undertake the services which the Lord requires from us. Theworks of darkness are shameful and
wicked works; for night, as some one says, is shameless. Thearmor of light represents good, and
temperate, and holy actions, such as are suitable to the day; and armor is mentioned rather than
works, because we are to carry on a warfare for the Lord.
But the particles at the beginning, And this, are to be read by themselves, for they are connected
with what is gone before; as we say in Latin Adhoec — besides, or proeterea — moreover. The
time, he says, was known to the faithful, for the calling of God and the day of visitation required a
new life and new morals, and he immediately adds an explanation, and says, that it was the hour
to awake: for it is not χρόνος but καιρὸς which means a fit occasion or a seasonable time.^410
For nearer is now our salvation, etc. This passage is in various ways perverted by interpreters.
Many refer the word believed to the time of the law, as though Paul had said, that the Jews believed
before Christ came; which view I reject as unnatural and strained; and surely to confine a general
truth to a small part of the Church, would have been wholly inconsistent. Of that whole assembly
to which he wrote, how few were Jews? Then this declaration could not have been suitable to the
Romans. Besides, the comparison between the night and the day does in my judgment dissipate
every doubt on the point. The declaration then seems to me to be of the most simple kind, — “Nearer
is salvation now to us than at that time when we began to believe:” so that a reference is made to
the time which had preceded as to their faith. For as the adverb here used is in its import indefinite,
this meaning is much the most suitable, as it is evident from what follows.
12.The night has advanced, and the day, etc. This is the season which he had just mentioned;
for as the faithful are not as yet received into full light, he very fitly compares to the dawn the
knowledge of future life, which shines on us through the gospel: for day is not put here, as in other
places, for the light of faith, (otherwise he could not have said that it was only approaching, but
that it was present, for it now shines as it were in the middle of its progress,) but for that glorious
brightness of the celestial life, the beginnings of which are now seen through the gospel.
The sum of what he says is, — that as soon as God begins to call us, we ought to do the same,
as when we conclude from the first dawn of the day that the full sun is at hand; we ought to look
forward to the coming of Christ.
described, but the latter is what the passage refers to. And the sleep mentioned here is not the sleep of ignorance and unbelief,
but the sleep, the torpor, or inactivity of Christians.
That the present state of believers, their condition in this world, is meant here by “night,” and their state of future glory is
meant by “day,” appears evident from the words which follow, “for nearer now is our salvation than when we believed.” Salvation
here, as in Romans 8:24, and in 1 Peter 1:9, means salvation made complete and perfect, the full employment of all its blessings.
Indeed in no other sense can what is said here of night and day be appropriate. The night of heathen ignorance as to Christians
had already passed, and the day of gospel light was not approaching, but had appeared. — Ed.(^410) The words , according to Beza, Grotius, Mede, etc., connect what follows with the preceding exhortation to love,
“And this do, or let us do, as we know,” etc. But the whole tenor of what follows by no means favors this view. The subject is
wholly different. It is evidently a new subject of exhortation, as Calvin says, and the words must be rendered as he proposes, or
be viewed as elliptical; the word “I say,” or “I command,” according to Macknight, being understood, “This also I say, since we
know the time,” etc. If we adopt “I command,” or “moreover,” as Calvin does, it would be better to regard the participle ,
as having the meaning of an imperative, being understood, several instances of which we have in the preceding chapter,
Romans 12:9,16,17. The whole passage would then read better in this manner, —
- Moreover, know the time, that it is even now the very time for us to awake from sleep; for nearer now is our salvation
than when we - believed: the night has advanced, and the day has approached; let us then cast away the works of darkness, and let us
put on the - armor of light; let us, as in the day, walk in a becoming manner, etc. — Ed.