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THIS DO: Kai touto:
CHRISTIAN MOTIVES
TO INCITE
MORAL DUTIES
Do what? In
context
Paul is referring to what he has just emphasized.
We are called to Love because it fulfills the Law (Lev 19:18, Ro
13:8-note;
Gal 5:14, Jas 2:8, Mt 22:37, 38, 39, 40, cp Jn 13:35).
Do this - Literally the Greek
reads "and this". Notice that the verb "Do" is not in the
original Greek but has been added by the translators. "
Pulpit Commentary...
Christian motives are brought forward to
incite to moral duties. We are called upon to do right, not only by the voices
of expediency and of authority, but by the voice of revelation. Christians are
addressed as those who know the seasons, who discern the signs of the times, who
regard the present as a period of probation, of discipline, of education, and
whose gaze is ever forwards, whose hope is in their Lord’s return to judge and
to save. (The
pulpit commentary)
H C G Moule comments on and this...
In this last section of the chapter, Paul
enforces all the preceding precepts (of Romans 12, 13) by the solemn assertion
of the approach of the eternal Day of Resurrection and Glory. Then all that was
painful in effort would be over, and the results of "patient continuance in
well-doing" (Ro 2:7KJV-note)
would be realized for ever. Language such as that of this passage is often taken
to prove that Paul expected an imminent return of the Lord, and taught it as a
revealed truth. (Romans
13:11-14 Cambridge Bible Commentary
)
J B Phillips paraphrases it this way -
"Why all this stress on behaviour? (Ed:
e.g., why "love"?) Because, as I think you have realised, the present time is of
the highest importance - it is time to wake up to reality. Every day brings
God's salvation nearer."
Amplified Version reads...
Besides this you know what [a critical] hour
this is, how it is high time now for you to wake up out of your sleep (rouse to
reality)...
Loving and living wholeheartedly for Christ
should be our primary objectives in view of the brevity of our remaining time on
earth (especially when compared to the "length" of eternity to come).
See Scriptures that allude to the
shortness of our lives on earth: Job 7:6, 7 9:25, 26 14:1, 2 Ps 37:2 Ps
39:5, 6 Ps 90:4, 5, 6, 9, 10 Ps 102:3, 11, Ps 103:15,16 Ps 144:4 Isa 38:12,13
40:6,7 Jas 1:10, 11 Jas 4:14 1Pe 1:24 2Ki19:26
James Denney adds that...
In the closing verses of the chapter Paul
enforces this exhortation to mutual love as the fulfilling of the law by
reference to the approaching
Parousia. We must all appear (and who can tell
how soon?) before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the
things done in the body (2Co 5:10-note):
if the awe (an emotion combining dread, veneration and wonder which is inspired
by the certainty of our future appointment at the
Bema Seat) and the inspiration of that
great truth descend upon our hearts, we shall feel how urgent the Apostle’s
exhortation is "Do this". (Romans
13 Commentary - Expositor's Greek Testament)
(Related resources:
Imminency of Christ's Second Coming
or
imminency)
We are never to stop offering our bodies as a living
and holy sacrifice
acceptable to God (Ro 12:1-note).
While Paul is calling for a once for all time offering in Romans 12:1, there is
also a sense in which this offering should be our daily "sacrifice" to the Lord.
Before we put on our clothes, we should offer ourselves to God and put on His
clothes (put on Jesus) and then go forth with eyes wide open and ready to
recognize the opportunities our Father has prepared for us even before the
foundation of the world (see Eph 2:10-note).
Bob Deffinbaugh feels that Ro
13:11-14 were written...
to bring us back to the bedrock basis
for walking in love. Paul’s words turn our attention both to the
motivations which inspire love and the means which help it function.
Paul’s teaching in these verses is predicated upon that which he has
already taught us in chapters 1-11. There are two principle themes dealt
with in Romans 13:11-14 whose foundations have been laid in the earlier
chapters of Romans. These two themes are salvation and love....
What Paul describes in verses 11-14 has
happened to me all too often. I go to bed at night. Then in my first
waking moments I become increasingly aware of the light. Suddenly it dawns
upon me. It is morning! Good grief, what time is it? I grab the clock. Oh
no! I have overslept. The day has begun, but I have not. I shed my bed
clothes and hastily dress, running from my bedroom to get to the day’s
duties. I think this is the picture Paul is painting. We have been
oversleeping. We need to wake up. The night has passed. The new day is
dawning—the day of our Lord’s return. We must get about doing those things
which remain to be done. We must put off our night clothes and put on
clothes appropriate for the work our Lord calls us to do. (Love,
Law, and the Last Days)
Calvin comments that Paul...
enters now on another
subject of exhortation, that as the rays of celestial life had begun to shine on
us as it were at the dawn, we ought to do what they are wont to do who are in
public life and in the sight of men, who take diligent care lest they should
commit anything that is base or unbecoming; for if they do anything amiss, they
see that they are exposed to the view of many witnesses. But we, who always
stand in the sight of God and of angels, and whom Christ, the true sun of
righteousness, invites to his presence, we indeed ought to be much more careful
to beware of every kind of pollution.
Ray Stedman adds
A Christian faith that doesn't change your
life isn't worth a 'snap of the finger,' (cp 2Co 5:17-note, 2Co 13:5-note, 1Co 6:9, 10,
11, Gal 5:21-note;
Eph 5:5, 6-note)
but when Christ changes a heart and a life, the change that he makes is going to
affect everyone around you! This is really the theme of what we have in Chapters 12-16
of Romans. It is a picture of a Christian 'up to his ears' in life. The result
of a truly Christ-like life, lived out in the world, is going to be that some
around you will be upset by the way you act. You will be upsetting some and
comforting others. As someone has said, "The ministry of a Christian is to
comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable." (Read the full sermon
The
Demand of the Hour)
In this section (Ro 13:11, Ro 13:12-note)
notice how Paul "piles" up time phrases (see
expressions of time) to
emphasize the "time sensitivity" of his message .
the time...already the hour…
now salvation is nearer… night is almost gone… day is at
hand
Clearly Paul is seeking to convey to his
readers (and us) a strong sense of urgency. Time is running out! Now is the
strategic season! Beloved, do you feel his urgency? Time is limited, opportunity
is fleeting, life is short! The time to heed and to
obey is now.
What has God equipped you to do
(no excuses please - you have at least one
spiritual gift regarding which you are called to be a good steward! 1Pe 4:10,
11-note)
or told you to do regarding which you are
resisting or procrastinating? There is no time for apathy, complacency, or indifference. I
have a plaque over my desk which my wife had made for me several years ago that
is always visible and which reads...
|
Tempus
fugit
Carpe diem
Coram Deo |
|
Time flies
Seize the day
Before the face of God |
KNOWING THE TIME: eidotes (RAPMPN) ton kairon: (Isa 21:11,12;
Mt 16:3; 24:42, 43, 44; 1Th 5:1, 2, 3-note)
PROPER PERSPECTIVE
PRECEDES PRACTICE
Knowing the time is a truth that we
can all identify with because many of our daily, secular activities are based on
time - time to get up, time to eat lunch, time to pick up the kids from school,
and on and on. Knowing (the time) is thus intimately linked with doing.
We see this association in the letter to the Hebrews where the writer exhorts
his readers not to forsake their...
own assembling together, as is the habit of
some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing
near. (Heb 10:25-note)
Comment: Observe that encouraging
one another (in context made possible by being in proximity = "assembling
together") is linked with the day drawing near, the day referring
to Christ's Second
Coming. And so in this passage we see that
knowing the time serves as a stimulus for spiritual activity (in this case,
encouraging one another).
Joseph Parker (1886) expresses it
eloquently...
The day is at hand, already the silver light
is on the eastern hills; an hour more and the King will be here. This was the
apostolic music always. They all expected the Lord coming instantaneously as it
were. There are annotators upon the Scriptures who want to make ours a contrary
view, and I cannot follow them....It seems to me that the Apostles expected
the Lord every moment. (Romans
13:11-14 Commentary) (Bolding
added for emphasis).
Ray Pritchard writes that...
All of us are slaves to time. We wear
wristwatches with quarter-hour beepers to keep us on schedule. We have digital
clocks in our car and alarm clocks on our nightstands. Many of us have
Blackberries or Palm Pilots or some other high-tech computerized personal
assistant. Lots of people keep a Daytimer nearby so their can keep track of
their appointments and responsibilities.....
How much time do you have left? No one
knows for sure. I spoke with a friend whose cancer is in remission, but the
doctors told him that his cancer would almost certainly come back. They planned
to do a bone marrow transplant but they won’t unless the cancer does come back,
which it probably will but they can’t be sure. So my friend doesn’t know whether
he is living or dying or both.
How Much Time
Do You Have Left?
Life is so uncertain. No one knows how
long they have to live...Martin Luther said we should live with the day of our
death constantly before our eyes. It keeps us from the ultimate folly–thinking
we will live forever and therefore giving us excuses to put off doing what we
know we ought to do. At least once a week I receive an email that has this
statement at the bottom:
Life is short.
Eternity is significant.
How true that is!...
25% of Americans believe there is a good
chance that Jesus will come in 2007....
Christian, do you know what time it is?
It’s later than it’s ever been.
The death clock is ticking for all of us.
Christian, do you know what time it is?
It’s the dawning of a new day.
It’s time to put off the deeds of darkness.
It’s time to put on the armor of light.
It’s time to take Jesus with you everywhere you go.
It’s time to get serious about your faith.
It’s time to stop sleepwalking though life.
Look! Do you see the first rays of dawn? The night is almost over, the sun is
rising. Jesus is coming soon.
Have patience, child of God. Your Savior is on the way.
Take hope, defeated Christian. The Lord is at hand.
Be encouraged, suffering believer. The trumpet will soon sound.
Keep believing, struggling saints. Your salvation is nearer than when you first
believed.
Christian, do you know what time it is? It’s time to wake up and get dressed! (Do
You Know What Time It Is?)
Brian Bell has an excellent discussion of time...
We are obsessed with time! – I
believe it is the very 1st cognitive thought in our mind every morning!
(What time is it?) Ever count the number of clocks you have in your
house? (I counted 36 last night in mine). I mean think of your Kitchen:
coffee makers, oven, microwave,…we even have a bird clock? [Cell Phones,
laptops, decorative, VCR/DVD players, every bedroom; watches…extra
watches] We are fixated with time! – Question: But are we measuring time
correctly? We seem to be most concerned with what time is it now? God
seems to be more concerned with what time is drawing near! Jn.9:4 “I
must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is
coming when no one can work.” And here in Ro 13:11.
Back in 1964 Mick Jagger sang “Time is on Our Side”…40 years later, I’m
not sure if they still sing that on tour today? – Jesus always taught
the opposite. He taught “Time is ticking away, tic, tic, ticking away!”
We focus on minor measurements of minutes – God focuses on Epochs and
Era’s. (Ed:
Epoch = an extended period of
time usually characterized by a distinctive development or by a
memorable series of events.
Era = suggests a period
of history marked by a new or distinct order of things. By analogy Jesus
referred to time using the term "age" - Mk 10:30, Lk 18:30, cp Mt 13:39,
40, 49, 24:3, 28:20 = "the end of the age", cp Da 12:13-note)
Man has at least one eye on the
future…but it is in the negative! It is called the
Doomsday Clock! Since its inception in
1947, the Doomsday Clock has signified the level of threat posed by
nuclear weapons and other changing factors in international security. As
the state of international security has changed, the Doomsday Clock has
been moved 17 times to reflect the danger level of the period. The
Doomsday Clock was last moved on February 27, 2002 and currently stands
at seven minutes to midnight.
So Paul says, open your eyes! - Wake
up to what time it really is! - And then explains there is a new way to
live in light of the dawning of the eternal day! Oh, if every one of our
clocks would scream God’s sense of time! But just like talking to a
youth about their dying one day…it just seems so far away to them. So,
with us…Christ’s return? – Oh, I know it’s coming…but it often seems so
far away! The world lives as though human history is destined to
continue forever. The Christian knows however that God is in control of
people and nations, and is directing history to a predetermined end!
History is…“His-Story!” (Romans
13)
Gregg Allen writes...
I once heard about a man who took to
heart what it says in Psalm 90. Perhaps you know that psalm; it says
that God gives a man seventy years - or, if by reason of strength,
perhaps eighty; and it encourages us to "number our days" so we may gain
a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:10, 11, 12). And so, starting with his current
age and computing how many days he had left, this man filled a jar with
marbles - one marble for every remaining day of life, according to this
Psalm. Every day, he took a marble out of the jar - a marble that
represented one day spent; and put it into another jar.
