Put on the Armor of Light

Introduction

You’re making your way to Romans chapter 13, Romans 13. We’re going to read, beginning in verse 11. Romans 13 and verse 11. It says, 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. 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. It’s a short reading, but powerful. It’s an appropriate conclusion to Paul’s section of exhortation that began at the beginning of chapter 12.

All of that we’ve covered, where he talks about the idea of sacrificing body, transforming mind, and doing all of this in service and humility with one another as God’s people. And then there’s a section that comes just before this, which we talked about a few weeks ago, that Christianity or following Jesus, being his disciple, is not licensed to revolt against human authority and human government. But it’s interesting a transition takes place here. It is a reminder that there is another kingdom. And I want to kind of pull apart the language here in Romans 13 to pull out a couple images that are extremely important for God’s people to understand. It’s all over Scripture. But it pertains to what Paul’s just been talking about in the earlier section.

We’re not to revolt or to be insurrectionists or those kinds of things, but also at the same time understand that’s not your kingdom. Your kingdom is not of this world. And there’s a certain way to live in that kingdom. And so now this is sort of this exhortation or speech before you go into battle. That’s kind of the idea here. You imagine a commander with his troops, and these words start to come out. He says, You know the time, the hour has come. Our salvation is nearer now than we first believed. This is kind of rousing people to action. Right? And there’s certainly a spiritual element to this, as we’re going to see. This is not about the physical, it’s about the spiritual, but that’s the nature of how metaphors work.

And he uses two major metaphors here that we’re going to unpack as unpack as we look through this text. And they often work together in text. I can’t really canvas all of these texts this morning. There’s a lot more here we could get into. But mostly I just want us to understand the idea. And so I’ll paraphrase a lot, and we may turn to a couple passages just to give us the sense. But the idea here is he’s using this concept of kingdom. That God’s people form a kingdom. We are citizens of his kingdom, and his son is king, and there’s some implications that come with that. Then that’s also pictured within a metaphor that I think we’re probably all fairly familiar with, and that is light versus darkness.

You can’t hardly watch a movie or read a book without this image being used. One of the most famous books or movies of our lifetime is Star Wars. Right? The concern is that Luke’s gonna go to the dark side, right? This is how it’s pictured. This is how good is pictured versus evil. This is the contrast, and of course, it’s an apt illustration because you can’t mix the two. Where Craig read this morning in John 1, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. It’s subtle, but the kingdom concept’s there. Certainly light and darkness is there. You hear that clearly. But the idea of darkness not overcoming the light, the power of the Son, the one who has life and who has light.

We just sang the song of Mary, where she’s talking about this reality that God is going to visit his people and he’s going to raise up those who are afflicted. They’re going to be victorious through the Messiah. All of this is connecting actually to some of the texts that portray the concepts of light and darkness and kingdom sort of language, passages like Isaiah 59 and 60. It’s not been too long since we’ve read some of these texts. We actually did a class on Isaiah, but you may remember Isaiah 59. The people are groping around in darkness.

And when he does so, he then tells them to arise and let their light shine, for the Lord has shone upon you. Chapter 60, verse 1. Right? So even there it’s blending the idea of light and darkness and the concept of war or kingdom together as one image. And the rest of that text in chapter 60 is all about the nations falling before them. It even pronounces in verses 11 through 14 this concept of a procession. And we don’t really understand that concept very well, but a Roman procession would have been absolutely terrifying. Forty thousand soldiers garbed in their armor, following their general, marching through the streets with noises so loud the children cried. And they would drag those kings through the street and even execute some of them, but mostly it was just for humiliation.

This is the picture in chapter 60 of Isaiah. When the light comes and God delivers his people, it’s going to be so tremendous, so massive of a victory that all the nations are going to come and bow before his kingdom and before the king. And the light will prevail.

