Sunday, November 27—Romans 13:11-14
In today’s passage from Paul’s letter to Roman Christians, Paul imagines that Christians live as if at dawn: “the night is nearly over; the day is almost here.” He wants to explain to the Christians in Rome, that our vulnerabilities did not leave us when we became Christians any more than the night is entirely gone before daybreak.
At the same time, though we still live in darkness, we have a sense of coming light, as when the sky in the east turns grey before we see the sun. For some, the anticipated day might be wealth, power, debauchery, self-respect, political freedom, confident self-righteousness, or shelter, food, and clothing.
Christians, however, believe that Christ is our knowledge of what kind of day we see dimly coming, the fullness of which is partly here and is to be anticipated.
In his image of dawn, Paul encourages Christians to understand “the present time,” to change our way of thinking. While we still pray “with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26) among the tragedies and injustices of the night, we are to “put on the armor of light,” to think of the deeds and words of Christ. In our meditative contemplations, Christ can shape our thinking toward harmony and generosity instead of “dissension and jealousy.”
In Paul’s vision, Christians do not despair. They sustain an anticipated vision of a more compassionate life, clothing themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. They are encouraged by Paul to believe that the light defined by the life of Christ is indeed the light which comes, and that as long as the dawn remains the dawn, it points to the way of Christ as the way to live.
Joe Hall
