Wake Up!

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

-Romans 13:11-12

Paul will turn his discussion of proper response to the argument that he has laid out in chapters 1-8 and supported in chapters 9-11. For the Roman audience, their government did not have the same service or forgiveness (chapter 12) toward people, so they would be in certain conflict with specific issues (especially in dealing with social justice). Paul makes it very clear that the church is to operate within the borders of that existing government, effecting change from within instead of from outside.

In a letter from Pliny (a Roman governor) to Trajan (a Roman Emperor) from around the 2nd century there is a plea for help with the pesky Christians. They will not worship the Roman gods and thereby contribute to the economy by buying sacrifices and souvenirs associated with temple worship. He goes on to say that they meet in the morning before light and worship together by singing a hymn and committing to one another to remain innocent from sin (a list much like the one found in verse 13:13). The governor was perplexed and needed help in ridding the empire of this nuisance. From within this oppressive government, Christianity became the favored religion within two-hundred years.

Christ has called his people to be the change within the government. Not by so much passing laws, as by being the example of what the ethic of those laws are intended to accomplish. People and governments do not change because of the laws that are passed, they change because they see an example of what they want to become and they work to become that. This should bring new meaning of what a Christian government should look like. A group of people that are what they want their government to be. But even if they are not, even if it is as bad as it could possibly be, hold fast!

We are nearer now than we were.

We need to wake up and walk in the darkness with a light of social justice.

We are not called to politics but to action (We should know by now that those are not the same).