And it’s all throughout the New Testament as well. This is a text I put these actually in sequential order in which they’re written. 1 Thessalonians 5 is written about 52 A.D., somewhere in there, 50 to 52. Romans is written about 57, around about. And Ephesians, which is probably the text you’re more familiar with, is around 64 A.D. And if you go to those texts, you’ll see all very similar language that ties back to Isaiah 59, right? Ephesians 6 is this armor of God text, right? Where it’s talking about all the things you’re supposed to put on, but you’re arming yourself with the Lord. And if you go back to Isaiah 59, you understand this is God’s victory. He is the divine warrior who’s bringing victory and dominance over the world.

And so this is an interesting text here for Paul to finish, but he ends it with put on or be or clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, just like you clothe yourself with the armor of light, and make no provisions for the flesh to gratify its desires. There’s a divide here between whether we’re emphasizing the things of the flesh or the things of the spirit. And of course, this goes back all the way to chapter 8, which we may look at later. So I want to pull out three concepts. That was a very quick summary. I did a lecture on this at Florida College that was like an hour long. So just know I’m cutting a lot of things out here, okay? So I just summarized that 25 minute section in like five minutes.

1. Identity Matters When You're in War

Because I really just want to get to the point here. And that is what Paul’s trying to convey through this imagery and through this language are some key ideas and components. The first of those is that identity matters when you’re in war.

It’s actually very similar to maybe what we may be familiar with. If you’re a football player or a basketball player or a soccer player, whatever sport you play, or even a band, that actually bands a great image of this. The band you’re in, everybody doesn’t just go out and wear the same stuff. Right? I mean, that would be super confusing. Everybody wore the same uniform and we’re trying to play against each other, and you’re you’re passing the ball or kicking the ball or whatever. You’re you march out with the wrong band. Now we’re super confused. Now, the whole idea of what Paul’s getting at here is the armor you put on is about your identity. There’s something about this that is significant that matters. And part of this actually, the word has the concept or the connotation of weaponry, which really pulls back to Romans chapter 6 and verse 13, where he says, you are weapons, or it says instruments in a lot of your translations.

You’re weapons for righteousness. You’re not weapons for unrighteousness. When you gave yourself to Jesus Christ, when you died with him, when you became part of his kingdom, and now you’re walking a new life, now you bear the armor of your king and his kingdom. There’s an identity there. This is part of the reminder that Paul’s giving them. Yes, you’re in the world. You’re not to be revolting against human kingdoms and that sort of thing. But know what your actual identity is. You are God’s people. And this identity matters in terms of what you demonstrate in your life, which we’ll get to here in just a minute. I want to pull this image out in a little bit different way. This is a well-understood concept. The Dead Sea Scrolls, there’s a scroll called the War Scroll.

God’s people have always, Old Testament, now this is between the testaments, and now we have Paul in the New Testament have always imagined themselves at war. This is what the war scroll says. It’s actually called the war of the sons of light against the sons of darkness. Here’s a little selection from it. The sons of righteousness shall shine over all the ends of the earth. They shall go on shining until all the seasons of darkness are consumed. The warrior gods gird themselves for the day of revenge. For the God of Israel has called out the sword against all the nations, and he will do mighty deeds by the saints or his holy ones of his people. So 200 BC, before Christ ever came, there is this concept of being engaged in battle and war.

Now we’re heading somewhere with, I think, what Paul’s doing in this text, of what he’s calling them to. Right? But the concept here is to imagine and to realize that we are at war. We’re not at physical war. Right? We just sang a song about that we’re putting down the weapons of physical warfare. That’s that’s not the kind of battle we’re fighting, but we are certainly in the middle of a spiritual warfare. There is light and darkness. There are kingdoms that are evil, and there is a kingdom of righteousness. The concept here is that you have to pick which side you’re on. There’s no margins. You don’t kind of hang out in the middle somewhere. That’s not what how it works. You’re either part of the kingdom of light or you’re part of the kingdom of darkness.

And if you’re not deciding, then you’re part of the kingdom of darkness. That’s the way this works. If you’re not fighting for the Lord and his people, then you’re really against them. This is the concept. That’s why these metaphors work. So in battle, if someone’s not on your side, they’re either in the way or they’re against you. And there’s no time for that. You don’t have time for that sort of thing because it’s important to be in the moment when you’re in war taking care of what needs to be taken care of. And so light and darkness in this portrayal relate to man’s status with God. Another dark document between the testaments called the community rule. This is like the way God’s people should live. Okay, that’s what this document is about.