For years, he faithfully transferred marbles from one jar to the other -
progressively emptying one jar, and filling the other. And then, one
day, he called his wife up and said, "Honey, let's go out to dinner
tonight. This is an important day for me. Today, I have taken the last
marble out of the jar." Can you imagine what an impact a daily habit
like that would have on the way you live each day of your life?
When you put things into perspective, you and I really only have a short
time on this earth - even in the case of what we call a 'long life'.
Each day is going by for us; and we will not be able to retrieve it. You
could say that we are, each one of us, slowly losing our marbles! And
these relatively few years are all that's given to us by God to prepare
for eternity. These few years - and what we do with them - will
determine the character of our eternity.
And yet, we're here right now. This day, God has given us the invaluable
grace of "time" - time right now to do the work He has given us to do in
His service, and to prepare for eternity. What are you and I doing with
the time we have - while we still have a few of our marbles left?
Knowing (1492)
(eido)
literally means perception by sight (perceive, see) as in Mt 2:2 where
the wise men "saw His star". The meaning of eido is somewhat
difficult to convey but in general this type of "knowing" is
distinguished from ginosko (and epiginosko, epignosis), the other
major NT word for knowing, because ginosko refers to knowledge
obtained by experience or "experiential knowledge" whereas eido often
refers to more intuitive knowledge, although the distinction is not
always crystal clear.
Eido
is not so much by experience as an
intuitive insight that is "drilled into your heart" so to speak.
Eido is
that perception, that being aware of, that understanding, that intuitive
knowledge that only the Holy Spirit of God can give - He has given us as
believers a spiritual sensitivity to the shortness of this present life
in comparison to eternity, and it is a sensitivity that unbelievers do
not possess (certainly not in the same way). This knowledge of "time" is
an absolute knowledge, a knowledge that is without a doubt, and
ultimately a knowledge that should spur us on to redeem every moment in
marked contrast to the lost world which wastes every moment of their
allotted time (in the sense that they are incapable of bearing any fruit
that will endure eternally - Jn 15:5).
Wuest translates this as "knowing the strategic season".
IT'S JUST A
MATTER OF TIME!
The time - Whenever you encounter a time phrase in
Scripture (see
expressions of time)
always stop and ask "What
time is it?" (Ask as many
of the
5W/H questions as
you can muster - as you utilize this technique, you are beginning to
practice how to
meditate on the
Scripture, a most blessed activity - cp Josh 1:8-note,
Ps 1:1-note
Ps 1:2-note,
Ps 1:3-note)
In this
context this expression
refers to the specific time when the Father says to the Son, "Arise, it
is time to go for Your Bride, the Church." (see tabular comparison of
the
Rapture versus the Second
Coming)
Time
(2540) (kairos) means a point of
time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of
being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise
chronology. It means a moment or period as especially appropriate the
right, proper, favorable time (at the right time). A season. A point of
time. A moment. An opportunity. Something that lasts for a season and so
is transient, temporary or enduring only for a specific period of time.
Related Resource: See
Redeeming the time in
Ephesians 5:16 Commentary
Derivatives of kairos include:
Akairos (adverb) - unseasonably, inopportunely (2Ti 4:2);
akaireomai (verb) to lack opportunity (Php 4:10); eukairos
(adverb) - well-timed (Mk 6:21, Heb 4:16);eukairoes (adverb) -
opportunely, in season (2Ti 4:2, Mk 14:11); eukaireo (verb) -
take advantage of or have an opportunity (Mk 6:31, 1Co 16:12);
proskairos (adjective) - for a season, temporary (Mt 13:21, Mk 4:17,
2Co 4:18, Heb 11:25).
Kairos can refer to a
fixed and definite time, the time when things are brought to crisis, the
decisive epoch waited for or a strategic point in time.
Kairos speaks of a limited period of time, with the added
notion of suitableness ("the suitable time", "the right moment", "the
convenient time"). Kairos refers to a distinct, fixed time
period, rather than occasional moments.
Kairos
is
not so much a succession of minutes (Greek
chronos
5550), but a period of opportunity. Chronos refers to chronological time, to clock time or
calendar time, to a general space or succession of time. Kairos,
on the other hand, refers to a specific and often predetermined period
or moment of time and so views time in terms of events, eras, or
seasons, such as the times of the Gentiles (see
below) In other words, kairos defines the best time to do
something, the moment when circumstances are most suitable, the
psychologically "ripe" moment.
ETYMOLOGY OF
OPPORTUNITY:
OB PORTU
Kairos is occasionally
translated opportunity in the NAS. (See also
related word eukaira translated "good opportunity" in Mt 26:16,
Lk 22:6) The English word opportunity has a
fascinating origin. Hundreds of years ago when living by the sea was
critically important to everyday business and industry, the word
opportunity was first coined. Time-tables for everything from commerce
to transportation depended on the rise and fall of tides. The specific
time when the water was deep enough to sail out to sea was known as
ob portu-when time and tide converged. As believers, our
lives are filled with God given opportunities, those moments for example
when an urgent need converges with your ability to help meet that need.
If you have the eyes to recognize that opportunity, you can seize the
moment and redeem the time for the glory of God, joining in with Him
where He is at work. As we learn to recognize and choose to join God
when He presents us with an ob portu moment, we begin to enter into the
fullness of joy He desires for our Christian life.
Shakespeare alluded to the idea of ob
portu when he wrote these classic lines...
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
(Julius Caesar, 4.3.217)
Another source notes that our English word
opportunity comes from the Latin and means “toward the port.”
It suggests a ship taking advantage of the wind and tide to arrive
safely in the harbor. The brevity of life is a strong argument for
making the best use of every opportunity God gives us.
An old Chinese adage says,
Opportunity has a forelock so
you can seize it when you meet it. Once it is past, you cannot seize it
again.
Some other common sayings that convey
a similar thought include...
"Strike while the iron is hot"
"There is no time like the present"
"He who hesitates is lost."
Pocket Dictionary of Theological
Terms writes that...
One of several Greek words for
“time,” kairos usually refers to a specific point of time as carrying
crucial meaning for human life. This is in contrast to kronos (chronos),
which designates the chronological passing of time. Hence a “kairos
moment” is an event in history in which God unveils some dimension of
the eternal purposes of salvation to humankind or an event that is
central in God’s dealings with humans. The fundamental kairos moment is
the Christ event, that is, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,
together with his future return (the parousia [word
study] -
Second Coming).
Redeem the time! God only knows
How soon our little life may close,
With all its pleasures and its woes,
Redeem the time!
—Anon.
In rhetoric kairos is
a
passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through
with force if success is to be achieved. (E. C. White, Kaironomia p.
13)
Kairos -85x in 80v in
NASB - Mt 8:29; 11:25; 12:1; 13:30; 14:1; 16:3; 21:34, 41; 24:45;
26:18; Mk 1:15; 10:30; 11:13; 12:2; 13:33; Lk 1:20; 4:13; 8:13; 12:42,
56; 13:1; 18:30; 19:44; 20:10; 21:8, 24, 36; Jn 7:6, 8; Acts 1:7; 3:20;
7:20; 12:1; 13:11; 14:17; 17:26; 19:23; 24:25; Ro 3:26; 5:6; 8:18; 9:9;
11:5; 13:11; 1Co 4:5; 7:5, 29; 2Co 6:2; 8:14; Gal 4:10; 6:9 10; Eph
1:10; 2:12; 5:16; 6:18; Col 4:5; 1Th 2:17; 5:1; 2Th 2:6; 1Ti 2:6; 4:1;
6:15; 2Ti 3:1; 4:3, 6; Titus 1:3; Heb 9:9 10; 11:11, 15; 1Pe 1:5, 11;
4:17; 5:6; Rev 1:3; 11:18; 12:12, 14; 22:10 (If you have the time and the inclination, a study of these uses -
remembering to read them in
context - will give the reader a blessed insight into
the nuances of meaning of kairos)
NAS translates kairos as: age, 1;
epochs, 2; occasion, 1; opportune time, 1; opportunity, 3; proper time,
5; right time, 1; season, 1; seasons, 4; short, 1; time, 54; times, 11;
while, 1.
Kairos - 252 times in
Septuagint (LXX)
-Ge 1:14; 6:13;
17:21, 23, 26; 18:10, 14; 21:2, 22; 29:34; 30:20, 41; 38:1; Ex 8:32;
9:4, 14; 13:10; 23:14f, 17; 34:18, 23f; Lev. 15:25; 23:4; 26:4; Nu
9:3, 7, 13; 14:9; 22:4; 23:23; Dt. 1:9, 16, 18; 2:34; 3:4, 8, 12, 18,
21, 23; 4:14; 5:5; 9:19f; 10:1, 8, 10; 16:6, 16; 28:12; 31:10; 32:35;
Jos. 5:2; 11:10, 21; Jdg. 4:4; 10:8, 14; 11:26; 12:6; 13:23; 14:4;
21:14, 22, 24; 1Sa 1:20; 4:20; 9:16; 20:12; 2Sa 11:1; 20:5; 23:5;
1Ki 11:4, 29; 15:23; 16:22; 18:29; 2Ki. 4:16f; 8:22; 16:6; 18:16;
20:12; 24:10; 1Chr 9:25; 11:11, 20; 12:32; 21:28f; 29:30; 2Chr 7:2,
8; 8:13; 15:5; 16:7, 10; 21:10, 19; 25:27; 28:16; 30:3; 35:17; Ezra 5:3;
8:34; 10:13f; Neh. 4:22; 6:1; 9:27; 10:34; 12:17; 13:21, 31; Est. 2:12;
4:14, 17; 8:12; 10:3; Job 5:26; 19:4; 38:32; 39:1, 18; Ps. 1:3; 4:7;
10:5; 21:9; 31:15; 32:6; 34:1; 37:19, 39; 69:13; 71:9; 75:1; 81:15;
102:13; 104:19; 106:3; 119:20, 126; Pr 5:3, 19; 6:14; 8:30; 17:17;
18:1; Eccl. 3:1ff, 11, 17; 7:17; 8:5f; 9:8, 11f; 10:17; Song 2:12; Isa.
9:1; 18:7; 30:8; 33:2; 38:1; 39:1; 49:8; 50:4; 60:22; 64:9; Jer. 2:27f;
3:17; 4:11; 5:24; 6:15; 8:1, 7, 15; 10:15; 11:12, 14; 14:8, 19; 15:11;
16:21; 18:23; 46:21; 50:4, 16, 20, 26f, 31; 51:6, 18; Lam. 1:15, 21;
4:18; Ezek. 4:10f; 7:7, 12; 12:27; 16:8; 21:25, 29; 22:3f, 30; 35:5; Da 2:8f, 21; 3:7f; 4:1, 16, 23, 25f, 32, 36; 6:10, 13; 7:12, 22, 25;
8:17, 19; 9:25ff; 11:6, 13f, 24, 27, 29, 35, 40; 12:1, 4, 7ff, 11; Hos.
2:9; Joel 3:1; Amos 5:13; Mic 2:3; 3:4; 5:3; Hab. 2:3; 3:2; Zeph. 3:16,
19f; Hag. 1:2, 4).
The first use in the translation of
the OT gives us a good sense of the
meaning of kairos...
Genesis 1:14 Then God said,
"Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day
from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons
(kairos), and for days and years.
Comment: Even our English
dictionary definitions give us the sense of kairos in definitions of
season as period of the year characterized by or associated with a
particular activity or phenomenon or a a time characterized by a
particular circumstance or feature. When the season is past, it is over.
Yes it returns the next year but for that year it is past. That is the
idea of kairos - when the time has passed, one cannot go back and
retrieve that time.
Genesis 17:21 "But My covenant
I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this
season (kairos) next year."
Genesis 21:2 So Sarah
conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed
time (kairos) of which God had spoken to him.
Psalm 1:3 And he will be like
a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its
season (kairos), And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he
does, he prospers.
Comment: The soil of this man's heart is
prepared by his godly conduct and his continual delight in and
meditation upon the Law of the Lord, so that he is ready to bear fruit
when the opportunity presents itself.
Psalm 31:15 My times
(kairos) are in Thy hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and
from those who persecute me.
