It doesn’t really matter whether you like the term “culture war” or not, God put us in one. A culture has a shared language and lifestyle, some similar loves/values and looks/styles. Christians have a culture that appreciates light and life; we’re united in our belief in Christ and hope in His blessings. We’re trying to cultivate a world-and-life view where the confession “Christ is Lord” means that everything means something. The sons of disobedience also have a culture, where carrying out the desires of the body and mind are foremost. They follow the course of this world, passing their days in malice and envy, hating and being hated. They’re at various levels of intentionally cultivating a place where there are no gods or masters but every man in his own eyes. The two cultures are like night and day.

The contrast, which can’t help but involve conflict, has been going on a long time, since Genesis 3:15 when the Lord put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The great Seed was Jesus, and by extension refers to all those who are in Christ. In Christ we stand against the schemes of the evil one, we take up the whole armor of God to be able to withstand in the evil day, we battle against the world, so we must not get stuck in its mold. By faith we resist the serpent and those who are of their father the devil. And we take every thought captive in our fight against our own flesh. We see the enemy every morning, and too often we see him in the mirror.

How do we fight in this culture war? It begins locally, with altar-living (Romans 12:1-2). It continues locally as we love our neighbor (who is perhaps an enemy, see also Matthew 5:43-48), which requires wearing the right uniform (of Christ-likeness). And that requires daily vigilance, relentless differentiation, and maintaining our equipment.

The very time we live in should rouse us to obedience in following the admonitions here. It’s time to engage. Verses 11-12 both argue for being done with the night and darkness. Verses 13-14 both argue for what it looks like to walk in the day and light.

Wake Up (verses 11-12)

There’s a sort of faith-alarm going off telling us to wake up.

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 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. (Romans 13:11–12 ESV)

The NASB puts it this way, “Do this, knowing the time.” The know in ESV is fine but it’s really in the form of “knowing,” a modifying action. Paul is backing up our love of neighbor; we love our neighbor because we’re aware of the time. The hour has come…to wake from sleep . Get up and get loving.

This sleep isn’t a metaphor for spiritual or physical death, it’s a metaphor for spiritual passivity. The sleepy are the lazy, the indifferent. It illustrates a failure to use the mind; so lack of care and failure to act. In a first-century society governed by the sun rather than by the convenience of artificial lighting, people rose at dawn because the sun was their life. There’s a similar dawn for Christians.

The time for fighting is now, because salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed . Scripture refers to all three tenses of salvation: we have been (past), we are being (present), we will be (future), saved. Verse 11 is talking about that final consummation, the glorification as described in Romans 8. History is linear, and each passing day means we’re closer to the finishing of God’s purpose to conform us to Christ for His glory. “The day is near” (NASB). Don’t sleep on it.

The reign of evil has almost reached its expiration date. The biblical context on this coming day shows that when it finally does arrive evil will be judged and the righteous vindicated (think Psalm 96:13). All of the imperatives in this text flow from the nearness of the end. Because the end is near, the people of God should respond with appropriate behavior.

There’s no time to waste. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. Night and darkness go hand in hand, and both are times for sin, for ignorance and futile thinking. The works of darkness are the wicked things done driven by the depraved mind. We’re not on that side anymore. The day belongs with light ; So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light .

Paul enjoys and employs the put on/put off imagery a number of times. We take (dirty) clothes off, we put on new clothes, and Paul applies it to the attire of behavior.

Interesting that we take off works but put on armor . In other letters Paul talks about putting off sin and putting on virtues. The armor here reminds us of the battle. We’re not just waking up to spend some time in the spiritual breakfast nook watching the steam come off our coffee.

Each calendar day brings nearer to us the day of final salvation, and, since it is life in the body that is decisive for eternal issues, the event of death points up for each person how short is “the season” prior to Christ’s advent. —John Murray

Walk Right (verses 13-14)

Two cultures on display:

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:13–14 ESV)

How do we behave ourselves? We walk properly , or “decently” (NIV), “honestly” (KJV). We walk right. We walk as in the daytime .

There’s a three-fold series of wrongs:

• orgies and drunkenness . “Orgies” here is Bacchanalian/excessive feasting and partying — a word used for an actual procession in honor of Dionysus/Bacchus (BAGD) with a banquet that featured alcohol (or other drugs) that caused intoxication, people got hammered for their god(s). Other words for it are “carousing” (NASB)/“rioting” (KJV) when applied to a band of friends who accompanied a victor home from the games, singing his praises and celebrating his triumph as he went. So-called “PRIDE” parades are not new under the sun.
• sexual immorality and sensuality . The NASB translates this as “sexual promiscuity” and Tyndale/KJV as “chambering” in reference to a private place/chamber with a bed; it refers to what happens in a forbidden bed. Sensuality is a “lack of self-constraint which involves one in conduct that violates all bounds of what is socially acceptable, self-abandonment” (BAGD); unrestrained lust. This is a culture of people who can’t keep their pants on.
• quarreling and jealousy . Quarreling or strife is from a rivalry of positions, and is often caused by jealousy (see James 4:1-2). This is WOKE, Socialistic identity politics before those words were invented. Is it possible that these last couple vices describe our modern life even more than the first four?

Instead put on the Lord Jesus Christ. “As many of [us] as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). But the indicative doesn’t contradict the imperative. Put on Christ. We are to consciously embrace our union with the Lord Christ in such a way that His character is manifested in all that we do and say.

Make no provision for the flesh . Let’s say you and your flesh were going out for a picnic, don’t make a sandwich for the flesh; let him starve. Let’s say you were in a war in Afghanistan, don’t leave 7.1 billion dollars worth of your helicopters and air-to-ground munitions and M4s out for the Taliban. Let’s say you don’t like the unrestrained spending of the government who wants to fund abortions and launder money through foreign governments, don’t you pamper your selfishness and pretenses and sin. You are a Christian.

Conclusion

Though Augustine had grown up with a Christian mother he was a slave to sin, caught in the lusts of his flesh. When he was 31 years-old Augustine was out in a garden. He heard the voice of children somewhere over the courtyard wall, repeating the phrase “Take up and read, take up and read.” He picked up Paul’s epistle to the Romans and read Romans 13:13-14 and God granted him repentance and faith. Why can’t this paragraph be gospel hope for you? If you are under the weight and burden of sin, look to Christ and believe. Jesus can deliver you.

There is no neutrality. It is the Lord Jesus Christ or corruption, Christ or chaos, Christ or darkness, Christ or death.

The people of the world fight for what they believe in. Right now the people of the world are striving, daring, plotting, planning, scheming, fighting. They get up early. They stay up late. They accept labor and hardship and stress because they believe their pay-off will be worth it. It seems that they never sleep.

We are in a war of cultures. The fighting during this dispensation is different than any other time, different than Israel’s theocracy and different than Christ’s millennial reign. Now is the time.

Christian, the day is at hand. Pray that you would be “strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” Wake up to daily vigilance—the day is near, relentless differentiation—against the darkness, and maintaining your equipment—the armor of light. Keep your altar commitments. Love your neighbor.

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Charge

Christian, salvation is near, put on your clothes. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Encourage one another in this battle and build one another up, just as you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Benediction:

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:8–10, ESV)