
West Concord Church
Serve in Love and Light
Romans 13:8-14 The Debt We Owe Others Love (vv. 8-10) Love looks to bless ones neighbor Love looks to honor the Lord The Day in Which We Must Serve Light (vv. 11-12) Wake up Dress up Step up The Direction in Which We Must Walk The Lord (vv. 13-14) Walk away and out of the worlds darkness Walk toward and into the Lords Light Wearing your faith in Christ More to Consider Expressing divine love is a Christians constant responsibility, but it is especially crucial in understanding the present time (lit., knowing the season). Paul was not referring to time in general but to the end-time and to the imminent return of the Lord Jesus. It is a time, therefore, for spiritual vigilance and industriousness: wake up from your (some mss. have our, which conforms to the context) slumber (cf. Eph. 5:14; 1 Peter 5:8). This need for alertness is because our salvation (ultimate or final salvation realized at the return of the Savior; cf. Rom. 8:23; Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5) is nearer now than when we first believed (cf. James 5:8). Each passing day in the faith brings final salvation and deliverance closer. John A. Witmer, Romans, in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 491. Dr. Mitchell was impressing upon us that we are not under the Law when we're in Christ, but we're under a new law -- the law of LOVE. He used this to illustrate: In America there is a law stating a woman must take care of her child. So, a man comes to a new mother's home. He says "Are you taking care of your baby? The Law says you have to." The woman, tenderly holding her baby, said, "I don't need a law to make me take care of my baby." Why? Because she loves her baby! She feeds him, holds him, changes him because she loves him. I no longer need the Law because I'm under Christ -- a law of LOVE. Source Unknown. Philosophers sometimes spoke of a soul inattentive to spiritual matters as being asleep. Pauls image of sleeping in the light of Christs impending return probably harks back to Jesus own teaching (Mt 24:43; Mk 13:36). Most Greeks expected history to continue as normal or believed that the universe moved in cycles; but most Jews, like Paul, were anticipating its climax in the imminent future. Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ro 13:11.