It says, God created man to govern the world and has appointed it for him two spirits in which to walk. This will all sound really familiar, just pay close attention. The spirits of truth and falsehood. Those born of truth spring from a fountain of light, but those born of falsehood spring from a source of darkness. All the children of righteousness are ruled by the prince of light and walk in the ways of light. But all the children of falsehood are ruled by the angel of darkness and walk in the ways of darkness. Now, the sermon this morning is not about 1 John, but that is almost exactly the sort of thing John is saying in 1 John chapter 3. The portrayal of the children of God versus the children of Satan.

The children of light versus the children of darkness. In fact, in Ephesians 5, this is exactly how Paul portrays it. Walk as children of light. So they’re getting these ideas and these concepts, not just out of nowhere. This is a sort of thing that has existed for a long time. You have good and evil, you have light and darkness. You’re in God’s kingdom or you’re in the kingdom of the world. Those are the options. And so by implication, the point here is you have to choose. Where are you going to end up? Who are you going to fight for? What kind of armor are you going to wear? And what is that going to say about you? Which then moves us to this next concept. Right?

2. We Arm Ourselves Through Thought and Action

So identity matters in war, but in spiritual war, the identity or your armor, right? When it talks about the armor of light, this is not physical clothing. I think we get that. It is tied to the way we think and the way that we act. So we arm ourselves through thought and action. Things like faith and love and hope in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Right? Or in Ephesians 5, when he further expands this later on in a later document, he talks about like the preparation of the gospel. Or we have the helmet of salvation. We have these either thoughts or actions that we’re taking into our life that now show which side that we’re on. And this is what John gets to in 1 John chapter 3.

It’s obvious who is born of God and who’s born of Satan. It’s obvious by the way they act. Those who are born of the devil sin and keep on sinning. Those who are of the seed or the offspring of God, they don’t keep sinning. Right? Very simplistic in 1 John 3. And Paul gets into some of these ideas here in Romans chapter 13 as he’s concluding these thoughts about giving body and mind to the Lord and how we live and all that. And he sort of does it from a negative standpoint. Sometimes it’s actually more helpful to understand on the negative side. Peter does a little bit of this too, right? He talks about the things that show you’re unfruitful. Sometimes understanding how things shouldn’t work then gives us a better idea of how they should work.

Tells them to clothe themselves in spiritual armor or in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, This is what it doesn’t look like. It doesn’t look like excessive partying. The term here is connected to the concept of Dionysus worship, or maybe like we would say in modern day, our Mardi Gras. Just think about that a little bit. If you’re taking part in those types of things, this is the sort of thing Paul’s talking about that people who bear the armor of light don’t do. This is not the kind of life that they live. So excessive partying and drunkenness, that is not the nature of what a saint, that’s not how they clothe themselves for battle. Sexual immorality and sensuality, sexual excess. So the perversion that we see in the world around us all the time.

This is not the way God’s people clothe themselves for the fight. Taking part in the things that happened in the world. And then there’s this really interesting one, maybe because it’s more biting and convicting, quarreling and jealousy. Those other things sound pretty horrible. I mean, partying, drunkenness. And there may be some of us who say, Well, I would never do that. Some of us have struggled with that. But it’s easy to justify. We look at some of those things in our minds, I think is mostly what this is. We highlight some of those things as being worse sins. But it’s interesting that Paul connects things like sexual immorality and sensuality and partying with quarreling and strife or jealousy. But remember the whole context of what he’s doing here.

He’s dealing with Jews and Gentiles, working them back together into one congregation, and he’s worried there’s going to be problems. I think it’s no mistake that he lists these and then he puts this thing about quarreling and jealousy there together.

So it’s not something new that he does, and it’s something that he’s concerned with God’s people. They get really tied up, and the people they’re connected with and looking down on other people. Remember Romans chapter 12, he talks all about this. Do not be haughty, never be wise in your own eyes. He says it like four or five times with when in one chapter. The temptation to have envy or jealousy or strife or quarrel, you don’t have time for that when you’re in war. If we’re fighting each other, we don’t have time to actually be fighting darkness. This is what Paul’s trying to say. So those who are clothing themselves with the armor of light are not the kind of people who quarrel and fight with each other.

