Be in Time!

Be In Time!

Text . Romans 13:11-14

Paul has warned the Roman Christians that they must live as model citizens, so that their witness will shine out in their pagan society.  10 Love does no harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. What will help us to live like Christians as model citizens?  We have already seen that our purest motivation for Christian living, model citizenship and love for our neighbours is Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. But there is a secondary motivation. It is that this age is rapidly coming to a close and one day very soon we all must give account to God for the deeds done in the flesh. (Ills Martin Maguiness) For all of us, time is short, and its shorter now than it ever was before.

1. Recognise the Lateness of the Hour! 11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Time here is Kairos (as opposed to chronos, – calander time) Kairos is ‘the quality of time’ a season, and apt time, the right time…  It is the correct time to wake up!  Sleep = spiritual complacency.

• Hear the alarm! knowing the time!
• Wake up! it is high time to awake out of sleep!
• Time flies! now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed  So don’t waste it. We first beloved in Christ we were saved – but we are presently being saved and one day we will be saved. That day is getting closer!

2. Prepare for a New Day. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand.

There will be a new day, a new dawn, and we must be ready!  (Parable of the ten virgins)

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. ³ Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵ But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. ⁶ “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming;  go out to meet him!’ ⁷ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. ¹¹ “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ ¹² But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

• Take your night attire off! Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness,
• Put on your armour! and let us put on the armour of light.
• Go out and walk. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, Walking properly before the Lord will look different to the walk of the world, and Paul shows us the contrast here.

The walk of the world is described in this phrase, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy:-

• Revelry. Loud, rude raucous behaviour, an embarrassment to others.
• Drunkenness. Greeks drank wine. They gave it to children and dipped their breakfast bread in it. But us was greatly diluted. To be drunk was a disgrace.
• Lewdness and Lust. (AV ‘chambering’) the Greek word is koite – ‘bedding’. It is sheer carnal pleasure taken without thought for others. And they do these things without any shame, without caring if they make a public spectacle of themselves.
• Strife. Competition. The desire for earthly achievement. Ambition to be great in the eyes of others and the ruthlessness to achieve it. It is nothing more than self centred loveless ambition.
• Envy. When we can’t be content with what we have and crave the blessings that have been given to others.

3. Be Ready.

That new day will bring with it a time of reckoning. To survive that day, the great and terrible day of the Lord there are two basic concepts we need to understand:

• Be clothed in Christ’s righteousness. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, If we are believers we have already ‘put on’ Christ. Look at Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  This is not in any way a ‘one-of’ event.  The tense in Romans is continuous – we put on Christ every day of life, it is a repeated action.  (Every day, when I wake up I put on my clothes.  They protect me from the weather, they make me somewhat acceptable to others.  They are how I project my personality.  The are a part of my life.  Paul is telling that every day we are to put on Christ, make him a part of every aspect of your life that day.  Take him with you wherever ou go, and if you cant take him, don’t go there!  Live your life in Christ!
• Repent and turn from Sin. and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Daily repentance will be necessary, for we will fail.  But to repent from sin is not just to say sorry, it is to be determined not to sin again, to resist temptation, and to make no providion, make no plans to yield to sin in the future.

This conscious awareness of the sudden return of Christ, at any time, is a strong motivating factor to godly living, and we MUST continually remind ourselves of it.

© Bob McEvoy