December 28: No provision for the flesh

…we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers. The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.  (Romans 13:11-14 — New English Translation)

We would normally assume that Christians are awake and ready for anything, attacks of the devil, the end of the world, anything. But here Paul urges us to wake up from our sleep because the end is nearer than it has ever been. This book was written in approximately 60AD, and if it was urgent for people to wake up then, imagine today… 2000 years later.

Surprisingly, Paul urges Christians to get rid of carousing, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, discord, and jealousy. These are things that we normally do not expect from people who’ve given their lives to Jesus, but clearly this word was necessary in the time of Paul, and it is definitely necessary today. When we are strong, and filled with the Holy Spirit we will not do these things, though we will always be tempted. But if we are weak, if we are asleep, these things and other sins will creep into our lives even when we’ve “given our lives to Jesus”. We always have to be on our guard — we always have to be challenging ourselves to do more for God — we can never relax and stay in our comfort zones. Like demons never rest, we should never rest.

When we see a person, one of the first things we notice is their clothing — we can tell certain things about someone simply by what they choose to wear, and we’re even tempted to judge them by the way they’re dressed. This passage tells us to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus, so that people will notice His character and behavior in us, and so that we will remain strong in the faith. An important piece of advice for doing this, Paul tells us, is to make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires — in other words — complete abstinence from the flesh is our best weapon against it. Don’t taste it. Don’t participate in it. As soon as we do we arouse its desires and then we are in real trouble.

Let’s all make sure we are not asleep because our salvation is nearer than it has ever been. As Paul says in another place, “continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence.” (Philippians 2:12 — NET)