I want to take all of this, and I always hesitate a little bit to do this, but I want to take this and kind of put it into a modern translation. Because probably none of us have ever been tempted by Dionysus worship. You know, this is sort of an ancient concept, but there are related things. Right? So if I was going to kind of update this to our modern lingo, it would say something like, walk not in clubbing and partying, not in hooking up or in proper sexual encounters, and dressing sexually or provocatively to get attention with your body, not in a spirit of rivalry or party attachment, but live to please Jesus and stop looking for ways to please the flesh. That’s the contrast. And we are tempted in whatever form it may be for our time and our place, we are tempted and drawn toward the things of the flesh.

Even if it’s something as simple as the party we want to be a part of. And I’m not even speaking politically here. That’s maybe the first place our mind goes, and that could be a problem as well. But for instance, 1 Corinthians, where they’re lining up behind different people. You know, I support this guy and I support this person, and they’re kind of taking sides, and even having strife with each other. James talks about the same thing, how they don’t get what they want because they’re quarreling with each other. And certainly within our religious culture in many realms, not just the one we exist in, there is the problem of rivalry, party attachment, the people we think we connect with, and the people that we don’t who we want to push to the outside.

All of that is of the flesh, Paul says.

Romans chapter 8. But remember, if you sat down and you read Romans, you would have just read this. You know, between Romans 8 and Romans 13, maybe 10 minutes as you read. So notice what he says beginning in verse 5. Romans chapter 8 and verse 5. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. Remember if we’re in battle, if we’re at war, and we’re doing things that are hostile, supposedly to our kingdom, we aren’t much of a soldier.

So the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. This is what Paul’s worried about. Stop being so tied up in the flesh, he’s saying, think about the things of the spirit, set your mind on the things of the spirit, and don’t get caught up in all these fleshly things. Whether it’s the parties and the drunkenness or the immorality or just simple jealousy and envy. All of that is fleshly, and it’s taking you away from the fight that actually matters. It’s why Jesus says the things he does about if you’re at odds with a brother, your worship doesn’t really mean much. Stop what you’re doing, go fix the problem.

3. The Hour Has Already Come

Because rivalry and jealousy, party spirit, all of that is detrimental to the fight. And the followers of Christ should shine forth the glory of the Lord, as Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 60. And then there’s this element to what Paul’s doing that I think sometimes maybe gets a little confusing for us because he mentions salvation. And when we hear the word salvation, what do we think? Most often we think heaven. Most commentators actually think heaven. And it’s not that there’s a problem with ultimately getting there. But if you kind of remember that image I gave you earlier about a commander pepping up his army, getting them ready for the fight, this idea of deliverance, this salvation, it’s actually much more present oriented. Now, there’s an aspect to this that’s very hard for us to understand because we are very future thinking people.

We get insurance on all sorts of things, warranties on things that we buy. All of that is this look off into the future to secure the future. We contribute to 401ks and we invest and we’re planning. You may be 30 years old and you’ve been in your career for five years, but you’re planning your retirement right now. That is the nature of how we look. That’s how we see time. We’re looking off into the future. Often in settings like this, we’re talking about heaven. Again, nothing wrong with that, but our mindset is very much in the future. Sometimes we are so much in the future that we aren’t aware of the present. We lose sight of what actually matters in the moment. Now, their orientation to time is very different.

They certainly would have thought to the future, but the nature of how they saw time was much more in the present and in the past, and the future is last. There’s a lot of technical things that go into this that I won’t get into, but basically, think in Jesus’ prayer, give us this day our daily bread. They’re worried about getting a meal today.

