Romans 13:13-14 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.… The Hebrew language one continual picture. Every fact and emotion rendered by an image. The truth, e.g., that Christ is life, and that apart from Christ is no life, is act forth most often by vivid metaphors. The general significance of the present metaphor is that the old sinful life is to be doffed like a soiled and sordid garment, and the new nature which Christ gives and inspires, is to be put on like a new and shining robe. I. TRY TO BE LIKE CHRIST. Love what Christ loved, hate what Christ hated. The next clause helps to explain this part of the meaning, by giving us its opposite. II. But perhaps you will say, "If that be all, any moralist might, in other language, tell us the same. We read something like it in every noble teacher. We know in our best moments that we arc mean, guilty creatures, but we do not know how to be otherwise. You bid us seek for nobler manners and purer tastes; you might as well bid the snared bird to fly, or the worm to throw off the rock which is crushing it to earth." Well, the gospel of Christ has broken the snare, and rolled away the rock. To put on Christ is TO SHARE HIS MIGHT, to come into quickening electric personal contact with Him, to derive magnetic force from His personality, to live by His Spirit, and so to be born again and to become a new creature. III. We look at our ruined selves, our corrupted hearts, our wasted lives, and "abhor ourselves in dust and ashes." How can we ever stand before God, who chargeth even the angels with folly, and in whose sight the very heavens are not clean? Ah, but there is yet another and more blessed meaning of "putting on Christ," and it is TO BE FOUND IN HIM; not trusting in our own righteousness which is as filthy rags, but BEING CLAD IN THE WHITE ROBE OF HIS FORGIVING GRACE. How heart-broken have been the last utterances of even the greatest men! (Grotius. Bacon and Shakespeare in their wills.) Conclusion: Such, then, is the meaning of this Divine message. Break with your past self; come to Christ for strength, and by prayer to Him and earnestly seeking Him, be quickened and transformed. And as it means this hope for the future, and this strength in the present, so also it means forgiveness for the past. Say not, then, that the meaning is not clear; strive rather to make it yours by blessed experience. (Archdn. Farrar.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. |
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