of motive and action across the board that everyone who believes wants, it is yet true that an active expectation that it might actually happen today does have a real purifying impact upon false motives and actions.

(return to the top of the article)


This is article #087.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.