By Lloyd L. Streeter
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Romans 13:11
We are dealing, in the last paragraph of Romans 13, with an intensely practical portion of Scripture. Nothing is more practical than the right emphasis on time.
According to our text, it is “high time.” High time is the right time, the acceptable time, and the best time to take advantage of gospel opportunities. Time is slipping away from us.
“When as a child, I laughed and wept—time crept!
When as a youth I dreamed and talked—time walked!
When I became a full-grown man—time ran!
Then as the years I older grew—time flew!
Soon I shall find as I travel on—time gone!”
We do have a responsibility to God to use our time aright. All of us have the same amount of time each day to use for His glory. None of us needs more time than we have. God gives each of us enough time to do all that we should do.
Rev. R. E. Neighbour wrote:
Time is God’s gift to mortal man;
It is that fleeting little span,
Between our birth and Heaven’s door,
Where we begin God’s evermore,
When time is o’er.
How then should we our time employ,
In service, or in passing joy?
Can we afford to throw away,
And squander time in passing play,
O men of clay?
The misuse of time must surely be one of our chief sins against God. He has required that we be “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). And He tells us to “walk in wisdom . . . redeeming the time” (Colossians 4:5).
An anonymous poet penned these words:
I have only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it,
Forced upon me, can’t refuse it,
Didn’t seek it, didn’t chose it,
But it’s up to me to use it,
I must suffer if I lose it,
Give account if I abuse it,
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it!
Time, like money, may be spent or wasted. But, unlike money, time may not be saved for future use. It must be spent and spent wisely, or it is wasted.
The old adage is true: “Yesterday is a cancelled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have—spend it wisely.”
The Bible says, “it is high time to awake out of sleep” (Romans 13:11). This is not time for the Christian to be slothful in business. We must be “fervent in spirit; serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
It is high time, according to the Bible, to do five things.
IT IS HIGH TIME TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER
“For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:6-10
Only by taking verse eight out of its context can anyone make it say that a Christian should never go into debt. The context teaches that everything should be paid when it is due. The word “due” is in italics the one place where it is found in this passage (vs. 7), but the King James translators were correct in including the word since that is exactly what the passage means. “Pay everything that is due.”
The Roman government forced people to pay plenty of taxes. Two types of these taxes are mentioned here: tribute and custom. Exactly what type of taxes these were, we are not told.
Some students of history believe that excessive taxation was one of the reasons the Roman Empire collapsed and rotted. In the United States, we should learn a lesson from history about excessive taxing—but we are slow to learn. About one dollar out of three earned by the average American is now paid out in taxes. Nevertheless, Christians should pay their taxes when due. Not only taxes, but we should pay respect and honor when they are due.
By all means, pay your honest debts when they come due. “The wicked borroweth and payeth not again” (Psalm 37:21). But the main emphasis of verse eight is not about financial debts at all—it is about the debt of love.
“Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” This means that when you have paid all of the other debts which you owe, you will still owe love to your fellow Christians. Love is a debt which can never be fully paid.
When you were reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ, you were also reconciled to the other members of the body of Christ. The commands of Scripture are clear. “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love” (Romans 12:10). “By love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1). “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” (I Peter 1:22).
The Bible teaches that master and slave, rich and poor, strangers and friends are to be received and loved alike in Christ. This was largely the experience of the first century church.
It is high time to love one another in the body of Christ! If you have been unloving as a Christian—filled with bitterness and resentment—it is high time to put all that behind you.
This is important! This is the very essence of what it means to be a Christian. Paying on our debt of love to our Christian brethren is: (1) the summary of all our duty; (2) the fulfilling of the law.
The commandments of the second table of the Decalog deal with man’s relationship to his fellow man. That is why these five are mentioned in verse nine. Adultery, murder, stealing, lying and covetousness all do harm to your neighbor and to your brother.
A Christian does not obey the law simply because it is the law. No, he loves his fellow man, and he loves his Christian brother. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10).
IT IS HIGH TIME TO GET READY FOR JESUS TO COME
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” Romans 13:11-12
When the Bible says, “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed,” it is referring to the Coming of Jesus Christ, the Rapture of the church, our salvation from the tribulation period, and from the world. Likewise, the words “the day is at hand” refer to the imminent coming of Christ to rapture the church.
There is a future tense of salvation for the believer. The word “salvation” is not exclusively used in the New Testament for the new birth experience. It is also used for the believer’s salvation out of this world at the Coming of Christ.
Let us look at some examples of this future-tense salvation.
Note the salvation of Hebrews 9:28, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
Christ came the first time to deal with our sin—to take away sin by dying on Calvary’s cross. But when He comes the second time, it will not be to deal with sin, but to save the believer out of the world and from the tribulation period.