Psalm 34:1 I Will bless
the LORD at all times (kairos - every opportunity!); His praise
shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalm 37:39 But the salvation
of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time
(kairos) of trouble.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is an
appointed time (chronos) for everything. And there is a time
(kairos) for every event under heaven-- 3:2 A time (kairos) to
give birth, and a time (kairos) to die; A time (kairos) to
plant, time (kairos) a time to uproot what is planted. (In verses
4-8 there are 19 more uses of kairos all for the word "time"!)
Vincent writes that kairos
implies a particular time; as related
to some event, a convenient, appropriate time; absolutely, a particular
point of time, or a particular season, like spring or winter. (Vincent,
M. R Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol. 1, Page 3-70)
TDNT writes that kairos
"has the sense of a “decisive moment,” again with positive, neutral,
or negative implications, though the positive one of fortune is the most
common. Fortune in this sense is not fate, but the chance that must be
boldly grasped...a cult of the god Kairos is also
found...a statue of Kairos by Lysippos, (depicted a naked young
man) with winged feet poised (prepared, ready, all set)… His
only attribute apart from the winged feet was a striking hair-style, a
lock at the front with short hair behind.” The latter characteristic
confirms the fact that even religiously Kairos originally had the
character of decision, since the lock of hair is a symbol that one must
take the favorable opportunity by the forelock, so that even
religiously a summons to action is implied." (Kittel,
G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Eerdmans)
Ed note: See the
epigram below...this annotation is not meant to condone the futility of
pagan mythology but I do believe that this pagan epigram conveys a
reasonable portrayal of what all Christians should seek to do - Carpe
Diem - Seize the day, redeem the time, take advantage of every
kairos opportunity while there is yet time [opportunum tempus
- opportunity flees] and the night is coming when no man can work.
|
Epigram
On the statue of Kairos |
|
Who ...was thy sculptor?
Lysippos.
And who are you?
Kairos (opportunity) who subdues all
things.
Why do you stand on tip-toe?
I am ever running.
And why you have a pair of wings on your feet?
I fly on the
wings of the wind.
And why does your hair hang over your face?
For him who
meets me to seize me by the forelock. (See
picture of "Kairos" with his very strange hair
style!)
And why is the back of your head bald?
Because none may
clutch me from behind, howsoe’er he desire it, when once my winged
feet have darted past him. |
Application: As someone
has well said “Seize your opportunities as they come.”
God presents believers with all manner of opportunities and one of the
tragedies of life is that we so often fail to even see them (unconfessed
sin being a great impediment to spiritual vision), much less to grasp
them for our good and God's glory. (If
you feel like time is flying by, first of all you are correct, but
second, you can do something about it - you can seize the moments, those
God ordained opportunities that come and go so quickly - if your
spiritual passion is waning, let me suggest that you read John Piper's
free book
Don't Waste Your Life)
Only one life
Twill soon pass
Only what's done for (in) Christ will last
An old adage rightly states that...
There are three things which come not
back—the spent arrow, the spoken word, and the lost opportunity.
John Greenleaf Whittier...
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these: “It might have been!”
Life is too short for us to do everything we want to do; but it is
long enough for us to do everything God wants us to do. - Anon.
Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of; in
nothing on which you might not pray for the blessing of God; in nothing
which you could not review with a quiet conscience on your dying bed; in
nothing which you might not safely and properly be found doing if death
should surprise you in the act. - Richard Baxter
Time should not be spent, it should be
invested in the kingdom of God. -John Blanchard
(Blanchard,
John: Complete Gathered Gold: A Treasury of Quotations for Christians
or
Computer Version on Wordsearch
- Recommended)
Time is not yours to dispose of as you please; it is a
glorious talent that men must be accountable for as well as any other
talent. - Thomas Brooks
There is nothing puts a more serious frame into a man's spirit than
to know the worth of his time. -Thomas Brooks
We are to redeem the time because we ourselves are
redeemed.-Richard Chester
Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the
time we have rushed through life to save. -Will Rogers
TIME: Three most difficult things to do are:
keep a secret, forget injury, and make good use of your leisure time
(it's really not yours anyway but His...He's just "loaning" it to you.)
God set a goal, yet gave the choice
To mortals how time may be spent,
Admonishing that worth, not length,
Values time's accomplishment.
— Mortenson
Solomon wisely exhorted his readers...
Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for
there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where
you are going. (Eccl 9:10)
Spurgeon writes...
Opportunities do not wait. We must
seize them as they pass us. The tide remains not long at flood.
The first occasion offer'd, quickly
take,
Lest thou repine at what thou didst forsake.
Dearly beloved, making the most of
your time is another way of saying you are to make the most of your opportunities—opportunities that can be passed and be your loss or can
be grasped and bring God glory. O Lord,
So teach us to number our days,
that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom. (Amen!) (Ps 90:12)
Spurgeon comments: Instruct us
to set store by time, mourning for that time past wherein we have
wrought the will of the flesh, using diligently the time present, which
is the accepted hour and the day of salvation, and reckoning the time
which lieth in the future to be too uncertain to allow us safely to
delay any gracious work or prayer. Numeration is a child's exercise in
arithmetic, but in order to number their days aright the best of men
need the Lord's teaching. We are more anxious to count the stars than
our days, and yet the latter is by far more practical.
That we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom. Men are led by reflections upon the brevity of time to give
their earnest attention to eternal things; they become humble as they
look into the grave which is so soon to be their bed, their passions
cool in the presence of mortality, and they yield themselves up to the
dictates of unerring wisdom; but this is only the case when the Lord
himself is the teacher; he alone can teach to real and lasting profit.
Thus Moses prayed that the dispensations of justice might be sanctified
in mercy. "The law is our school master to bring us to Christ", when the
Lord himself speaks by the law. It is most meet that the heart which
will so soon cease to beat should while it moves be regulated by
wisdom's hand. A short life should be wisely spent. We have not enough
time at our disposal to justify us in misspending a single quarter of an
hour. Neither are we sure of enough life to justify us in
procrastinating for a moment. If we were wise in heart we should see
this, but mere head wisdom will not guide us aright.
Ponder this quote by Horace Mann
as you study the meaning of kairos...
Lost, yesterday, somewhere between
sunrise and sunset,
Two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond
minutes.
No reward is offered,
For they are gone forever.
Charles Hummel wisely
warned that...
Our greatest danger in life is in
permitting the urgent things to crowd out the important.
Modern day believers need the resolve and focus of George
Whitfield who when asked what he would do if he knew Christ would
return in three days replied
"I would do just what I have
scheduled to do."
Read the following poem by Jarvis
Anderson entitled "Unfinished Cathedral"...
The query comes: How long is Life?
Threescore and ten, the Good Book reads,
Is time enough for men to write
The record of his life in deeds.
Threescore and ten—how fast they fly!
Threescore and ten—they're almost gone!
And I, who dreamed of castles high,
Have only laid the cornerstone.
William Manning gives us good
advice as we study kairos noting that...
The chief value of an anniversary is
to call us to greater faithfulness in the time that is left.
Believers need to be like the
converted Hindu who upon being given a Bible and a clock said
"The clock will tell me how time
goes, and the Bible will tell me how to spend it."
Paul J Meyer declared that...
Most time is wasted, not in hours,
but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as
empty as a bucket that is deliberately kicked over.
A Tiny Little Minute
Just a tiny little minute.
Sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me;
Didn't ask it,. didn't choose it.
Yet, it's up to me to use it;
Must give account if I abuse it.
Just a little minute.
ANONYMOUS
John MacArthur adds that...
"Wisdom numbers the days, sees the
limited time, and buys the opportunity. Don’t be foolish—shun
opportunities for evil, but seize opportunities for good." (MacArthur,
J. Strength for Today. Nov 26. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books)
Kairos
(according to Bauer and Gingrich) is one of the chief eschatological
terms in the Bible - kairos is
supremely God’s time. For example, Luke records Jesus' prophecy that the
Jews would
"fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive
into all the nations;
and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the
Gentiles
until the times (kairos) of the
Gentiles
be fulfilled." (Lk
21:24)
Here kairos refers to a period (the
origin and termination of which are not agreed upon by all scholars)
which appears to begin with the time of Nebuchadnezzar's sacking of
Jerusalem and will end with the final battle against Jerusalem during
Daniel's Seventieth Week
(Click
timeline and tabular overview
of
God's Plan for Jerusalem in
Scripture. Note especially the chart at the bottom of the page and the
section entitled "The Times of the Gentiles" that ends with
"Prophetic Peak #3")
As a parenthetical comment it is
interesting to note that our Lord's words will be fulfilled literally
when this specific kairos time has run its course. Down through the
centuries from the time of the Savior’s words, Jerusalem has been
largely controlled by Gentile powers. Emperor Julian the Apostate
(331–363AD) sought to discredit Christianity by disproving this prophecy
of the Lord. He therefore encouraged the Jews to rebuild the temple.
They went to the work eagerly, even using silver shovels in their
extravagance, and carrying the dirt in purple veils. But while they were
working, they were interrupted by an earthquake and by balls of fire
coming from the ground. They had to abandon the project. Why? It was not
yet the completion of God's time (kairos)!
Kairos emphasizes quality or kind
of time. Kairos does not refer to chronological but
epochal time (an epoch is defined as an extended period
of time usually characterized by a distinctive development or by a
memorable series of events; applies to a period begun or set off by some
significant or striking quality, change, or series of events)
For example, when Jesus came into
Galilee, He came preaching the gospel of God, saying
"saying “The
(appointed period of) time (kairos) is
fulfilled (completed), and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent
and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15).
Jesus' announcement views
time (kairos) from the aspect of the opportunity it
provided, and not simply as a change from the past and so not merely
speaking of duration. The appropriate season or golden opportunity for the fulfillment of God’s redemptive promises had arrived
including the time (kairos) for the proclamation of
the gospel. The hour for the realization of the events predicted by Isaiah
had arrived:
there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish.
In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali
with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the
sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who
walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land,
the light will shine on them. (Isa 9:1-2)
So here kairos is not so much time in a chronological
sense, but the time for decisive action on God’s part. With the arrival of
the King, a new "epoch" in God’s dealings with men had come.
Wuest adds that kairos
can refer to "seasons" which
represent the critical epoch-making
periods (fore-ordained of God) when all that has been maturing (slowly,
often without observation, ripening) through long ages comes to a head in
grand decisive events which constitute at once the close of one period and
the commencement or beginning of another.
(Kairos speaks of) those
strategic times in the calendar of God during which events come to a
culmination and ripen to usher in a new age... (kairos is) a
strategic time, a time determined by a set of circumstances which make
that particular point of time part of the efficient working of an action
or set of actions.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
In another use Paul in discussing the
fate of Israel, most of whom had rejected their Messiah, writes that
"there
has also come to be at the present time (kairos) a remnant (of believing Jews) according to God’s gracious choice." (see
note
Romans 11:5)
The kairos time to which Paul was making reference was a strategic
one, a time period marked by the inclusion of the Gentiles together with the Jews in
the one Body of Christ, a time at which, while the Gentiles gladly
received the Word, Israel was apostate, a time during which in spite of
the apostasy of most of Israel, there was still a remnant of Israel who
was being saved by the sovereign
grace of God. In another use of kairos by Luke (with a meaning similar to
Paul's in Romans 11), Peter exhorts his Jewish listeners at Pentecost to
"Repent
therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that
times (kairos) of refreshing may come from the presence
of the Lord and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you."
(Acts
3:19-20)
Paul encouraged the saints at Galatia
to
not lose heart in doing good, for in due time (kairos -
at the appointed season, when the time/fruit is "ripe") we shall reap if we do not grow weary (becoming exhausted and giving up). So then, while we have
opportunity, (kairos) (Ed: "While we have" is a time phrase
indicating we will not always have the opportunity - this is the essence
of kairos) let us do good to all men, and especially
to those who are of the household of the faith." (Gal 6:9-note,
Gal 6:10-note)
Comment: Paul is encouraging his readers and us who live in the last days, that in
the spiritual realm, rewards surely follow faithful sowing in due
season. This encouraging word about a "kairos" time to come,
reminds me of John Wesley's exhortation to
"Do all the good you can, in all the
ways you can,
to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
Since there is no good English equivalent to
kairos, the essence of it's meaning can
be somewhat difficult to grasp. Study the following verses and see if you
can discern the "window of opportunity" aspect in each verse to
help give you a "feel" for the meaning of Kairos
Mt 13:30
'Allow both to grow together until
the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the
reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn
them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."'
