Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 4
January 3, 2021
Humble, Texas
(090)
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 "And this...".
- A. A statement without a stated verb, but having a "direct object" ["This"].
- 1. At the very least, Paul is emphasizing a certain truth, or a set of certain truths.
- a. The translators' efforts to "supply a verb" end up with all manner of translations (see the website "Bible Hub" for a listing of many translations and their efforts to give Paul's Romans 13:11 words a legitimate rendering).
- b. But, underlying all of the efforts is the recognition that Paul is insisting that his readers take certain facts seriously.
- 2. My translation is "And ponder this..." because "pondering" is supposed to lead one into a careful and thoughtful consideration of some truth/truths that will, if so considered, lead to taking the proper action.
- B. The emphasized truths.
- 1. Before this sentence: Love is the root of all of the righteousness revealed by "Law".
- 2. Following the "this"... .
- a. You know the time... .
- 1) The verb here is a perfect tense participle that has its roots in "seeing with the result that one 'knows' " so that Paul is claiming that his readers are already significantly aware of "the time" in a way as to disallow them to continue on their current path.
- a) Paul's anticipation that his readers are "on the wrong path" is evident from his exhortations in view of the nearness of their salvation.
- i. He exhorts his readers to lay aside the works of darkness and clothe themselves with the "armor" of the light, along with other specific details.
- ii. But his exhortation is First Person Plural: "Let us..." do these things. He includes himself as one in need of these actions. He is not being subtle when he includes himself as though he needed to do, himself, what he was exhorting his readers to do, but was already doing them. This is remarkable for its illumination of the truth of every believer's need for continuous reorientation because of the reality of the daily struggle of living as one regularly failing, yet pressing forward. No one gets so "mature" in Christ that he/she does not need daily reorientation.
- iii. Thus, Paul's uncomplimentary assumption is not designed as an "insult", but as a revelation of genuine neediness.
- b) The "current path" is stated: sleeping when it is high time to be awake.
- 2) The "knowing" of the "time" is, decidedly, a major thesis: such knowledge is supposed to lead to certain commensurate behaviors.
- a) "Time" is variously considered in the New Testament, but this particular word is consistently used to indicate a "season", a "block of time" with a beginning and an ending. A graphic illustration of this word's meaning is given in Mark 11:13 wherein Jesus found nothing but leaves on a fig tree and then immediately cursed it for not having any eatable fruit.
- b) As a "season", Paul indicates his understanding that people go through cycles, or seasons, of "sleepiness" and "wakefulness". The "season" of "sleepiness" has its seasonal beginning after a long day of labor, and it has its seasonal ending after a night of restful sleep. This is an obvious figure of speech that indicates that certain truths become sharply focused once the aftereffects of deep sleep have departed. Paul is saying that his readers "know" that the hour has come "to come fully awake and alert".
- i. Paul calls "this season" "the hour" in which they are to be "raised from sleep". The passive voice of the verb indicates that things other than the individuals' own inner awarenesses have broken into their sleep.
- ii. Paul is actually claiming that his readers need to shake off the lingering lethargy of broken sleep so that they come into the "hour" of sharp awareness.
- 3) The particular issue of this "season/hour" is the nearness of the salvation which they obtained when they "believed".
- a) Paul's claim is presented as "indisputably obvious" in that he states the "obvious" fact that their salvation is nearer now than when they first believed.
- b) He does not say "how much nearer" except that "the night is so far advanced that the day is about to dawn".
- c) The intent seems to be "precipitous": "Awake, your salvation is almost here". This is an odd statement as we look back upon 2000 years of "more passing time in which the salvation has not yet appeared".
- i. This is not a lesser biblical theme.
- i) Paul was adamant that our orientation is to be "waiting for His Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10).
- ii) Paul was not ignorant of the impact that unfulfilled desire/expectation has: it tends strongly in the direction of yielding to the temptation to give up on the "desire" as "expectation".
- iii) Peter addressed this head-on in 2 Peter 3:1-10 as a follow-up to 1 Peter 1:13 with the lead-up as given in the preceding verses (1:1-12).
- ii. There is a good reason for the "delay": Hebrews 11:12-16 and 39-40.
- i) The "Plan" takes a long time to get all of the details in place.
- ii) This is decidedly not to be used to set aside the freshness of living in the hope.
- iii) If the culmination of the Plan is delayed for a long time, our approaching deaths will not be; so we should not succumb to "sleep" in any case.
- b. There is a followup on what they "know": the night is almost gone and the day is near.