Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 7
January 24, 2021
Humble, Texas
(096)
1769 KJV Translation:
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:
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. The Believer's Response To The Failure Of The Night.
- A. Paul's use of "advanced" signals the pursuit of an objective; his "Gospel" heralds the failure to achieve it.
- B. Given the failure of The Night, and the Inevitable Dawning of The Day, believers have certain responsibilities.
- 1. "...therefore..."
- 2. The exhortations.
- a. "We should ... [see (093)].
- b. "We should clothe ourselves with the weapons of The Light" [see (093)].
- c. "We should walk becomingly 'as in Day'".
- 1) The metaphor of "walking" is used extensively in the New Testament as a way to explain how a person is to function in the ages in light of the enormous conflict that exists between the Kingdom of Light and the oppositional forces gathered under the thesis of "opposition" as an alternative "kingdom" (of Darkness).
- a) This "extensive use" does not appear in Romans as Paul only uses "peripateo" (the central verb) in four contexts in this letter.
- b) His uses are, however, "strategic".
- i. In his doctrine regarding our "complete identity with Jesus Christ" (6:4), he makes it plain that we are to "walk" in the newness of a "life" that is rooted in the power of resurrection from the dead. This is the power to "do" righteousness, not faux "miracles" (there is no greater "miracle" than God's empowering of a "corrupted" person to do righteousness from the heat), nor lying "prophecies" (there is no greater truth than the revelation of the Word in written words; "if they do not believe Moses, neither will they believe if one is raised from the dead": Luke 16:31).
- ii. Then, in 8:4, he "links" our "walk" to the "Law of the Spirit of Life" (8:2), having rooted it in our absolute freedom from condemnation, but yet having a "link" to the inescapable obligations of "The Law" as to "moral imperatives rooted in the very essence of the glory of God". The "Law of the Spirit of Life" promotes a harmony between the actions of our bodies (arising out of a new heart and a mind that is being renewed) and the essence of "the glory of God".
- iii. His third use is the one in our current focus of study (13:13) where the issue is "walking" on the foundation of the hopeless failure of "The Night" and the inevitable, future, success of "The Day", which is "near".
- iv. And his final use is in 14:15 where he clearly ties our "walk" to "the agape of God as an entire "system" of values in an ordered arrangement, just as he has done in our current context (13:8-10).
- c) In our current context, there are six negative expressions of things outside of this "agape" and they are set forth in three pairs, each of which is preceded by the negative particle "me" which means "not".
- i. "Not" in "carousing and drunkenness". This "pair" has its first element in a word used in only three texts of the New Testament (Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:21; and 1 Peter 4:3): "komos"; and its second element in another word used in only three texts of the New Testament (Luke 21:34; Romans 13:13; and Galatians 5:21). This first pair comes across as an overindulgence in "excessive displays of behavior without restraints" and its first element is translated in the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains as "orgies" (apparently of the kind that had its expression in village celebrations where the restraints of typical village life were cast off). The translation as "orgies" is, however, not supported by Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon because it says that the main idea is "the behavior of a group who are celebrating some 'victory' with a kind of wild abandonment". Thus, the idea is not "sexual" (as our word "orgies" seems to bring to the table), but "extreme expressions of perceived success". The second element of this pair is "drunkenness" as an excess of alcoholic consumption to the point of a breakdown in restraint. This is, clearly, a fixation upon what is, perhaps, the most flagrant of physical exuberance because of some "wildly successful pursuit". This appears to be "the soul out of control" as it is the "soul" that governs "emotional outbursts because of perceived results of actions taken". An example might be Luke 10:17-20.
- ii) "Not" in "sexual promiscuity and sensuality". This second pair comes across as a kind of doubling-down on a thesis of "abandonment of restraint", and its first element is related to the "heat" of being "in bed" with someone for the purpose of sexual stimulation. This word is only used in four places in the New Testament and they all point to the "bed" with three of the four using the "bed" as the place where "conception" occurs, i.e., the location of sexual activities. The second element of this pair is a concept contained in 10 texts of the New Testament and invariably runs to the idea of complete abandonment to intense pleasures. This "pair", unlike the first, seems to fixate upon living under the basic thesis of "sexual pleasure without boundaries". This appears to be "the body out of control", given over to the most intense of physical pleasures.
- iii) "Not" in "strife and jealousy". This is the third "pair". This set is comprised of two elements which both contain the "problem" of "strong competition with others over things held in value because of their ability to lift one over another in the opinions of others. This appears to be "the spirit out of control" as it is given over to "status-lust". This may well be a conclusion to Paul's comprehensive "theology" of the weaknesses of men.
- d) When put together, these three "pairs" of ways to not "walk", seem to boil down to a commitment to over-indulgence. In our current context, this is a critical problem in that it destroys any participation in the agape of God because that agape is focused upon others and this over-indulgence is only concerned about oneself. It is a complete breakdown of "love" and "the righteousness of law" so that "others" become tools for self-gratification rather than objects of concern and merciful grace.
- e) This "walking" is to be done "as in Day" all the while we are yet "in Night" (the Dawn has not yet come). This is the major tension of Paul's instruction: Live like it is "Day" even though it is yet "Night". The obvious implication is that we still have a lot of "darkness" hiding "truth" from us even as we attempt to act like we can see as we could if "Day" had actually dawned.
- 2) BUT "let us clothe ourselves with The Lord Jesus Christ and not do predeterminations of the flesh unto lusts" (do not "plan 'how to accomplish'").
- a) This "clothing of ourselves" uses a verb only found in Romans in 13:12 and 14.
- b) The root issues of "clothing ourselves with The Lord Jesus Christ" have to do with getting the "doctrine" right, getting the "faith" right, getting the "love" right, and getting "The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus" right; none of which is "up to us" in that each "getting" is only possible by the grace of God expressed by the work of His Spirit within us.
- c) A primary "method" is in the next "demand" (imperative, not subjunctive): Make no plans to facilitate participation in the powerful lusts of the flesh.
- i. On the first hand, "sink down into The Lord Jesus Christ" (literal translation of "put on") primarily by coupling the doctrine of Romans 6-8 to Romans 12:1-2.
- ii. On the second hand, "make no thoughts ahead of time for participating in the powerful lusts of the flesh".