Mt 21:34 And when the
harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers
to receive his produce.
Mk 11:13 And seeing at a distance a fig tree in
leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when
He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season
for figs
Mk 13:33 Take heed, keep on the
alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is (Ed:
referring to Christ's
Second Coming).
Lk 4:13 And when the devil had finished every
temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
Lk 19:44 and will level
you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave
in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time
of your visitation."
Comment: This refers to Messiah's first advent, which the Jews
failed to recognize and acknowledge.
Acts 17:26 and He made from one, every nation
of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their
appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation,
2Cor 6:2 for He says, "At the acceptable
time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you";
behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of
salvation "
Colossians 4:5-note Conduct
yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the
opportunity.
Revelation 2:9-note
Blessed is he who reads and those who
hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in
it; for the time is near.
William
Mounce writes that...
But unlike chronos, which is more focused on
chronological time, kairos is time as significant events. This term frequently
designates events in salvation history, such as the “time” of the birth
of Moses, who led the Exodus from Egypt (Acts 7:20), as well as “the
appointed time” for Christ to lead the second “exodus” (Mt 26:18; cf. Mk
1:15; Lk 19:44; Jn 7:6, 8; Ro 5:6; Eph 1:10). Thus, Peter states that the coming
of Jesus marked “the time” of which the prophets inquired and predicted
(1Pe 1:10, 11, 12). Furthermore, kairos is used to designate the second
coming of Christ (1Ti 6:15), including the end judgment (“the time is near,” Rev
1:3; 11:18; 22:10; cf. Mt 8:29; Mk 13:33; 1Cor 4:5). (Mounce's
Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words)
The following quote from Napoleon
illustrates the idea inherent in kairos:
There is in the midst of every great
battle a ten to fifteen minute period that is the crucial point. Take
that period and you win the battle; lose it and you will be defeated.
Paul uses kairos to exhort the saints
at Ephesus to be
making the most (exagorazo
= means to completely redeem, to buy in the marketplace) of your time
(kairos),
because the days are evil. (Eph 5:16-note)
Comment: God has set
boundaries around our lives, and our opportunity (a state of
affairs or combination of circumstances favorable to some end) for service
exists only within those boundaries. We are to make the most of our
relatively brief time
on this earth seeking to fulfill God’s purposes, "buying up" every
opportunity for useful worship and service.
Richard DeHaan notes that...
If we had to buy time, would there be any difference in
how we would spend it? Would the days of our lives be used
more wisely?” That’s what time management consultant Antonio
Herrera asked the participants in a seminar he conducted on
the subject. Then Dr. Herrera became more specific. He asked,
“What if you had to pay in advance $100 an hour for the time
allotted to you? Would you waste it?” The answer should be
obvious. Of course, we can’t put a price tag on the minutes
and hours we possess. They are given to us freely. But that
doesn’t excuse us from using them conscientiously, carefully,
and wisely. The giver of time is God Himself, and that places
a far greater value upon it than any monetary figure could
suggest. We must therefore use our time intelligently, taking
advantage of opportunities it provides for us to serve the
Lord and to do His will. - R. W. De Haan
(Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Redeem the time! God only
knows
How soon our little life may close,
With all its pleasures and its woes,
Redeem the time! — Anonymous
Although not using the word "kairos" in (Eph 2:10-note) Paul
clearly alludes to the idea that believers now are God's
workmanship (Greek =
poiema
= "masterpiece") created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk
in them.
Comment: Our goal as believers is to enter into those works that He has already
prepared for us, for those are the only eternally lasting and "good"
works. The idea of kairos is that God gives each believer opportunities
- each new day brings its opened doors, its vast potential. It behooves
believers to live in such a way that we are sensitive to when
God gives us one of those "kairos" opportunities, because when it
passes, it is gone. We can
achieve our potential in His service only as we utilize those opportunities
He has given us. If this admonition was urgent during Paul's day, how much
more urgent today!
This is
not just a New Testament idea -- during the time of David,
the sons of
Issachar" "knew the time" being described
as "men who understood the times with knowledge of what Israel should
do (1Chr 12:32).
Similarly Daniel
in describing a difficult time in Israel's history (times of Antiochus
Epiphanes and the Maccabees) writes that...
the people that do know their God
shall be strong, and do exploits. (Da11:32KJV)
Comment: Dear believer, are
you so intimate with your God, that when difficult times come for
Christianity in America, you will be strong and do exploits. Stay in His
Word. Obey (by grace and His Spirit) the Word. Fight to keep your
conduct holy and godly (2Pe 3:11-note)
and you will be strong and do exploits for the sake of His Name
and His glory.
The Geneva Study Bible
gives us some sage advice...
Spiritual discernment
is rooted in the apprehension of
divine revelation.
In other words, when we are continually conducting our day to day
affairs with a sense that we could meet Jesus in the sky at any moment
(See
imminency),
this truth radically transforms our thinking!
Needed:
Followers of Christ living with a sense of imminency and urgency,
redeeming the time in the work
of
and
in
the Lord! Read, memorize, meditate on, and be motivated by 1Corinthians
15:58 - see commentary
We
know Winter is near when the Fall comes. John wrote
Blessed is he who
reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and
heed the things which are written in it; for the time (kairos)
is near. (Rev 1:3-note)
Beloved, the next great epoch (kairos) of God’s redemptive
history is imminent. Sadly, although Christ’s coming is the next
glorious event, it has been delayed so long that many, even in the
church, have begun to question whether He will ever come and to live
like it!
Harry Ironside
once wisely said that
"Time is
given us to use in view of eternity."
Given the preciousness of
each new day in light of the truth of about kairos, ponder
the words of the following hymn that speaks of beginning each new day
"with the sun" and "with the Son"...
|
AWAKE,
MY SOUL,
AND WITH THE SUN
Click to play
by Thomas Ken |
|
Awake, my
soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
Thy precious time
misspent, redeem,
Each present day thy
last esteem,
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great day thyself prepare.
By influence of the Light divine
Let thy own light to others shine.
Reflect all Heaven’s propitious ways
In ardent love, and cheerful praise.
In conversation be sincere;
Keep conscience as the noontide clear;
Think how all seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.
Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,
And with the angels bear thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing
High praise to the eternal King.
All praise to Thee, Who safe has kept
And hast refreshed me while I slept
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake
I may of endless light partake. |
Heav’n is,
dear Lord, where’er Thou art,
O never then from me depart;
For to my soul ’tis hell to be
But for one moment void of Thee.
Lord, I my vows to Thee renew;
Disperse my sins as morning dew.
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with Thyself my spirit fill.
Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say,
That all my powers, with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite.
I would not wake nor rise again
And Heaven itself I would disdain,
Wert Thou not there to be enjoyed,
And I in hymns to be employed.
Heaven is, dear Lord, where’er Thou art;
O never then from me depart;
For to my soul ’tis hell to be
But for one moment without Thee.
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. |
In this closing section then Paul
sets off an alarm clock to waken believers who have gone to sleep
spiritually.
The world lives as though human history were destined to
continue for ever.
The Christian knows that God is sovereign
and in control
of all events, not only in the lives of individuals but also in the rise
and
fall of nations. Our sovereign God is directing history to a predetermined
end.
Phillips paraphrases Paul's charge to believers as
"It
is time to wake up to reality."
Believers are to wake up from spiritual lethargy and love their neighbors
while they have opportunity (time) (Col 4:5, 6-see
notes;
4:6,
Eph 5:16-note, both use "kairos"
see below). Show love while you can.
|
God set a goal, yet gave
the choice
To mortals how time may be spent,
Admonishing that worth, not length,
Values time's accomplishment.
— Mortenson |
The emphasis by Paul is on the
brevity of our life on earth and the eminency and hope (certainty) of Christ's
appearance should motivate us to pursue godliness & purity (1Jn 2:28
3:2, 3, Jas 5:8, 9, 2Pe
3:11, 12, 13-see
notes, 2Pe 3:14-note).
Kent Hughes says that
believers...
ought to be like the little boy whose
family clock malfunctioned and struck 15x so that he rushed wide-eyed to
his mother crying,
“Mommy, it’s later than it’s ever been before!”
What
sanctifying logic! We should also keep in mind that if Christ does
not return in our time, He will certainly come individually for us in
death. Each ache, pain, gray hair, new wrinkle or funeral is another
reminder that it is later than it has ever been before. It is time to
love our neighbors as ourselves. IT'S LATER THAN YOU THINK.
Redeem the time!"
(Hughes,
R. K. Romans: Righteousness from heaven. Preaching the Word. Crossway
or
Logos
or
Wordsearch)
William Newell writes:
This verse sets before us the awful
tendency to sink down (as did the ten virgins! [Mt 25:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13])
into slumber & sleep, —into a state of spiritual torpor in which no Christian
duties are effectively done. Believers are to "know the season." Our Lord
sternly arraigned the Jews of His day for their ignorance concerning "the
time"; "When ye see a cloud rising in the West,
straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it cometh to pass. And when ye
see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat; and it cometh
to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the
heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time (same Gk word "kairos"
as in Ro 13:11)? And why even of yourselves judge ye not
what is right? (Luke12:54, 55, 56)
There their Messiah was, in their midst, and they knew Him not! Why? Because
they did not apply themselves to know the time they were in, although
they could have known it, both from the prophetic Word which was being fulfilled
before their eyes in Christ; and also "of their own selves, " if they had set
themselves to judge truly of the moral conditions about them and the necessities
of action involved therein. If the Jews even then were called by our Lord
"hypocrites, " for applying their God-given discernment to the signs of the
weather, and neglecting to apply it to spiritual things, and so going on blindly
to judgment; how much more this should arouse us who have so much greater light
and knowledge, in view of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the presence of
the Holy Spirit; and the certainty of our Lord’s coming, and our uncertainty as
to the day and hour! " (Bolding added) (Newell, W: Romans: Verse by Verse)
The idea is not to make best use of time as such, which is what we should do
in the sense of not wasting it, but of taking advantage of the opportunities
that present themselves. One who lives life carelessly and without forethought
would be walking foolishly. One who doesn’t use his time wisely obviously would
be unwise. Finally, one who isn’t following God’s will would be most foolish.
May God help us to love with a sense of
urgency and selflessness
• Let us cultivate a sense of debt. Just as when we owe someone money and our
debt is the first thing we think of when we see him, so may it be with our debt
of love.
• Let us enlarge our definition of neighbor
as, “My neighbor is not necessarily someone like me. It is any person God has
put in my way whom I can help.”
• Let us cultivate a sense of the time—“It is later than it has ever been
before.”
Adoniram Judson (his
challenging/motivating biography is worth taking a moment in time to
read!)
alluded to making the most of your opportunities when he wrote that...
A life once spent is irrevocable. It
will remain to be contemplated through eternity...the same may be said
of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks
which we put upon it, it will exhibit forever...each day will not only
be a witness of our conduct, but will affect our everlasting
destiny....How shall we then wish to see each day marked with
usefulness...! It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future
is in our power. Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day
into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at
night let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone, indelibly
marked.
Many years ago when the great
missionary
Adoniram Judson
was home on furlough, he passed through the city of Stonington,
Connecticut. A young boy playing about the wharves at the time of
Judson’s arrival was struck by the man’s appearance. Never before had he
seen such a light on any human face. He ran up the street to a minister
to ask if he knew who the stranger was. The minister hurried back with
him, but became so absorbed in conversation with Judson that he forgot
all about the impatient youngster standing near him. Many years
afterward that boy—who could never get away from the influence of that
wonderful face—became the famous preacher Henry Clay Trumbull. In a book
of memoirs he penned a chapter entitled: "What a Boy Saw in the Face of
Adoniram Judson." That lighted countenance had changed his life. Even as
flowers thrive when they bend to the light, so shining, radiant faces
come to those who constantly turn toward Christ! Over 3000 years ago
Moses prayed a prayer (see Ps 90:12 in next note below) that is
reflected in the life of Adoniram Judson and might well be an
appropriate prayer of every saint who loves "His (Christ's)
appearing" (2Ti 4:8- note)
(Spurgeon's
devotional)
Kent Hughes adds this encouraging thought...
May
God help us to love with a sense of urgency and selflessness. Let us cultivate a
sense of debt. Just as when we owe someone money and our debt is the first thing
we think of when we see him, so may it be with our debt of love (Ro 13:10). Let
us enlarge our definition of neighbor as,
“My
neighbor is not necessarily someone like me. It is any person God has put in my
way whom I can help.”
