Advent Season · First Sunday of Advent · Year A
Romans 13:11-14
The Night Is Far Gone
November 30, 2025
Overview & Insights
“The night is far gone; the day is at hand.” (Romans 13:12)
These verses close the section of appeals that began at 12:1 and turn it toward time. Paul works with the apocalyptic pairing of night and day: salvation is nearer than when they first believed (v. 11), the night is well advanced, and the conduct proper to darkness, carousing, quarreling, jealousy, is to be laid aside like clothing (v. 13). The metaphor then shifts from stripping to arming, the armor of light (v. 12), a figure he develops at 1 Thessalonians 5:8 and that a later hand expands at Ephesians 6:11-17. The final imperative, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 14), is the sentence Augustine reports reading in a Milan garden at the moment of his conversion (Confessions 8.12). Heard on the first Sunday of the church year, the passage gives Advent its characteristic tense, a waking in the last hour of the night.
From Sermons.com: Join Today to access the most scholarly & well written preaching resources anywhere.
Take it further: Romans 13:11-14
Commentary
Commentary on Romans 13:11-14Commentary on Rom 13:11-14 Working Preacher
Reads the passage as an invitation to live now into the identity Christians will fully have at Christ's return, not a fear-driven end-times warning.
Romans 13:11-14 CommentaryRom 13:11-14 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching
Reformed preaching commentary on Paul's night-is-far-spent, day-is-at-hand exhortation as the Epistle for the start of the church year.
Romans 13 CommentaryRom 13 Commentary Enduring Word (David Guzik)
Verse-by-verse treatment of 'putting on the armor of light' and 'putting on Christ' in vv. 11-14 within the chapter's ethical instruction.
Romans 13 ResourcesRom 13 Resources Precept Austin
Index of conservative scholarly commentary (Cranfield, Moo, Murray) on the chapter, including the wake-up call and clothing-with-Christ imagery in vv. 11-14.
Romans 13:11 CommentaryRom 13:11 Commentary BibleHub (classic commentaries)
Aggregates 19th/early-20th-century classic commentaries (Ellicott, Pulpit, Cambridge Bible) verse-by-verse starting at 'it is high time to awake out of sleep.'
Background & Word Study
Living Under the Power of God (Romans 13)Living Under the Power of God (Rom 13) Theology of Work
Explains the chapter's night/day and light/darkness contrast in its historical context of Christians navigating civic and everyday life under Roman rule.
Book of Romans Summary (Romans 5-16)Book of Rom Summary (Rom 5-16) BibleProject
Animated overview of the letter's second half, tracing how Paul's ethical instructions in chs. 12-13 flow from the theology of chs. 5-11.
Sermons & Reflections
Prep at sermons.com
Ready to write?
- Full sermons on Matthew 24:37-44
- Illustrations cleared for use in worship
- Commentary, quotes, and Bible dictionary
Trusted by pastors since 1995.
Free every Tuesday
Illustrations & Sermon Prep in your inbox
The coming Sunday’s readings, a cleared-for-use illustration, and a sermon-prep head start. One email, free.