They’re much more interested in where things came from, right? So a lot of Paul’s argumentation of the book of Romans is about Abraham and David and Adam and all these people in the past and how they connect to what God is doing through Jesus. Right? That’s a lot of what the focus is. And the way that Paul’s using the future here, as he’s talking about the salvation to come, is actually mostly motivated to them to act in the moment. Right? So Paul’s mentioning future salvation. It’s for the purpose of emphasizing behavior now. That’s what he’s doing. It’s unfortunate that in your English Bibles, it’s just one of these things that happens in translation. It’s nothing wrong. The translators didn’t do anything wrong. But there’s a word in here in the very first line.

It says, besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come. So that little phrase there has come in Greek, it’s the word ade, which means already. It’s already here. Paul’s focused on the present. Now to structure that into an English sentence is complicated, and that’s why they do it this way. But he’s saying the hour has already struck. Battle is on, the war is happening. And now it’s time to arm yourself and be ready to fight. Right? For salvation is near to us now. Right? Again, the focus is right now. Then when we first believed, the night is far gone, the day is at hand. It’s happening. It’s right now. Paul’s focus is not something that’s going on way off in the future. He’s thinking about something that matters right now in the moment to these people.

The spiritual war is taking place. They’re in the middle of it. And so it’s time for them to fight. Even in our religious culture, people get caught up in end times, ideas, and things like Armageddon, which actually isn’t even about the end of the world in Romans 16, Revelation 16. But they get caught up in all these ideas of what it’s going to be, you know, the rapture and all this. What actually matters is what we’re doing right now. And when we walk out of this building this morning, the decisions that we make, the most important battle is the battle you’re in the middle of. And this is what Paul’s telling them. Arm yourself. Be armed with the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make provisions for the flesh.

Make decisions right now that have spiritual implications that matter for you in the moment, not next week or a month from now or a few years from now. It’s very easy to always be putting things off to the future. And Paul says the time is already here. Both here and 1 Thessalonians, actually Ephesians as well, though it’s split between chapter 5 and 6. He says, wake up. Wake up. Be alert. It’s not the time to sleep. Stop getting caught up in the things that happen at night, right? That’s the image he’s doing here the partying, the excess, all of that, the sleeping. 1 Thessalonians 5 talks more about this. Those are the things that people do at night. Right? The image of night is the image of darkness and evil and wickedness.

Don’t do that. Be sober. Keep awake. Open your eyes. This is what he’s telling them. The battle is here in front of you, and stop worrying about the things of the flesh and begin thinking about the things of the spirit.

That’s very similar to the admonition in Isaiah 60. He says, Arise, shine. For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples. But the Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will appear upon you. Jesus makes it really simple. He takes that thought in Isaiah 60 and he says it this way. You are the light of the world. A city that’s set on a hill cannot be hidden. And so if we are in God’s kingdom, if we are on the side of light, we will shine. And we will shine now. And we’ll make a difference now. And we’ll make decisions that matter now. And all of that is working for something that is going to happen in the future.

Conclusion

But Paul wants to make sure we’re not losing sight of this moment we’re in and the battle we face today. Now that was the message for them, 57 AD, but the same message applies now. A couple thousand years later, it’s still the same reality. We still face the forces of darkness in the sons of disobedience who followed the way he phrases it in Ephesians.

We had that spirit in us, but we changed. We were transformed. Right? That’s the power of the gospel. God who is rich in mercy. He made us alive together with Christ to no longer serve the angel of darkness, as the one document stated it, the prince of the power of the air. Now we serve the risen Lord, the Prince of Light. And our behavior and our actions and our thoughts should demonstrate that. That’s our armor. I want to come back to some thoughts about that in future sermons, just about the way we think and the way we live and the decisions we’re making, sort of introduced that idea last week about spiritual disciplines. But all of these things, they relate to the fight that we’re in, to the kingdom that we serve, and what that looks like day to day in my life.

It might be this morning that decision is you want to be on the right side. You want to be in the light. You don’t want to serve the dark side anymore. And we would welcome you to come to the light. There is a force that can transform you. By the power of the Spirit of God, you can have your sins taken away. You can be cleansed and purified and sanctified. That’s God’s plan. And you can become part of his people, walking in newness of life, clothed with his armor, bearing his image for his purposes and his mission and his plan. Can we help you do that this morning? Come now as we stand and we sing.