English · KJV

Romans 13:13

“Wake Up: The Day Is Near”Romans 13:11–14

King James Version
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Let us walk G4043 honestly G2156, as G5613 in G1722 the day G2250; not G3361 in rioting G2970 and G2532 drunkenness G3178, not G3361 in chambering G2845 and G2532 wantonness G766, not G3361 in strife G2054 and G2532 envying G2205.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
So that wee walke honestly, as in the day: not in gluttonie, and drunkennesse, neither in chambering and wantonnes, nor in strife and enuying.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
as in day-time, let us walk becomingly; not in revellings and drunkennesses, not in chamberings and lasciviousnesses, not in strife and emulation;

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
17 Greek words
  1. ὡςhōsAsG5613PRTParticle or Disjunctive
  2. ἐνeninG1722PREPPreposition
  3. ἡμέρᾳhēmeradaytimeG2250N-DSFNoun Dative Singular Feminine
  4. εὐσχημόνωςeuschēmonōsproperlyG2156ADVAdverb
  5. περιπατήσωμενperipatēsōmenwe may walkG4043V-AAS-1PVerb Aorist Active Subjunctive 1st Plural
  6. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  7. κώμοιςkōmoisin revelingG2970N-DPMNoun Dative Plural Masculine
  8. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  9. μέθαιςmethaisin drinkingG3178N-DPFNoun Dative Plural Feminine
  10. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  11. κοίταιςkoitaisin sexual immoralityG2845N-DPFNoun Dative Plural Feminine
  12. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  13. ἀσελγείαιςaselgeiaisin sensualityG766N-DPFNoun Dative Plural Feminine
  14. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  15. ἔριδιeridiin dissensionG2054N-DSFNoun Dative Singular Feminine
  16. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  17. ζήλῳ·zēlōin jealousyG2205N-DSMNoun Dative Singular Masculine
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

Believers live decently, as people do in daylight, and leave behind drunken revelry, sexual sin, quarrelling and envy, the works of the night.

“Let us walk honestly,”

Live decently and becomingly (euschēmónōs), as befits people who bear Christ’s name.

“as in the day;”

As people seen in daylight, and as those who belong to the coming day.

“not in rioting and drunkenness,”

Drunken revelry and intoxication, which take away self-control.

“not in chambering and wantonness,”

Sexual sin and shameless indecency. “Chambering” comes from the word for a bed.

“not in strife and envying.”

Quarrels and jealous rivalry, the sins that divide a church, named alongside the sins of the night.

Passage studyRomans 13:11–14

Wake Up: The Day Is Near

11And 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. 12The 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. 13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Summary

Paul ends his teaching on love with a call to wake up. Believers know what hour it is. The night of this present age is nearly over, the day of Christ’s return is close, and the full salvation we were promised when we first believed is nearer now than it was then. So we take off the deeds that belong to the dark and put on the armour of light. We live decently, as people do in daylight. And above all we put on the Lord Jesus Christ himself and refuse to make plans for the desires of the flesh.

Why Paul speaks about the time

Chapters 12 to 15 of Romans turn from Paul’s teaching about the gospel to the way believers live. In this chapter he has already spoken about submission to governing authorities (Romans 13:1–7) and about love as the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8–10). Now he adds one more reason for living that way, and it looks to the hour God’s people are living in. The opening words, “And that”, translate toûto, “this”, which reaches back over everything he has just said: do all of it, knowing the time. Verses 12 to 14 then show what waking up looks like in practice.

The believers in Rome were Jews and Gentiles together in one church, living in the capital of the empire. Revelry, drunkenness and sexual looseness were common in the city around them, and for converts from that world, especially Gentiles, leaving old habits behind was hard. The church had tensions of its own as well, between believers of different backgrounds. Paul’s words speak to both, the pull of the city outside and the quarrels within.

It is high time to awake out of sleep

In “knowing the time”, the verb eídō properly means to see, and in the form Paul uses here it means to know. Believers are people who can see what hour it is. The word for time, kairós, means an occasion, a set or proper time. It speaks of what kind of moment this is, and Paul is calling the present a season with its own weight. He is asking us to recognise the hour we live in, and he sets no dates. He gives the same counsel to the Ephesians when he tells them to walk wisely and make good use of the time (Ephesians 5:15–16).

