by Jerry Senn
“The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime....”
—Romans 13:12-13a
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can’t deny we live in anxious times. It is a crucial hour for believers in Christ to start living as Christians for the time may be short. “The night is far spent,” so quit living like children of the night; “the day is at hand.”
Paul said that nineteen hundred years ago. If it was relevant then for the believers in Rome, it is just as meaningful now, or maybe moreso. His words are a strong warning during these dark and threatening days.
“The events of 64 AD and 66 AD—the beginning of imperial persecutions of Christians and the outbreak of the Jewish revolt, which was to end with the collapse of the Second Jewish Commonwealth—were already casting their shadows.”
—FF Bruce, “Romans”
So, how are we to respond today when darkness is overshadowing the light of truth and righteousness? Should we gather our families together in isolation from the world till the Lord returns? Not according to Paul.
Whether the coming of the Lord Jesus is to be delayed for another hundred years, or He comes in the next 24 hours, it’s vitally important that we live as though He could return in the next “twinkling of an eye.”
In the meantime he says the time is short—“day is far gone.” In the “daytime” Paul suggests we “wake up”—become alive—and share the gospel of love to a world of darkness and despair, hatred and violence.
“He is urging, ‘listen Christians, listen, this is your hour; stop living like Godless men and start living like the people of God.’ Make no provision for the flesh, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ!”
There is the story of a little boy who, when the clock struck fifteen, with eyes as big as saucers breathlessly rushed into another room to his mother, crying, ‘Mommy, it’s later than it’s ever been before?’
“It is later than it has ever been before! Christian, what are you doing about it, for Christ’s sake.”
—R C Harlverson, “God’s Way Out of Futility”