Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 7
January 24, 2021
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: The "shoulds" only turn into actuality when believers believingly respond to God's provision in Christ and their deliberate refusal to "plan" to sin.
Introduction: In our last study we considered Paul's use of "subjunctives" as implied imperatives in the "faith" that accepts the demise of The Night's Advance and the Day's Nearness. If a person "believes" that the Night has done its worst, and failed, and that the Day is continuing its "advance" unto victory, there are three "
shoulds" awaiting in the wings: we "
should" lay aside all of the "works of The Darkness" that have proven to be hopeless failures as "methods of pursuit"; we "
should" take up the "weapons" of The Light, understanding that those weapons are the actual members of our bodies in strong commitment to doing righteousness; and, we "
should" walk (behave) in ways that are consistent with the "priorities and methods of The Day" even though we are significantly hampered by the present reality of the yet-present darkness of The Night. The Day has not yet arrived, so there are "problems" related to our inability to "see" clearly.
In the light of these "problems", the "shoulds" can only be fulfilled by the believer's willingness to "believe" in God's provision of Christ and in the wisdom of not planning ways to fulfill the potent lusts of the flesh.
- I. The "Shoulds" Turned Into "Imperatives".
- A. As noted earlier, there are three "subjunctives" identifying what "should" follow "faith in the failure of the priorities and methods of "The Night".
- B. Also noted earlier, there are two "imperatives" identifying what "must" follow "faith in the inevitable success of the coming Day".
- 1. The first of these imperatives is translated by the NASB as "put on the Lord Jesus Christ".
- a. This "imperative" is rooted in the second of the "shoulds": "we should take up the weapons of The Light" (13:12) because the same verb (enduo) is used in the second "should" as is now used in this first "imperative".
- 1) This verb is used literally in ten of the eleven places in the historical narratives of Matthew through Acts to indicate "to put clothes on" (the eleventh use is metaphorical -- taking the literal "clothe" and making it a metaphor for God's "clothing" of us with His Spirit).
- 2) This verb stands opposite to 13:12's "disrobe" yourself by taking off the clothes called "the works of The Darkness".
- 3) Thus, this verb is attempting to take the literal process of putting clothes on your body into the realm of metaphor wherein you "put the Lord Jesus Christ on yourself" as if He is a garment.
- b. The "problem" for us is the question of "how one puts the Lord Jesus Christ on" as a garment.
- 1) We have a hint in the only other uses of the word "armor" in the NASB's translation of 13:12's reference to the tools of The Light (and, as we pointed out last week, this is not "armor"; it is "weapons") in Romans 6:13.
- a) In the text/context of Romans 6:13, the "weapons" are the various members of our physical bodies which become useful to the "warrior" as he/she uses them to actually "do" the actions that are to pursue the objectives of The Advance.
- b) Paul's point is one: it is the members of the body by which the intentions of the inner spirit are revealed and pursued.
- c) Thus, the "hint" to the question of "How?" is this: make a definitive presentation of the members of your body to God for His use to produce acts of righteousness (this concept is repeated at the beginning of this larger section of Romans in 12:1-2 where Paul calls for the presentation of the entire body with the understanding that the individual members will be included).
- 2) This "How?" issue is further realized by going back over the details of Romans Six in which we find ourselves "clothed" with Jesus Christ -- baptized into both His death and His resurrection.
- a) We are placed into Christ so that we are completely enveloped by Him as if He is "the clothes we wear".
- b) This results in a new characterization as a "saint" (justified) and a new characterization as a "slave of God for the performance of righteousness through the members of our bodies" (participants in His resurrection power by the Spirit).
- 2. And this "How?" issue is further addressed by Paul's second "imperative".
- a. This imperative is not an Aorist, Middle like the first imperative; it is a Present, Middle.
- 1) The point is like that of 6:13 where the continuing action of the present time is directly associated with the aoristic presentation of the members to the one who is to produce through the body.
- 2) Once the "clothing" has been done, it is maintained in continuing presentations of the weapons to God.
- b. But this imperative has to do with a specific issue: "planning" ways to fulfill the potent lusts of the flesh.
- 1) The imperative calls for a cessation of making plans to fulfill the appetites of the flesh as they are presented in the "should" of "walking in harmony with the priorities and methods of The Day".
- a. The walk that turns aside from "excesses in celebrations and drunkenness" is, specifically, refusing to allow the "soul" to go into excessive reactions to goals achieved.
- b. The walk that turns aside from "excesses in the body's pursuit of sexual pleasures" is, specifically, refusing to allow the sexual urges to break out beyond the limitations put upon us by the instruction of Scripture.
- c. The walk that turns aside from the root and fruit of the spirit's excessive fixation upon status-lust (the root being jealousy and the fruit being strife).
- 2) This summons to cease "planning" means, first, that one develop a real antipathy toward "Sin's" perversion of the human being (soul, body, and spirit), and, second, that one refuses to consider the fulfillment of false priorities by making plans.
