Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 6
January 17, 2021
Humble, Texas
(094)
1769 KJV Translation:
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [
fulfil] the lusts [
thereof].
1901 ASV Translation:
12 The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness.
13 Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
- I. The Believer's Response To The Failure Of The Night.
- A. Paul's use of "advanced" signals the pursuit of an objective; his "Gospel" heralds the failure to achieve it.
- B. Given the failure of The Night, and the Inevitable Dawning of The Day, believers have certain responsibilities.
- 1. "...therefore..."
- 2. The exhortations.
- a. "We should [This is a plural middle aorist subjunctive, not an imperative] put off the works of The Darkness" (they are proven, utter, failures: Ephesians 5:11 declares that these 'works' are "without fruit"; i.e., utter failures).
- 1) The "appearance" of success is due only to the "permission" of God to allow the infection to fester until it is time to excise it.
- 2) Until God's permission to allow the development of the mystery of iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2:7) ends, "victory" is deceptively apparent: Genesis 15:16). Robertson, quoting Mutzbauer, says the "fundamental meaning of the subjunctive is to be the attitude of expectation). This exactly fits Paul's argument: ...because the Night Advanced (unsuccessfully) and the Day Is Near (for the real success), we should... .
- 3) Interestingly, when he gets to 13:14 Paul sets aside the subjunctive and uses the imperative. No longer "should" the saints act as sons of the Day, they are commanded to "...clothe themselves..." and "...do not do...".
- 4) Our focus is to be upon distancing ourselves from "the works of The Darkness".
- a) "Works" are expenditures of energy in specific actions (Romans 2:6-7) to bring about the "objective(s)" of the "advancement" of The Night, or of The Day.
- b) "Works" are expenditures of energy that are typically "seen" as the outcomes of a person's deliberate choices, followed by effort, so that they "should" get the credit for them (3:27 compared with 4:2).
- c) As "works of The Darkness", these "works", to be banished from our hearts/minds, are all of those efforts which are designed to obtain "positive recognition" and the "praise" associated with that recognition.
- 5) And what "should" be done is to "lay aside" (the word used here is used by Luke in Acts 7:58 to give us a solid metaphor for the meaning of the action for which Paul calls). The word (apotithemi) is used multiple times by the various authors of the New Testament as a metaphor for refusing to engage in certain behaviors.
- 6) In his "struggle" text, Paul definitively declares that "the darkness" has "spiritual forces of wickedness": Ephesians 6:12.
- b. "We should clothe ourselves with the weapons of The Light" (proven, effective, destroyers of 'fortresses': 2 Corinthians 10:4).
- 1) As "armor" (the word should most likely be "weapons" because the five texts in the New Testament where it is used all refer to "instruments" of warfare), these "instruments of war" are for the purpose of engaging in warfare.
- 2) These "weapons" are variously identified...
- a) In John 18:3 the mob that came to arrest Jesus was "armed" with various weapons.
- b) In Romans 6:13 these "weapons" are the various "members of one's body" by which we take action in the conflict between unrighteousness and righteousness.
- c) 2 Corinthians 6:7 speaks of "weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left" which clearly indicates an "instrument of war" in the right hand and in the left hand.
- d) And the final New Testament text, 2 Corinthians 10:4, speaks of "weapons of warfare" that significantly differ from those of "the flesh" and are effective for "the destruction of fortresses". The following verses indicate the proclamation of the truth for providing "knowledge" of God, taking every thought captive to the submission to Christ, and taking appropriate actions in "punishing all disobedience".
- 3) The "should" issue is that we "should" pick up these weapons and use them.
- c. "We should walk becomingly 'as in Day'".
- 1) Not in revelings. Not in drunkennesses.
- 2) Not in "beds". Not in licentiousness.
- 3) Not in strife. Not in jealousy.
- 7) BUT "let us clothe ourselves with The Lord Jesus Christ and not do predeterminations of the flesh unto lusts" (do not "plan 'how to accomplish'").