Paul states what believers know with hóti, “that”: it is high time. The Greek has ḗdē, “already” or “by this time”, with hṓra, “hour”. In the New Testament an hour was a twelfth part of the day or of the night, and the word can also mean a season. The point is that the hour for waking has already come. “To awake out of sleep” puts together egeírō, to rouse, wake or raise up, the preposition ek, “out of”, and hýpnos, sleep. The form of the verb here means to wake up or be raised, and it is the same verb used of Christ when God raised him from the dead.

Sleep is a picture of spiritual dullness: a believer who has drifted into indifference, only half aware of God’s purposes and careless about how he lives. Waking means becoming alert again, watchful and active in doing what is right. The call goes to people Christ has already brought to life. God, rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ when we were dead in sins (Ephesians 2:4–5), and now he calls those he has raised to live awake.

Which salvation is nearer?

The salvation Paul means here is the finished one, the full deliverance that comes when Christ returns. His readers already had salvation in the sense of being justified by faith, which Paul set out earlier in the letter (Romans 3:21–26). The word sōtēría can speak of that first rescue from sin, or of the growth in holiness that follows, and here it looks ahead to the end of the road: the resurrection of the body, glorification, final deliverance from the presence and power of sin, and the full experience of God’s presence. This is the day when the dead are raised and the living are changed (1 Corinthians 15:51–52), when the Lord himself descends from heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17), when he changes our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20–21), and when Christ appears a second time to bring salvation to those who look for him (Hebrews 9:28). John adds that when he appears we shall be like him, and that everyone who has this hope purifies himself (1 John 3:2–3).

Paul calls it hēmōn, “our” salvation, the hope he shares with his readers. “For” (gár) gives the reason for waking, “now” (nŷn) is the present moment, and “nearer” (engýteron) measures this moment against the time “when” (hóte) “we believed” (pisteúō, to believe and to trust), the day each of them first came to faith. Every day that passes brings that salvation closer. So believers have already been saved and are still waiting for salvation to be complete, and the certainty of what is coming is the very thing that rouses us to live well now.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand

Verse 12 turns the hour into a picture. The night is this present age, marked by sin, ignorance of God and the dominion of darkness. The day is the coming age, when Christ is fully revealed, returns in glory and establishes his kingdom in truth and righteousness. “Is far spent” translates prokóptō, which Strong’s explains as to drive forward, as if by beating, and so to advance or to be well along. The night has already gone a long way and is near its end, the way the last dark hours give way to dawn. “At hand” is engízō, to come near. Jewish thought already used night and day for the present evil age and the age of the Messiah, so the picture spoke to Jewish and Gentile believers alike.

In one sense the day has already dawned. Christ’s first coming began the last days, in which God has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–2), and it opened the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Christ himself is the Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2) and the light of the world, who said, “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Yet the full day still waits for his return, when the glory of God and the Lamb will be the light of the holy city (Revelation 21:23–25). Believers live in the first light of that morning. Paul uses the same picture with the Thessalonians, telling them they are children of the day who should watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:4–8).

Taking off darkness and putting on light

Because the night is ending, Paul says, “let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” He says “let us”, counting himself in with his readers, and both commands call for something done on purpose. The verb apotíthēmi means to put away, lay aside or strip off, the way someone takes off soiled clothes. The works of darkness are the deeds that belong to the night, sins done where people hope to be hidden from God’s light. Verse 13 names several of them.

Then comes the clean clothing. To “put on” is endýō, to put on clothes or be clothed, and what we put on is the armour of light. The word for armour, hóplon, means an implement or tool, especially one used in war, so it takes in weapons as well as protection. A life lived in the light guards the believer and also fights against the darkness. Paul describes this armour piece by piece in Ephesians, where the whole armour of God is truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the word of God (Ephesians 6:11–17, especially 6:14–17). It is armour of light because everything in it is pure, open to view and reflects God’s holy character.

Paul uses this language of taking off and putting on elsewhere too. He tells the Colossians to put off the old man and put on the new (Colossians 3:8–10), and he tells the Ephesians that they are now light in the Lord and must walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8–14). All of this is possible because Christ’s death has freed us from sin’s rule, for our old man was crucified with him (Romans 6:6–7).

Walking honestly, as in the day

Verse 13 opens with what to do: “Let us walk honestly, as in the day”. In Scripture to walk, peripatéō, describes a person’s manner of life, the way he habitually conducts himself. “Honestly” translates euschēmónōs, an adverb from an adjective meaning well-formed or graceful. It means decently, properly, in a becoming way. A believer’s conduct should be honourable and fitting for those who bear the name of Christ, so that how we live on the outside matches what God has done within.