Let
us cultivate a sense of the time—“It is later than it has ever been before.” Let
us consciously put off the deeds of darkness (we individually know what these
are) and put on Jesus—every day! Let us not be planning out in our mind
beforehand how we will carry out the sinful desires that deceptively,
continually emanate from our old nature (which will constantly wage war with us
until we are home). (Hughes,
R. K. Romans: Righteousness from heaven. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, Ill.:
Crossway Books)
Tony Evans...
This
question of what we are doing with our salvation is one that all of us need to
ask ourselves. We’re secure in Christ, but what are we doing for Him in
gratitude and love for what He has given us? If you are a spiritual dropout,
then get back in the race. Pick up the pace to make up lost ground. Every day
you delay is another day of lost opportunity. “Let us not lose heart in
doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Galatians
6:9-note).
(Totally Saved)
><>><>><>
LOST OPPORTUNITY - In her classes on
the history of missions, Yvonne Wood of the U. S. Center for World Missions,
describes what she calls
“THE
BIGGEST LOST OPPORTUNITY
IN MISSIONARY HISTORY.”
There was a thirteen-year-old in Mongolia who
inherited a bit of land from his father. This boy was a precocious warrior with
instinctive brilliance as a military strategist; he was also ruthless, and he
formed fighting bands that went from village to village until he was ruling over
two million people in a Mongolian Empire that stretched from China to India, and
from Siberia to edges of Western Europe. They gave this young man the title of
Genghis Khan and he ruled over more territory than any man has ever ruled.
Meanwhile, at the same time in Western Europe, a great revival was occurring
under the preaching of men like St. Francis of Assisi, and thousands were
becoming Christians.
Following Khan’s death, the bulk of his empire eventually went to his grandson,
Kublai Khan, who established his capital city in Beijing. He had two
Italians in his court named Polo, the father and the uncle of famed explorer
Marco Polo. They began to tell Kublai Khan about Christianity, and the great
ruler became very interested. He sent the Polo brothers back with a request for
100 missionaries to tell the Mongolians and the Chinese about Christianity.
“When we learn about Christianity, there will be more Christians in my empire
than in all Europe,” he said.
The Polos returned with the message, but no
one was interested in going. Finally two friars agreed to go with the Polos (and
Marco Polo accompanied them) but along the way the friars got fainthearted and
turned around and went home.
When they got back to Kublai Khan, he said, “Where are the missionaries?” No one
came. Eventually the church did send a small handful of missionaries, but by
that time (you guessed it)...
THE OPPORTUNITY
HAD PASSED!
><>><>><>
LOST OPPORTUNITY - The permanent truth
is this. It is one of the great basic facts of life that time and time again an
opportunity comes to a man—and does not come back...This happens in every
sphere of life. In his autobiography, Chiaroscuro, Augustus John tells of an
incident and adds a laconic comment. He was in Barcelona: “It was time to leave
for Marseilles. I had sent forward my baggage and was walking to the station,
when I encountered three Gitanas engaged in buying flowers at a booth. I was so
struck by their beauty and flashing elegance that I almost missed my train. Even
when I reached Marseilles and met my friend, this vision still haunted me, and I
positively had to return. But I did not find these gypsies again. One never
does.” The artist was always looking for glimpses of beauty to transfer to his
canvas—but he knew well that if he did not paint the beauty when he found it,
all the chances were that he would never catch that glimpse again. The
tragedy of life is so often the tragedy of the lost opportunity. (William
Barclay)
Lord, help
us to redeem the time
You give us every day,
To take each opportunity
To follow and obey.
—Sper
><> ><> ><>
Alexander Maclaren, the noted Baptist
preacher from England, said
Every moment of life is granted us for one purpose: becoming like our dear Lord.
That ultimate, all-embracing end is reached through a multitude of near and
intermediate ones.
God can turn any difficulty
into an opportunity.
><> ><> ><>
MISSED
OPPORTUNITY- Dr. Jimmy
Allen writes: We missed him. Our chance to change things came and passed
and we did not know it was there. A dark-skinned little boy sat through
Sunday School classes for three years at a great Baptist Church (First
Church, San Antonio) but someone missed him. His name was Sirhan
Sirhan, and at age 24 he shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy. In
a welter of words and the shudder of grief throughout our nation, the
persistent thought keeps recurring—someone missed him. (Dr. Jimmy Allen,
former pastor of First Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas in Pulpit
Helps, May, 1991, from
10000 Sermon Illustrations.
Dallas: Biblical Studies Press)
><>><>><>
At
Kadesh-Barnea, on the border of Canaan, the
people of Israel foolishly forfeited their opportunity to enter the
Promised Land and claim their inheritance. This tragic failure has made the name
“Kadesh” a synonym for defeat and lost opportunity. Israel’s downfall at
Kadesh is a reminder to us today that it’s a dangerous thing to trifle with the
will of God. You may end up spending the rest of your life wandering around,
just waiting to die. (Warren Wiersbe - Be Counted - Numbers)
><>><>><>
LOST OPPORTUNITY - During the first
three days of July 1863, in the midst of America’s great Civil War, the armies
of the North and South clashed decisively at Gettysburg. For the first three
days of the battle the fighting was inconclusive, but then the tide began to
turn against General Lee and the Confederate forces. The northern troops under
General G. G. Meade were winning. Lee began to retreat southward on the night of
July 4, while storm clouds drenched the east coast with rain. When Lee reached
the Potomac, he found that the river was swollen with rain. He could not cross
it. Behind him was the victorious Union army. Before him was the river. He was
trapped. Here was the great, golden opportunity for General Meade. Meade could
have attacked immediately, destroying Lee’s army and, in effect, ending the
Civil War. President Lincoln actually ordered him to attack. However, instead of
attacking, Meade delayed. He held a council, then delayed again. Eventually the
water of the river receded, and Lee escaped over the Potomac, from which ground
he was able to extend the war by two more years. Meade never regained his lost
opportunity, and it was to General Grant that Lee eventually surrendered on
April 9, 1865. This story shows us the tragedy of having missed a great
opportunity. But if this principle is true in the physical realm, as we realize,
it is certainly more true spiritually. (James Boice - The Gospel of John: an
Expositional Commentary)
THAT IT IS ALREADY THE HOUR FOR YOU TO AWAKEN FROM SLEEP: hoti hora ede
humas ex hupnou egerthenai (APN): (Jonah 1:6; Mt 25:5, 6, 7;
26:40,41; Mk 13:35, 36, 37; 1Co 15:34; Ep 5:14-note;
1Th 5:5-note,
1Th 5:6, 7-notes,
1Th 5:8-note)
The return of our Lord
has always furnished the supreme motive
for consistent Christian living.
-Erdman
G Campbell Morgan...
I never begin my work in the morning
without thinking that perhaps He may interrupt my work and begin His
own. I am not looking for death. I am looking for Him.
Alexander Maclaren...
The language is vividly picturesque.
The darkness is thinning, and the blackness turning grey. Light begins
to stir and whisper. A band of soldiers lies asleep, and, as the
twilight begins to dawn, the bugle call summons them to awake, to throw
off their night-gear,—namely, the works congenial to darkness,—and to
brace on their armour of light.
Awaken from sleep - No
Christian should be asleep, yet the ordinary life of most of us is but a
drowsy state of spirituality compared with what it should be and what it
would be if our Christian hope (certainty) were perpetually present in
our minds to spur us onward. In
Ephesians 5:14
Paul is speaking to the "spiritually asleep" believers.
For this reason it says, "Awake
(present
imperative),
sleeper, and arise
(aorist
imperative - do
this now, it's urgent!) from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
(Ep 5:14-note)
Comment: Not everyone agrees
this verse is directed to believers, but I feel the context and tenor of
the latter half of Ephesians 4-6 [which calls for a worthy walk in
believers] favors this verse as also directed to believers.
Compare
a
similar admonition to believers in Corinth...
Become sober-minded
(aorist
imperative - do
this now, it's urgent!) as you ought, and stop (not sinning)
sinning
(present
imperative
with a negative conveys sense of stop
an action already occurring); for some have no knowledge of God. I speak
this to your shame.
(1Cor 15:34)
Awaken (1453)
(egeiro) means to rouse from sleep, from sitting or lying,
metaphorically from disease, from death , from inactivity, from ruin.
Egeiro is used 144 times in the
NT - Matt. 1:24; 2:13f, 20f; 3:9; 8:15, 25f; 9:5ff, 19, 25; 10:8; 11:5,
11; 12:11, 42; 14:2; 16:21; 17:7, 9, 23; 20:19; 24:7, 11, 24; 25:7; 26:32,
46; 27:52, 63f; 28:6f; Mk. 1:31; 2:9, 11f; 3:3; 4:27, 38; 5:41; 6:14, 16;
9:27; 10:49; 12:26; 13:8, 22; 14:28, 42; 16:6, 14; Lk. 1:69; 3:8; 5:23f;
6:8; 7:14, 16, 22; 8:54; 9:7, 22; 11:8, 31; 13:25; 20:37; 21:10; 24:6, 34;
Jn. 2:19f, 22; 5:8, 21; 7:52; 11:29; 12:1, 9, 17; 13:4; 14:31; 21:14; Acts
3:6f, 15; 4:10; 5:30; 9:8; 10:26, 40; 12:7; 13:22, 30, 37; 26:8; Rom.
4:24f; 6:4, 9; 7:4; 8:11, 34; 10:9; 13:11; 1 Co. 6:14; 15:4, 12ff, 20, 29,
32, 35, 42ff, 52; 2 Co. 1:9; 4:14; 5:15; Gal. 1:1; Eph. 1:20; 5:14; Phil.
1:17; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2 Tim. 2:8; Heb. 11:19; Jas. 5:15; 1 Pet.
1:21; Rev. 11:1
Already gives a touch of
urgency to Paul's exhortation. He is not speaking of some remote period for
which they could make leisurely preparation for, but of one that called for
action now. He is sounding a "Paul Revere" call for alertness.
Encyclopedia Britannica defines sleep
as
a
state of inactivity with a loss of consciousness & a decrease in responsiveness
to events taking place.
Here Paul is referring to
a believer being "spiritually" asleep.
SATAN'S
STRATEGY:
SLEEPY SAINTS
Martin Luther wrote
a parable about Satan conversing with his minions (demons) on the progress they
had made in opposing the truth of God and destroying the souls of men.
One
spirit said there was a company of Christians crossing the desert. “I loosed
the lions upon them, and soon the sands of the desert were strewn with their
mangled corpses.”
“What of that?” answered Satan. “The lions destroyed their bodies, but their
souls were saved. It is their souls that I am after.”
Another reported, “There was a company of Christian pilgrims sailing through
the sea on a vessel. I sent a great wind against the ship that drove the ship on
the rocks, and every Christian aboard the ship was drowned.”
“What of that?” said Satan. “Their bodies were drowned in the sea, but their
souls were saved. It is their souls that I am after.”
The third came forward to give his report, and he said, “For ten years I have
been trying to cast a Christian into a deep sleep, and at last I have
succeeded.”
And
with that the corridors of Hell rang with shouts of malignant triumph.
Awake! Awake! Hear the call of the Lord while we still have light to work!
Sleep (5258)
(hupnos)
in Scripture usually refers to literal sleep (Mt 1:24, Lk 9:32, Jn 11:13). In
the present passage Paul is referring to figurative sleep, specifically
spiritual lethargy.
Friberg says the entire phrase (ex
hupnou egerthenai) is
literally be be roused out of sleep, i.e. wake up to reality, realize what is
going on.
Sleep is a
metaphor (see
terms of comparison - simile, metaphor) which
pictures spiritual apathy and lethargy or unresponsiveness to the things of
eternal value that please God.
Vine notes that...
hupnos
is never used of death. In five places in the
NT it is used of physical "sleep;" in Ro13:11, metaphorically, of a slumbering
state of soul, i.e., of spiritual conformity to the world, out of which
believers are warned to awake....In 1 Thessalonians 5:6, where the verb katheudō
is used, believers are warned against falling into soul slumber; here they are
exhorted to awake out of it....
The
apostles were ever consistent in their instruction concerning the Lord’s return
as an event to be regarded as imminent. Discussions as to whether any of them
changed their view as to its imminence, or whether they were mistaken, are
entirely beside the mark. The exhortations they gave were designed for the
saints throughout the present era. To wait for the Son of God from heaven not
only was the actual attitude of the church of the Thessalonians, their example
was to be followed by all believers in each generation till the event takes
place.
(Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
Hupnos is the source of our English words "hypnotic, hypnosis, etc". In
the present passage, Paul is telling his readers us to awaken from their
"hypnotic state", which by default are produced by the enticements of
the
world,
the
flesh
and the
devil .
The hour of our Lord's return is drawing nigh and you are sound asleep
spiritually!
Hupnos is used 6 times in the NT -
Mt 1:24; Lk. 9:32; Jn 11:13; Acts 20:9; Ro 13:11
Phil Newton says Paul is exhorting
believers to "Throw off the hypnotic state", adding that...
I use the word hypnotic intentionally. The
Greek for “sleep” is the root for hypnotize, which is a state that resembles
sleep. “It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep [hupnos].” He’s not
talking about literal sleep but rather the sluggish, dulled, hypnotic, and
almost trance-like state that the world lulls us into. Paul moves from speaking
of kairos—the momentous event, the significant happening, to
hora or time in a
momentary sense. The schedule has arrived. The beep-beep-beep has signaled that
your appointment is here. It’s time to awaken or literally, arise from the
sluggish, hypnotic state induced by the world. It’s time to wake up!
Have you ever fallen into such a deep sleep that you dream of waking up but you
cannot? You feel frozen. You know that you need to get up but you just can’t;
it’s as though you are strapped to the bed. You feel like you are in a trance as
the world moves around you, but you cannot arise and get into action.
That’s the picture that Paul gives. He tells us that it is now time to get up—to
throw off the hypnotic state that the world has put you into. Realize that the
world—that system of thought and suggestion and action that does not include
God—is not your friend; it is out to ruin you. So it is time to wake up to the
world! See it for what it is in your life! (The
Armor of Light)
S Lewis Johnson says this is a
description of "Christian somnambulists"...
They walk in their sleep. Our churches, our
Evangelical churches, are full of people like this. They're going through the
motions. Have you ever seen anybody walk in their sleep? They're walking. They
actually have motor power, but they don't know what's going on....They're
sitting in our meetings. They bow their heads when prayer is made. They actually
read, but they don't pay any attention to what they read. They're inwardly
asleep. (Christian
Citizen and the Day)
Bruce Goettsche writes...
Tim McGraw has a CD out where the album and
title cut is” Live Like You Were Dying”. The song is about a man who was in his
early forties who gets news that he has a terminal illness. The rest of the song
recounts that the man lived with a new sense of urgency. He went skydiving,
mountain climbing and bull riding. He gave attention to the people he loved and
basically changed all the things he used to think were important. The phrase
repeated again and again is this one:
“someday I hope you get the chance
to be living like you were dying.”
This is the what Paul is saying. We should be
living with a new urgency. We must remember that we are terminal. We understand
that we could die or Jesus could return at any time. Paul suggests that those
who understand this fact will change the way they live. He uses the metaphor of
changing clothes. He says we need to change from the deeds of darkness to the
armor of light. (Get
it in Gear)
Christian citizens are to live in the light of the eminency of
the
Lord's return. Paul admonishes us to
"Wake up-Dress up-Clean up-Look up!"
Are
we
"listening up"?
Let us not be lulled to sleep by indulgence in pleasure or be influenced by the
specious words of mockers who suggest that the Lord has delayed His coming or
that He will not return at all (2Pe 3:3,4 -note).
Bethany Bible sermon notes asks...
What do Christians look like who are "asleep"
in this way? I believe such "spiritual slumber" shows itself in a slackening of
the intensity of their faith. They may read their Bibles, but not with much
excitement or application. They don't "tremble" at God's word (Isaiah 66:2).
They may pray, but not with much earnestness, or effectiveness, or expectation
(James 5:16). They may go to church, but only as "spectators" and "consumers",
and not as a properly working part of the Body that contributes to its growth
(Ephesians 4:16). They may be around non-believers, but they're not excited
enough about their own faith to present it to others as "ambassadors of Christ""
(2 Cor. 5:20). They're saved; but are just sort of taking a "spiritual siesta"
all the time.
"Sleep" is the perfect word to use to describe the state of a passive,
uninvolved, indifferent Christian. Great potential is there in them; but there's
nothing happening.
Many years ago, I worked in a moving and storage warehouse; and a young guy
started working in the warehouse that, for some reason, we just couldn't find.
He'd come to work - I mean, we'd see him enter the warehouse - but we just
couldn't find him after that.
Well, we finally found him - or, I should say, we heard him snoring. He had
pulled a bunch of warehouse crates around himself, made a little hiding place,
and was sleeping on the job. The rest of us all gathered around this sleeping
beauty, and on the count of three, shouted, "Wake up!!" And that's what Paul is
doing here. This is a call to the sleepy Christian to wake up!
Let me make a suggestion. Pray about this before God. It'll take guts; because
God will answer your prayer. Ask Him to show you whether or not you are a sleepy
Christian. Ask Him to reveal to you where you might be dozing off. And then, ask
Him to set you ablaze with the expectation of the Lord's return. He will.
(See the full message on
Romans 13:11-14
Now's the Time!)
><>><>><>
What Time Is It?-There are many ways of keeping time. Let's
look at three of them. The first is called "world time." For many years this was
how the world set its clocks. World time was determined by the relationship of
the earth to the sun, and it enabled man to measure time by the movements of the
heavens.
A second way of keeping time was adopted in 1972 when the switch was made to
"atomic time." This method measures hours, minutes, and seconds not merely by
the big picture of the heavens but by the highly accurate vibrations of the
atom.
Then there's a third method. It's based on our relationship to God, and His
timekeeping is perfect. Let me explain. When we recognize our accountability to
God, we see that now is the time to surround ourselves with the values,
thoughts, and attitudes of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ro 13:14-note). We become aware
that our eternal rescue is closer than ever before (Ro 13:11). Because of our
relationship to the Lord, we should heed the warning that time is running out
for this world (Ro 13:12). If we are going to live honestly and lovingly, we must do
so now!
As you look at the clock today, remember that you should also figure time by
your relationship to the Lord. --M R De Haan II (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
God set a goal, yet gave the choice
To mortals how time may be spent;
Admonishing that worth, not length,
Will value time's accomplishment.
-Mortenson
Counting time is not as important
as making
time count
><>><>><>
Asleep On The Job - The following notice was posted on the
bulletin board in a business office: "It has come to management's attention that
workers dying on the job are failing to fall down. This practice must stop, as
it becomes impossible to distinguish between death and the natural movement of
the staff. Any employee found dead in an upright position will be dropped from
the payroll."
This humorous description finds a serious parallel among Christians. We can go
through the motions of obedience without any real heart involvement. Behind our
business-as-usual appearance is a lack of enthusiasm for righteous living and
serving God. We need Paul's admonition: "It is high time to awake out of sleep"
(Romans 13:11).
We must remain intense in our desire to please the Lord. Centuries ago the
psalmist prayed that he wouldn't settle for a casual religious experience (Ps
119:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). He longed for a total commitment to love what God loves and hate what
He hates. He sensed that he would have to give his whole heart, mind, and
strength to the task.
We will accomplish much for the Lord if we set our will against the current of
the world and the pull of our sinful flesh. Let's not fall asleep on the job.
—M R De Haan II (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Go, labor on; spend and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Father's will;
It is the way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still?
—Bonar
Living for Jesus is not a part-time job. (see
also
How To Have A Revival)
Ray Stedman sounds an alarm writing...
I am afraid that we often hear men preaching
who are aware of the fact that the age is drawing to a close, but their word to
us is not to wake up, but to hurry up. Yet, as I turn to the pages of the New
Testament, I never find that word "hurry" occurring. It isn't "hurry up," it is
"wake up" that the Lord is continually saying to us. It is not hurry that is
needed. Back in Isaiah, Isaiah says, "He that believeth need not make haste"
{cf, Is 28:16 KJV}. That is a wonderful word: "He that believeth need not make
haste... It is not hurry that is needed, it is awareness. "Watch," Jesus said
over and over to his disciples. "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch," {Mk
13:37 KJV}. Act intelligently. Don't act in panic, but in knowledge. Be aware of
what you are doing. Act purposefully and intelligently, Wake up! (The
Demand of the Hour)
The following notice was posted on the bulletin board in a business office:
"It has
come to management's attention that workers dying on the job are
failing to fall down. This practice must stop, as it becomes
impossible to distinguish between death and the natural movement
of the staff. Any employee found dead in an upright position will
be dropped from the payroll."
This humorous description finds a serious parallel among Christians. We can go
through the motions of obedience without any real heart involvement. Behind our
business-as-usual appearance is a lack of enthusiasm for righteous living and
serving God. We need Paul's admonition here in (Ro 13:11). We will accomplish
much for the Lord if we set our will against the current of the world and the
pull of our sinful flesh. Let's not fall asleep on the job. Living for Jesus is
not a part-time job.
Go, labor on; spend and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Father's will;
It is the way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still? —Bonar
FOR NOW SALVATION
IS NEARER TO US THAN WHEN WE BELIEVED:
nun gar egguteron hemon e soteria
e hote episteusamen (1PAAI):
(1Jn 3:2 1Pe 1:5, 13) (Eccl 9:10; Lk 21:28; 1Co 7:29,
30, 31; 1Pe 4:7; 2Pe 3:13, 14, 15; Re 22:12,20)
For (gar) is a
term of explanation
explaining why they should awaken
from their sleepiness (spiritually speaking). Why? Because our salvation
(deliverance) from this present world is nearer.
Now salvation is nearer - What
salvation is he referring to? Paul is
speaking of our future tense salvation (glorification), that wonderful day when we
receive our glorified bodies (Ro 8:22, 23-note), along with freedom from the presence of sin and pleasure
of sin and forever in perfect conformity
to the perfect will of God. (see study of
Three Tenses of Salvation). The "nearness" of this glorious day
should motivate the readers to live life
with an "eternal perspective" walking by faith (seeing with "eternal"
vision so to speak) not by sight.
THE NOW
AND
NOT YET
Phil Newton (Armor
of Light) says that...
We live in the realm of the now and
the not yet. They overlap. We’re seated with Christ in heavenly places
(Eph 2:6-note);
yet we live in the world but are not to be of the world (Jn 17:15, 16).
We’re hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3-note),
yet we must take action to consider the members of our earthly bodies
dead to sin (Col 3:5-11-note).
We read of “the last days” prophesied by Joel, typically thinking
of it as the days immediately preceding the return of Christ. Yet Peter
identified it as the era from the cross until the return of Christ (Acts
2:16-21, cp Heb 1:1, 2-note).
So when Paul exhorts us to change our perspective, to get a new view
about life, he calls on us to live toward the final Day when Christ
brings to culmination the work of redemption—reordering the cosmos and
claiming His Bride. Live toward that day of “salvation,” or future
deliverance. Live as one that will be claimed by Christ on that day.
Live as one who will gladly
welcome Him.
Live as one whose life is not
bound
by the latest fads, music, movies, and entertainment.
Live as one whose life is not
consumed
with pursuing the world or living for retirement
or living for a paycheck or living for the next party.
Live as one that will see Jesus
Christ.
I like the way Dave Guzik phrases
it...
Because we know the danger of the times
and we anticipate the soon return of Jesus, we should be all the more
energetic and committed to a right walk with God instead of a sleep-walk
with God.
How important it is to awake out of
sleep! We can do many Christian things and essentially be asleep towards
God. What a difference it makes when we are awake!
· We can speak when we are asleep
· We can hear when we are asleep
· We can walk when we are asleep
· We can sing when we are asleep
· We can think when we are asleep
William Newell comments that...
The hope of the
imminency
of our Lord’s coming, with the consummation of salvation in bodily
redemption (Eph 1:14-note,
Ep 4:30-note)
and glorification (1Co 15:52, 53, 54 - see
Relationship of Justified, Sanctified, Glorified),
is constantly used by the apostles in exhorting believers to a holy walk
in love (cp 2Pe 3:11-note).
