Waking Up
Romans 13:8-14
September 7, 2014[1]
“The
hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our
salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11b
Today’s lesson tells us to “wake
up!” Why? Because “the hour has already come” and “our
salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” But the “why” question is not the most
important question. This why question
gets us caught up in conversations about “when” and “what if” and “what if we
don’t.” There may be a time and a place
for those discussions; but there is a risk that those conversations will divert
us from the most important question.
That question is the “what” question.
What does Paul mean when he tells us to wake up?
So many times, I have read these
words (as well as similar words from Jesus himself) and interpreted them as a
call to repentance and conversion—to “seek the Lord while He wills to be found,
call upon Him when He draws near, [to] let the wicked forsake their ways and
the evil ones their thoughts and let them turn to the Lord, and He will have
compassion, and to our God, for He will richly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7). As much as I
believe in the urgency of that message of repentance and turning around,
something occurred to me this week. In
today’s lesson, Paul is not writing these words to evangelize. Paul is writing to people who already have made
the decision to follow Jesus Christ.
From the very beginning of this letter, he makes it clear that he is
writing to “all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints” (Romans 1:7). As important as the message of conversion is,
I don’t believe that conversion is the message here.
Perhaps a little bit closer is
the message to “get your house in order.”
He tells us to wake up from our slumber. That means that we are asleep. If we are sleeping, we aren’t doing something
that we should be doing.
Paul tells us to wake up because
he wants us to do something. He begins verse 11 by saying, “and do this,
understanding the present time.” So he
wants us to be doing “this” (whatever “this” is) now. There is some immediacy. It’s as though he is stamping the message
“URGENT.”
But what is it that we should be
doing?
Recall that earlier in the
summer, we spoke about the dilemma that Paul found himself in. Having encountered the Lord Jesus Christ,
have turned his life to a new direction, he was distressed to find that he kept
slipping back to his old tendencies. “I
do not do the good that I want to do, and I do the thing that I hate.” After reaching the point of despair, he cried
out “who will save me from this body of death.”
He then answered his own question!
“Thanks be to God,” for he discovered that “there is no condemnation to
those who place their trust in Jesus Christ, our Lord. He then spends Chapter 12 and 13 inviting us
to let God through Jesus Christ transform our lives. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
That transformation sounds like
an internal, spiritual transformation.
Indeed, it is. But when we are
transformed on the inside, the change makes a difference in the way we
live. Chapters 12 and 13 are filled with
reminders about the changes God wants to make in our lives. To truly follow Him, you need to open
yourself up to the possibility that you might be changed. Christ gives you freedom; but in the divine
economy, freedom becomes a matter of giving up your self-will and ego-driven
nature so that you want what God wants!
So Paul teaches us ways that God
wants to change us. In doing so, he
steps on our toes (at least he steps on mine!).
Just look at some of the instructions he gives in Chapters 12 and 13:
·
Let love be genuine (Romans 12:9).
·
Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good (Romans 12:9).
·
Love one another with mutual affection, outdo
one another in showing honor (Romans
12:10).
·
Extend hospitality to strangers (Romans 12:13).
·
Bless those who persecute you (Romans 12:14).
·
Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16).
·
Do not claim to be wiser than you are (Romans 12:16).
·
Do not repay anyone evil for evil (Romans 12:17).
·
If it is possible, so far as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all (Romans 12:18).
·
If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they
are thirsty, give them something to drink. (Romans 12:20).
·
Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities. Paul calls the authority
“God’s servant for your good.” (Romans
13:4). He even tells us to pay our
taxes (Romans 13:6-7).
When I read this list, when I
see how far I have to go in order to measure up to these standards of Christian
living, it’s easy for me to go back to the despair we found in Chapter 7: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the
very thing I hate… Wretched man that I
am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death!” (Romans 7:15, 24).
It almost feels as though I
could spend years and years trying to learn all that Christ wants of me, and
then years more trying to live up to it.
But Christ doesn’t require special training in order to follow Him. He reaches out to everybody who wants to
receive Him. But there is a catch. You find that the way of Christ is a way of
freedom; but freedom in Christ only comes when you give yourself fully to the
law of love. “Owe no one anything except
to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).
How do I give myself the freedom
to follow Christ completely? We seek openness
of heart, willingness to extend ourselves to people. Looking for the deeper walk, beyond appearances. Getting below the surface in our
relationships. Emptying ourselves,
giving of ourselves, even to the point of joining Christ on the cross. His way is a way of Love, a way of sacrifice. Love your neighbor as yourself. The perfect self love is giving yourself away
to the people who need you. It gets down
to the business of “how do I get around to surrendering myself to Christ?”
The wake up call that Paul is
giving us today is a call to love. A
call to love with urgency! It is a hard
call. It is easy to love when the person
you love is lovable; but Christ loves me when I am not lovable. He loves me when nobody else does. And he calls on me to do the same. He raises this standard of loving to make it
the litmus test of discipleship: “by
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another” (John 13:35).
And yet, He knows that this type
of loving is not something we can do on our own. That is why He invites us to have our lives
transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit living and working in us.
And this brings me to the final
point of urgency. In this call to wake
up from our slumber, Paul is inviting us to enjoy, to savor every minute, every
second we have to live in love with Christ and each other. When I fell in love with Carol, so much in my
life changed. I wanted to spend all my
time with her. To talk with her. To listen to her. To hold her hand. Sometimes talking, sometimes in silence. But there was an urgency that would drive me
to drive hundreds of miles to be with her.
Jesus Christ invites you today
to wake up. He is playing “Reveille.” He calls you to love with urgency. And He invites you to bask in, soak in, revel
in the love that He extends to you.
Won’t you wake up today?
May it be so!
Copyright © 2014 by Thomas E.
Frost. All rights reserved.
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