Consider the salvation of I Thessalonians 5:9, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” The context of this verse is the Day of the Lord (the tribulation period) and the Coming of Jesus Christ. The word wrath is a key New Testament word for the tribulation. Paul says we are not appointed to go into the tribulation, but we are appointed to be saved from it by our Lord Jesus at His Coming. He has “delivered us from the wrath to come” (I Thessalonians 1:10).
Still another New Testament passage dealing with future-tense salvation for the believer is I Peter 1:5, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
There are other verses (Revelation 7:10; 12:10), but these are sufficient to show that salvation for the Christian is not only of the soul at the time of the new birth, but also in its relation to the Coming of the Lord. This is the meaning of Romans 13:11.
“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” It is high time to expect Jesus to come. “The day is at hand.”
The Bible teaches the imminency of the Lord’s Coming. When we speak of the imminency of His coming, we do not necessarily mean that He is coming soon. Imminency does not mean soon. By imminency we mean that He could come at any moment. We should never set a date, but we should be expecting Him to come on any day.
It is becoming more popular for premillennialists to deny the imminency of Christ’s Return and propose a post-tribulational rapture of the church instead. These post-tribulationists say that some events are predicted in the New Testament which would have made imminency impossible during the first century. If imminency were impossible in the first century, they argue, then it is not scriptural at all.
A complete discussion of all of the objections is outside the purpose and scope of this message. We will simply assert that several “watching passages” and several “hoping passages” prove that the Coming of Christ is imminent.
The watching passages are Romans 13:11-12, I Thessalonians 5:6-8, and Luke 12:35-40. The hoping passages are Titus 3:13 and James 5:7-8.
The certainty of His coming gives us assurance, hope and joy. The uncertainty of the time of His coming gives us motivation to service and purity.
“Let us not sleep . . . but let us watch and be sober” (I Thessalonians 5:6). “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40). “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8).
Yes, the Scriptures teach that Jesus could come at any moment, and that we should be ready every day!
The first century church did believe in the imminent return of Christ, as history clearly attests. An ancient document known as The Didache, dated 120 A.D., shows that the apostles urged Christians to watch for the Lord to come. This document, written about 20 years after the death of the last apostle, even gave an order of endtime events on earth. The Rapture was the first event on the list. Another name for The Didache is The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. It is one of the earliest sources of information we have about the apostles. It corroborates the Bible.
Friend, it is high time to get ready for Jesus to come. Are you living for Him? Are you serving Him?
IT IS HIGH TIME TO FIGHT THE FIGHT OF FAITH
“Let us put on the armour of light.” Romans 13:12
Armor is for fighting. Pajamas are for sleeping. The most complete treatment of the Christian’s armor in the New Testament is found in Ephesians 6:10-18. The purpose of our armor is stated: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil . . . . we wrestle . . . against the rulers of the darkness . . . against spiritual wickedness. . . .”
Several times, in Ephesians 6, we are instructed to stand. That means stand and fight. Stand against the devil (vs. 11). Stand and do battle (vs. 12). Stand in the evil day (vs. 13). Stand on the truth (vs. 14).
It is high time to fight. We may not have much time left in the battle for truth. We must “earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 3:3).
Paul came down to the end of his life. Time was run out. He said, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith” (II Timothy 4:7). Will you be able to say that?
IT IS HIGH TIME TO LIVE A HOLY LIFE
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.” Romans 13:13
Here is a list of some of the works of darkness—things that come out of spiritual night which we must cast off (vs. 12). The list contains three couplings. First is rioting and drunkenness. The believer is commanded to abstain from all outward excesses. We can hear Paul saying, “Do not indulge your sensual appetite.”
The Bible says, “And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). The things people are looking and longing for are not found in a bottle, but in Jesus Christ.
“Not in chambering and wantonness” (Romans 13:13) refers to private shameful practices. Sexual licentiousness is particularly censured with these words.
“Not in strife and envying” (Romans 13:13) prohibits quarreling and jealousy in the church. If you want to debate, be a politician—don’t bring it to church! If you want to fight, join the Marines—don’t join a church.
The summary is verse 14: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14). We have enough trouble with the flesh without making provision to gratify it. We have enough trouble with sin without planning to sin. We must plan, instead, to live a holy life.
Paul emphasizes the holy life in Titus 2, when he says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world . . . Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-12, 14).
There is no time to waste! It is high time to live a holy life.
IT IS HIGH TIME TO GET SAVED
The Bible admonishes in II Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Friend, if you are not saved, may I remind you that you do not know what a day may bring forth. Today is all you have. You do not have tomorrow, and you may never have tomorrow.
I urge you, I plead with you to receive Christ into your life by faith right now. “As many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.”
It is the right time, the gospel time, the acceptable time. It is high time!
“To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts . . .” Hebrews 3:7, 8
[This sermon was preached by Dr. Streeter in 1985 and was published in The Biblical Evangelist on January 1, 1986.)