This present verse sets before us the awful tendency to sink down (as did
the ten virgins! Mt 25:1-8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) into slumber and
sleep,—into a state of spiritual torpor in which no Christian duties are
effectively done. Believers are to “know the season.” Our Lord
sternly arraigned the Jews of His day for their ignorance concerning “the
time”; “When ye see a cloud rising in the West, straightway ye say, There
cometh a shower; and so it cometh to pass. And when ye see a south wind
blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye
hypocrites,
ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is
it that ye know not how to interpret this time? And why even of yourselves
judge ye not what is right?” (Lk 12:54, 55, 56, 57)
There their Messiah was, in their
midst, and they knew Him not! Why? Because they did not apply themselves
to know the time they were in, although they could have known it, both
from the prophetic Word which was being fulfilled before their eyes in
Christ; and also “of their own selves,” if they had set themselves to
judge truly of the moral conditions about them and the necessities of
action involved therein. If the Jews even then were called by our Lord “hypocrites,”
for applying their God-given discernment to the signs of the weather, and
neglecting to apply it to spiritual things, and so going on blindly to
judgment; how much more this should arouse us who have so much greater
light and knowledge, in view of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the
presence of the Holy Spirit; and the certainty of our Lord’s
Coming, and our uncertainty
as to the day and hour! (Romans 13 Verse by
Verse Commentary)
Salvation
(4991)
(soteria
[word study])
as discussed in earlier chapters can be understood
in "three tenses" (See
Relationship of Justified, Sanctified, Glorified) - (1) As a deliverance accomplished in the past (justification, when we by faith
we were declared
righteous - Ro 3:28-note;
Ro 5:1-note),
(2) As a deliverance in which God's Spirit daily is delivering us from
the temptations and snares of the
the
world,
the
flesh
and the
devil,
is being accomplished in the present time (sanctification)
and which is yet future when our our bodies will be redeemed and
glorified (Ro 8:30-note,
1Pe 1:5-note;
1Pe 1:13-note,
cf 1Jn 3:2-note).
In a similar way, Jesus was alluding
to this "future tense" of salvation in Luke 21:28 when He said
But when these things begin to take
place, straighten up (look up) and lift up your heads, because your
redemption is drawing near.
Soteria - 46x in 45v in NAS
- Mark 16:8; Luke 1:69, 71, 77; 19:9; Jn 4:22; Acts 4:12; 7:25; 13:26,
47; 16:17; 27:34; Ro 1:16; 10:1, 10; 11:11; 13:11; 2Cor 1:6; 6:2; 7:10;
Eph 1:13; Phil 1:19, 28; 2:12; 1Th 5:8, 9; 2Th 2:13; 2Ti 2:10; 3:15; Heb
1:14; 2:3, 10; 5:9; 6:9; 9:28; 11:7; 1Pe 1:5, 9, 10; 2:2; 2Pe 3:15; Jude
1:3; Rev 7:10; 12:10; 19:1. NAS = deliverance(2),
preservation(1), salvation(42).
The great hymnwriter Fanny Crosby
describes in verse our imminent day of glorification "when our
happy souls shall rest by the fount of life eternal with the ransomed
ever blest!"
WE ARE NEARING
(Play
Hymn)
We are drifting towards the waters
Of a calm and tranquil sea,
And we soon shall anchor safely
In that port where we should be.
Refrain
We are nearing, we are nearing,
Nearing the golden strand;
We are nearing, we are nearing,
Nearing the soul’s bright land.
We are drifting from the sorrows
That for us will soon be o’er;
We are drifting from the trials
That will vex the heart no more.
Refrain
We are drifting from the shadows
Into pure and perfect day;
’Tis the Savior guides our vessel,
And His presence cheers our way.
Refrain
Oh, the morning and the meeting,
When our happy souls shall rest,
By the fount of life eternal,
With the ransomed ever blest.
Refrain
Nearer (1452)
(egguteron = comparative of eggus -
1451)
describes a point of time subsequent to another point of time, but
relatively close. The verb form eggizo (move nearer to a reference
point) is used in Ro 13:12
(note).
Eggus - 25x in 24v in the NAS
- Mt 24:32, 33; 26:18; Mark 13:28, 29; Lk 19:11; 21:30, 31; Jn 2:13; 3:23;
6:4, 19, 23; 7:2; 11:18, 54, 55; 19:20, 42; Acts 1:12; 9:38; 27:8; Ro 10:8;
Ro 13:11; Eph 2:13, 17; Php 4:5; Heb 6:8; Heb 8:13; Rev 1:3; Rev 22:10.
NAS = close(1), near(27), nearby(1), nearer(1), ready(1).
When we believed - By using the
plural pronoun "we", Paul included
himself in his reference to the moment of salvation (justification) when moved and
convicted by the Spirit (Jn 3:3, 16:8), we placed our faith in Jesus Christ as
our Lord and Savior, receiving His gift of eternal life. At that moment when
we believed, we were
justified or declared righteous
because God imputed (credited,
reckoned)
Christ's perfect righteousness (2Co 5:21-note,
Ro 4:5-note,
Ro 4:25-note)
to our otherwise spiritually bankrupt account.
Believed
(4100)
(pisteuo
[word study]
- see study of related word
pistis)
means to be persuaded of, place one's confidence in, to trust, express
reliance upon. Belief that brings about the new birth
is more than intellectual assent to a presentation of Biblical truth. The
demons believe but they are clearly not saved (Jas 2:19). To be sure, genuine
(saving) belief (faith) does have a component of intellectual assent, but it also includes an act
of one's heart and will. Biblical saving faith is not passive assent but an
active staking of one's life on the claims of God. The respected Greek
lexicon author W E Vine summarizes saving faith as consisting of (1) a firm
conviction which produces full acknowledgment of God's revelation of Truth,
(2) a personal surrender to the Truth and (3) a conduct inspired by and
consistent with that surrender. If a person says "I believe" and yet never,
ever manifests any alteration in their life, then based on the NT definition
of faith, one must be suspect of their salvation. Remember however that God
is the ultimate judge of an individual's faith as to whether it is merely
intellectual faith or genuine saving faith.
Paul had explained this belief
in Romans 10 writing...
But what does it say? "THE
WORD
IS NEAR (eggus)
YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART" (Dt 30:14) -- that is, the word of faith which we
are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe (pisteuo) in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
shall be saved; for with the heart man believes (pisteuo), resulting
in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES (pisteuo) IN HIM WILL NOT
BE
DISAPPOINTED. (see notes
Ro 10:8; 9; 10; 11)
We will be glorified when
Jesus returns, which draws closer with each passing day. The
Bible frequently uses the return of Jesus Christ to motivate believers to holy
living (2Co 5:9,10; Titus 2:11-note;
Titus 2:12-note;
Titus 2:13-note;
He 10:24,2 5-note;
Jas 5:7,8;
1Pe 4:7, 8, 9-notes,
1Pe 4:10, 11-notes;
2Pe 3:11, 12-notes,
2Pe 3:14-note)
and this fact may also explain why approximately 1 in 20 of every NT verses
refers either directly or indirectly to the
Second Coming of our Lord.
Beloved, we are
one day closer to His return then we were yesterday.
The era between the
advents of Christ then is critical, because the promise of the return of Christ
hovers over the believer. We must not be lulled to sleep by indulgence in
pleasure or be influenced by the specious reasoning of those who would suggest
that the day of the Lord's return can't be known so why worry...after all some
reason, He may not return at all (2Pe 3:4, 5, 6-note, 2Pe 3:7,
8-note,
2Pe 3:9-note). Paul does not say how near the day of the Lord's
appearing is, for he himself does not know the day (Mt 24:36, 42, 43, 48, 49,
50, 51 Mt 25:13 Mk 13:32). He is content to advance
the reminder that "our salvation is nearer now than when we believed"
C H Spurgeon writes...
Oh, you unconverted men, must I read
the text as it would have to run if it were written to you?
"It is high time that you should
awake out of sleep, for now is your damnation nearer than when you first
heard the gospel and rejected it."
God grant you grace to take heed and
believe in Christ.
><> ><> ><>
The golden age of the Church lies,
not in the past, but in the future. We may be humiliated by the
passionate devotion to Christ which glowed in the hearts of the apostles
and of many of their immediate converts; we may wonder at the courage
and fortitude which during the early Christian generations confronted
fearlessly all that was mightiest and most venerable in the ancient
civilization, and endured imprisonment, torture, and death in the power
of an exulting hope and a triumphant faith; but it is apparent, both
from the apostolic epistles and from later Christian writings, that even
in those heroic times there were vast numbers of Christian men and women
who fell far short of the saintly life. The glory of God which dwells in
the Church of every age was clouded then, as it is clouded now, by human
infirmity and sin.
Nor do we look back with regret upon the brief years during which our
Lord Himself was visibly present in the world: it was expedient for us
that He should go away. The great hour is yet to come: we move forwards
to it day by day, year by year. 'Now is salvation nearer to us than when
we first believed.' (R W Dale)
><> ><> ><>
Charles Simeon's sermon on
Romans 13:11...
If
you don't know who this great brother in Christ is, you need to take a
moment and listen to the Mp3 Audio of John Piper's survey of
Simeon's life entitled "Brothers,
We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering"
(to download to desktop or Ipod right click and select "Save Target
As...") - you will be as riveted to your seat as I was when I first
heard the powerful and convicting testimony of this saint of old. You
can also read a summary but the audio is better -
Transcript...
THE
NEARNESS OF SALVATION
A MOTIVE TO DILIGENCE
by Charles Simeon
Ro 13:11. Now it is high time to
awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed.
SO contracted are the views which
many have of the Gospel, that they account nothing worthy of that name,
except what relates primarily and expressly to the great subject of
redemption. But the Gospel comprehends duties as well as privileges: nor
can any minister preach it aright, if he do not guard his audience
against every species of sin, and inculcate the performance of every
kind of duty. Nor are any persons to be excepted from such pastoral
charges. The Apostles themselves needed to be warned against hypocrisy
and a recurrence to corrupt habits: and they also in their turn have
transmitted similar warnings to the Christian world in all ages. It was
to “believers” that St. Paul addressed the words before us: and I
conceive myself to be discharging a most solemn duty whilst I call your
attention to,
I. His injunction—
Every believer is prone to relapse into a state of stupor—
The “wise virgins slumbered and
slept,” no less than the foolish. The Church of Ephesus, too, amidst
their many exalted virtues, needed to be reproved for having “left their
first love.” And who does not feel that the caution given to “the
children of light” in the Thessalonian Church, is applicable to
himself?- In truth, there are seasons, even with the best of men, when
the divine life comparatively languishes within them, and when “the
things which remain in them are in appearance at least ready to die -
This may arise from different causes: sometimes from “the cares of this
world” pressing upon the mind; sometimes from “the deceitfulness of
riches,” or the gratifications of sense beguiling the soul; and
sometimes from “the abounding of iniquity in those around us.” But
from whatever it proceeds,
“It is high time that we awake out of sleep”
With all of us much time has been lost: and how little remains, who can
tell? At all events we have a great work to do; and no man should relax
his labours, till he can say, “Father, I have glorified thee on earth; I
have finished the work which thou hast given me to do.”
I call you then, my brethren, to arise, and “do your first works,” lest
God abandon you to the power of your great adversary, and to the evils
of your own hearts. If St. Paul felt the need of “keeping his body under
and bringing it into subjection, lest by any means, after having
preached to others he himself should become a cast-away,” think not
that such care and such fear are unsuitable to you. To the most stable
amongst you I would say, “Beware, lest being led away with the error of
the wicked, ye fall from your own steadfastness; and to the most
confident amongst you all, “Be not high-minded, but fear.” Let every
one of you look to himself, that he lose not the things which he has
wrought, but that he receive a full reward.”
To impress on your minds this admonition, let me call your attention to,
II. The consideration with which it is enforced—
“Salvation” is the prize held forth to all who believe in Christ:
and who shall adequately express or conceive what is comprehended under
this term? - Yet this, with all the blessedness attached to it, is daily
hastening towards you.
You are daily “nearer” to,
1. The termination of all your conflicts—
Whilst you are in this life, you must of necessity have trials of some
kind to sustain. A corruptible crown is not gained without much
exertion, much less is a heavenly crown: “the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence; and the violent take it by force.” But “there is a
rest remaining for you;” and that rest is now very near at hand. Look
then at the racer in his course: does not the thought of his having
nearly finished his labours animate him to increased exertions? So then
should you “forget the things that are behind, and press on to the goal
for the prize of your high calling;” and never think that you have
attained any thing as long as any thing remains to be attained.
2. The completion of all your hopes—
Soon will God’s work of grace be
perfected within you, and “a crown of glory be awarded to you as having
been faithful unto death.” And will you by listlessness and
indifference endanger the loss of all the glory and felicity of heaven?
