Advent Season · First Sunday of Advent · Year A
Romans 13:11-14
Love, for the Day is Near
November 30, 2025
Overview & Insights
“The night is far gone, the day is near.” (Romans 13:12)
Romans 13:8–14 resumes Paul’s discussion about Christian love in 12:9–21. At the same time, 13:8–14 anticipates Paul’s challenge to the Roman Christians to love one another in 14:1–15:13. Romans 13:8–14 divides into two sections: the ethic of love (vv. 8–10) and the dawning of the eschaton (vv. 11–14). The two paragraphs are closely related: love is the power of the age to come, the stipulation of the new covenant; only it, not the law, can overcome the flesh of this present evil age. I outline these two sections in this way: 1. The ethic of love (13:8–10) a. The fulfillment of the law and the presence of the new covenant (13:8, 10) b. Love is the fulfillment of the law in the way it treats one’s neighbor (13:8–10) 2. The dawning of the age to come (13:11–14) a. The indicative of the age to come (13:11–12a) b.
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Commentary
Commentary on Romans 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 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 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 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 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) 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) 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
Questions preachers ask
What does Paul mean by putting on the armour of light?
He is describing the change of clothes that daybreak calls for. The works of darkness belong to the night that is ending; the Christian dresses instead in Christ himself, living now in the manner of the day that is almost here.
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