Romans 13 contains the responsibilities Christians have to their government (vv. 1-6). The apostle concludes his exhortations with these words: “Render to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor” (v. 7). The final exhortation follows our responsibility in various relationships with this: “but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ …” (v. 14).
Earlier in the letter the apostle had written, “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:4). These Romans had been baptized into Christ and of such ones Paul told the Galatians, “For as many as you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27), and they in their baptism had “put on Christ.” And yet, though they had “put on Christ” when they were baptized, they are once more admonished to “put on Christ.” Why the two appeals?
We must hasten to observe that the two appeals are not redundant: when, in Romans 6:3-4 they are reminded that they had put Christ on when they were baptized, they had accepted His claims of Deity, to provide salvation to sinners and the Romans had believed His claims and had obeyed His commands that they might be forgiven of their sins and had “put on Christ” for salvation is in Jesus Christ. They had made a commitment to follow His teaching and worship Him as God.
The second appeal to “put on Christ” in Romans 13:14 is His command that man put on the character of Jesus: to imitate his life. In the same context are also these words: “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:1). Putting on the armor of light and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ are equivalents: to do one is to do the other.
In v. 13 the apostle gave three couplets of things which go together and which one who has put on Jesus must not practice. First, he urged “not in revelings and drunkenness.” The word “revelings” is a reference to loud, boisterous, and (likely) lewd, suggestive language. Such boisterous language is the natural outgrowth of drunkenness in which one has cast aside restraint. He who is guilty of such behavior needs to cast off such work of darkness and “put on” the armor of light.
The second couplet given by the apostle and which men were urged to cast aside was “chambering and wantonness.” The first action, chambering, is the result of the second, wantonness. Chambering means a “lying down, a bed” — an allusion to illicit sex. Wantonness is lasciviousness or licentiousness speech, dress, or behavior, and the result of such is “chambering”. Such danger often is triggered by bold, indecent attire.
The apostle’s third couplet was “not in strife and jealousies.” Once more the first of the two words, strife, is the result of the second word, jealousies. Jealousy is an emotion and left unchecked leads to strife.
These three couplets are works of darkness and the exact opposite of the life and speech of our Savior whom we put on in baptism, and whose character we must put on in our thoughts and deeds. When we “put on” the Lord Jesus Christ we must “make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14). We must not yield to drunkenness; it produces revelings. We must not allow ourselves to practice wantonness; it brings about chambering. We must not have jealousy; its fruit is strife. Those who “put on Christ” have removed such thoughts and deeds from their lives.
We are commanded, “Keep thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5:21). Remember, “For now is salvation nearer than when we first believed” .Salvation, the receiving of our eternal reward, may not come in our lifetime but it will come, and wherever we are in life or in death, we are nearer that reward than when we first believed or became Christians. And the foundation of our hope is that God’s Word is true and, unlike men, God cannot lie.
Jim McDonald