Awake, I say, and “run with patience the race that is set before you,
looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith.” Make
more use of the great principles of the Gospel than ever you have yet
done. “Look more to Christ:” “live more entirely by faith upon him.”
Get his image more formed upon your hearts. Live only for him, and “to
him:” and speedily shall you be “seated with him upon his throne,”
and be a joint-heir with him of his inheritance.
But let me not close without a few words to unbelievers—
If believers need such an admonition
as this, what, think ye, do ye need? What words can ever be too strong
for you, who have never fled to Christ for refuge, or believed in him
for the saving of your souls? Truly your end also is near: but “who can
tell what that end shall be?” Alas! an inspired Apostle declares to
you, that “your judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and your
damnation slumbereth not.” Surely then “it is high time for you to
awake out of sleep;” for, if death find you unprepared to meet your God,
your condition will be such, that it would be “better for you that you
had never been born.”
><>><>><>
A sermon by Alexander Maclaren
Salvation
Nearer
by
Alexander Maclaren
‘Now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed.’—Romans 13:11.
THERE is no doubt, I suppose, that
the Apostle, in common with the whole of the early Church, entertained
more or less consistently the expectation of living to witness the
second coming of Jesus Christ. There are in Paul’s letters passages
which look both in the direction of that anticipation, and in the other
one of expecting to taste death. ‘We which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord,’ he says twice in one chapter. ‘I am ready to be
offered, and the hour of my departure is at hand,’ he says in his last
letter.
Now this contrariety of anticipation is but the natural result of what
our Lord Himself said, ‘It is not for you to know the times and the
seasons,’ and no one, who is content to form his doctrine of the
knowledge resulting from inspiration from the words of Jesus Christ
Himself, need stumble in the least degree in recognising. the plain fact
that Paul and his brother Apostles did not know when the Master was to
come. Christ Himself had told them that there was a chamber locked
against their entrance, and therefore we do not need to think that it
militates against the authoritative inspiration of these early teachers
of the Church, if they, too, searched ‘what manner of time the Spirit
which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand ? the glory
that should follow.’
Now, my text is evidently the result of the former of these two
anticipations, viz. that Paul and his generation were probably to see
the coming of the Lord from heaven. And to him the thought that’ the
night was far spent,’ as the context says, ‘and the day was at hand,’
underlay his most buoyant hope, and was the inspiration and
motive-spring of his most strenuous effort.
Now, our relation to the closing moments of our own earthly lives, to
the fact of death, is precisely the same as that of the Apostle and his
brethren to the coining of the Lord. We, too, stand in that position of
partial ignorance, and for us practically the words of my text, and all
their parallel words, point to how we should think of, and how we should
be affected by, the end to which we are coming. And this is the grand
characteristic of the Christian view of that last solemn moment. ‘Now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed.’ So I would note, first of
all, what these words teach us should be the Christian view of our own
end; and, second, to what conduct that view should lead us.
I. The Christian View Of Death.
‘Now is our salvation nearer.’ We have to think away by faith and hope
all the grim externals of death, and to get to the heart of the thing.
And then everything that is repulsive, everything that makes flesh and
blood shrink, disappears and is evaporated, and beneath the folds of his
black garment, there is revealed God’s last, sweetest, most triumphant
angel-messenger to Christian souls, the great, strong, silent Angel of
Death, and he carries in his hand the gift of a full salvation. That is
what our Apostle rose to the rapture of beholding, when he knew that the
thought of his surviving till Christ came again must be put away, and
when close to the last moment of his life, he said, ‘The Lord shall
deliver me, and save me into His everlasting kingdom.’ What was the
deliverance and being saved that he expected and expresses in these
words? Immunity from punishment? Escape from the headsman’s axe? Being’
delivered from the mouth of the lion,’ the persecuting fangs of the
bloody Nero? By no means. He knew that death was at hand, and he said,
‘He will save me ’—not from it, but through it —‘into His everlasting
kingdom.’ And so in the words of my text we may say—though Paul did not
mean them so—as we see the distance between us, and that certain close,
dwindling, dwindling, dwindling: ‘Now,’ as moment after moment ticks
itself into the past, ‘now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed.’ Children, when they are getting near their holidays, take
strips of paper, and tear off a piece as each day passes. And as we tear
off the days let us feel that we are drawing closer to our home, and
that the blessedness laid up for us in it is drawing nearer to us. ‘Our
salvation,’ not our destruction, our fuller life, not in any true sense
of the word our ‘death,’ is ‘nearer than when we believed.’
But some one may say, ‘Is a man not saved till after he is dead?’ Is
salvation future, not coming till after the grave? No, certainly not.
There are three aspects of that word in Scripture. Sometimes the New
Testament writers treat salvation as past, and represent a Christian as
being invested with the possession of it all at the very moment of his
first faith. That is true, that whatever is yet to be evolved from what
is given to the poorest and foulest sinner, in the moment of his initial
faith in Christ, there is nothing to be added to it. The salvation which
the penitent thief received on the cross is all the salvation that he
was ever to get. But out of it there came welling and welling and
welling, when he had passed into the region’ where beyond these voices
there is peace’—there came welling out from that inexhaustible fountain
which was opened in him all the fullnesses of an eternal progress in the
heavens. And so it is with us. Salvation is a past gift which we
received when we believed.
But in another aspect, which is also emphatically stated in Scripture,
it is a progressive process, and not merely a gift bestowed once for all
in the past. I do not dwell upon that thought, but just remind you of a
turn of expression which occurs in various connections more than once.
‘The Lord added to the Church daily such as were being saved,’ says
Luke. Still more emphatically in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the
Apostle puts into antithesis the two progressive processes, and speaks
of the Gospel as being preached, and being a savour of life unto life
‘to them that are being saved,’ and a savour of destruction ‘to them
that are being lost.’ No moral or spiritual condition is stereotyped or
stagnant. It is all progressive. And so the salvation that is given once
for all is ever being unfolded, and the Christian life on earth is the
unfolding of it.
But in another aspect still, such as is presented in my text, and in
other parallel passages, that salvation is regarded as lying on the
other side of the flood, because the manifestations of it there, the
evolving there of what is in it, and the great gifts that come then, are
so transcendently above all even of our selectest experiences here, that
they are, as it were, new, though still their roots are in the old. The
salvation which culminates in the absolute removal from our whole being
of all manner of evil, whether it be sorrow or sin, and in the
conclusive bestowal upon us of all manner of good, whether it be
righteousness or joy, and which has for its seal ‘the adoption, to wit,
the redemption of the body,’ so that body, soul, and spirit’ make one
music as before, but vaster,’ is so far beyond the germs of itself which
here we experience that my text and its like are amply vindicated. And
the man who is most fully persuaded and conscious that he possesses the
salvation of God, and most fully and blessedly aware that that salvation
is gradually gaining power in his life, is the very man who will most
feel that between its highest manifestation on earth, and its lowest in
the heavens there is such a gulf as that the wine that he will drink
there at the Father’s table is indeed new wine. And so ‘is our salvation
nearer,’ though we already possess it, ‘than when we believed.’
Dear brethren, if these things be true, and if to die is to be saved
into the kingdom, do not two thoughts result? The one is that that
blessed consummation should occupy more of our thoughts than I am afraid
it does. As life goes on, and the space dwindles between us and it, we
older people naturally fall into the way, unless we are fools, of more
seriously and frequently turning our thoughts to the end. I suppose the
last week of a voyage to Australia has far more thoughts in it about the
landing next week than the two or three first days of beating down the
English Channel had. I do not want to put old heads on young shoulders
in this or in any other respect. But sure I am that it does belong very
intimately to the strength of our Christian characters that we should,
as the Psalmist says, be ‘wise’ to ‘consider our latter end.’
The other thought that follows is as plain, viz. that that anticipation
should always be buoyant, hopeful, joyous. We have nothing to do with
the sad aspects of parting from earth. They are all but non-existent,
for the Christian consciousness, when it is as vigorous and God-directed
as it ought to be. They drop into the background, and sometimes are lost
to sight altogether. Remember how this Apostle, when he does think about
death, looks at it with—I was going to quote words which may strike you
as being inappropriate—‘a frolic welcome’; how, at all events, he is
neither a bit afraid of it, nor does he see in it anything from which to
shrink. He speaks of being with Christ, which is far better; ‘absent
from the body, present with the Lord’; ‘the dissolution of the earthly
house of this tabernacle’-the tumbling down of the old clay cottage in
order that a stately palace of marble and precious stones may be reared
upon its site; ‘the hour of my departure is at hand; I have finished the
fight.’ Peter, too, chimes in with his words: ‘My exodus; my departure,’
and both of the two are looking, if not longingly, at all events without
a tremor of the eyelid, into the very eyeballs of the messenger whom
most men feel so hideous. Is it not a wonderful gift to Christian souls
that by faith in Jesus Christ, the realm in which their hope can
expatiate is more than doubled, and annexes the dim lands beyond the
frontier of death? Dear friends, if we are living in Christ, the thought
of the end and that here we are absent from home, ought to be infinitely
sweet, of whatever superficial terrors this poor, shrinking flesh may
still be conscious. And I am sure that the nearer we got to our Saviour,
and the more we realise the joyous possession of salvation as already
ours, and the more we are conscious of the expanding of that gift in our
hearts, the more we shall be delivered from that fear of death which
makes men all their ‘lifetime subject to bondage.’ So I beseech you to
aim at this, that, when you look forward, the furthest thing you see on
the horizon of earth may be that great Angel of Death coming to save you
into the everlasting kingdom.
Now, just a word about
II. The Conduct To Which Such A Hope Should Incite.
The Apostle puts it very plainly in the context, and we need but expand
in a word or two what he teaches us there. ‘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.’ To what does he refer by ‘that’? The
whole of the practical exhortations to a Christian life which have been
given before. Everything that is duty becomes tenfold more stringent and
imperative when we apprehend the true meaning of that last moment. They
tell us that it is unwholesome to be thinking about death and the
beyond, because to do so takes away interest from much of our present
occupations and weakens energy. If there is anything from which a man is
wrenched away because he steadily contemplates the fact of being
wrenched away altogether from everything before long, it is something
that he had better be wrenched from. And if there be any occupations
which dwindle into nothingness, and into which a man cannot for the life
of him fling himself with any thoroughgoing enthusiasm or interest, if
once the thought of death stirs in him, depend upon it they are
occupations which are in themselves contemptible and unworthy. All good
aims will gain greater power over us; we shall have a saner estimate of
what is worth living for; we shall have a new standard of what is the
relative importance of things; and if some that looked very great turn
out to be very small when we let that searching light in upon them, and
others which seemed very insignificant spring suddenly up into
dominating magnitude—that new and truer perspective will be all clear
gain. The more we feel that our salvation is sweeping towards us, as it
were, from the throne of God through the blue abysses, the more
diligently we shall ‘work while it is called day,’ and the more
earnestly we shall seek, when the Saviour and His salvation come, to be
found with loins girt for all strenuous work, and lamps burning in all
the brightness of the light of a Christian character.
Further, says Paul, this hopeful, cheerful contemplation of approaching
salvation should lead us to cast off the evil, and to put on the good.
You will remember the heart-stirring imagery which the Apostle employs
in the context, where he says, ‘The day is at hand; let us therefore
fling off the works of darkness’—as men in the morning, when the
daylight comes through the window, and makes them lift their eyelids,
fling off their night-gear—‘and let us put on the armour of light.’ We
are soldiers, and must be clad in what will be bullet-proof, and will
turn a sword’s edge. And where shall steel of celestial temper be found
that can resist the fiery darts shot at the Christian soldier? His
armour must be ‘of light.’ Clad in the radiance of Christian character
he will be invulnerable. And how can we, who have robed ourselves in the
works of darkness, either cast them off or array ourselves in sparkling
armour of light? Paul tells us, ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make not provision for the flesh.’ The picture is of a camp of sleeping
soldiers; the night wears thin, the streaks of saffron are coming in the
dawning east. One after another the sleepers awake; they cast aside
their night-gear, and they brace on the armour that sparkles in the
beams of the morning sun. So they are ready when the trumpet sounds the
reveille, and with the morning comes the Captain of the Lord’s host, and
with the Captain comes the perfecting of the salvation which is drawing
nearer and nearer to us, as our moments glide through our fingers like
the beads of a rosary. Many men think of death and fear; the Christian
should think of death—and hope.
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