“As in the day” carries two meanings at once. People in daylight behave as those who can be seen, and the believer lives openly and above reproach, with the same integrity in private as in public. The phrase also points to the day of verse 12, so we live now as people ready for Christ’s appearing. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13), and we are children of light (Ephesians 5:8), called to walk as such (Ephesians 5:8–11).

Why does Paul name these six sins?

Paul names these sins because they were the common vices of the world his readers had come out of, and each is a plain example of the works of darkness from verse 12. He sets them out in three pairs, and each pair groups related sins together.

  • Rioting and drunkenness. kōmos means carousing, drunken feasts and wild parties, often tied to pagan festivals, and méthē is drunkenness. Both take away self-control and cloud the sober mind that believers waiting for Christ need.
  • Chambering and wantonness. koítē means a bed, and here it stands for illicit sexual relations. asélgeia is licentiousness, a shameless disregard for decency that may even be carried on in public. These sins defile the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
  • Strife and envying. éris is quarrelling, contention and wrangling. zēlos can mean zeal in a good sense, and here it means jealousy and bitter rivalry, resentment of what someone else has or is. Envy feeds strife.

The last pair matters most for the life of a church. Strife and envy belong to the night as much as drunkenness does, and they tear at the love that Paul has just called the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8). A church in Rome made up of believers from different backgrounds needed to hear it. Paul gives a similar list of the works of the flesh in Galatians (Galatians 5:19–21), and Peter speaks of the same excesses as belonging to the time past, when believers lived as the Gentiles did (1 Peter 4:3–4).

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ

Verse 14 begins with allá, “But”. The word properly means “other things”, and as an adverb “on the contrary”, and it turns from the sins to be avoided to the one thing to be done. In verse 12 Paul told us to put on the armour of light. Now the clothing is a person: “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The armour of light is finally Christ himself, who is all righteousness and truth. The verb is again endýō, to put on clothes, which Strong’s explains as sinking into a garment. To put on Christ is to be clothed with his character, his attitudes and his way of life, so that his life becomes both the pattern and the power for ours. In Paul’s day new garments could mark a change of status or role, which made the picture an easy one to grasp.

If we have already put on Christ, why are we told to?

We put on Christ once when we were joined to him by faith, and we put him on every day as we live out what is already ours. Paul says the first plainly: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Believers are clothed in his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) and are new creations in him. And each day we choose to live out that new identity, putting off the old man and putting on the new (Ephesians 4:22–24, Colossians 3:9–10). This is the Spirit’s work in us, enabling us to walk “not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Putting on Christ is our response to what he has already secured, carried out in his strength.

What does Paul mean by the flesh?

Here “the flesh”, sárx, means human nature in its fallen state, the old self with its sinful desires and tendencies, hostile to God. The word literally means the body, and in this verse Paul uses it for the sinful nature that stands against the Spirit of God. He sets the two side by side in Galatians: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16–17). Through his death Christ broke the flesh’s rule over believers, for “our old man is crucified with him” (Romans 6:6), yet its pull remains, and that is why Paul gives this command.

Why Paul warns against provision for the flesh

The word for “provision”, prónoia, means forethought, provident care or supply. To make provision for the flesh is to think ahead on its behalf: to plan, prepare and arrange things so that sinful desire will be fed. “To fulfil the lusts thereof” gives the purpose of such planning. The word for lusts, epithymía, means desire or longing, especially for what is forbidden. The verb it comes from means to long for something, rightly or otherwise, so these desires are sinful because of what they reach for, here the cravings of the fallen nature. Paul’s command breaks the cycle at its start by cutting off the supply.

This calls for self-control and spiritual discipline. It touches what we take in, from entertainment to media, how we use our time and the company we keep. Putting on Christ is the other side of the same work, through prayer, the Bible, worship and fellowship with other believers. Each helps the other: denying the flesh makes room for Christ, and growing in Christ weakens the flesh. Self-control is itself a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). And Christ walked this road before us, “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Dressed for the morning

These four verses picture a household at first light. The night has been long, and it is nearly over, so those who belong to the day get up, take off the clothes of the night and dress for what is coming. Our salvation is nearer today than it was on the day we first believed, and nearer than it was yesterday. That is a reason for joy, and it gives every ordinary day its weight.

Waking up is a daily matter. We lay aside whatever belongs to the dark, whether it is the excess of a wild night or the quieter sins of quarrelling and envy among believers. We live openly, the way people do when the sun is up. And each morning we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, whose righteousness already covers us and whose Spirit gives us strength. It is wise to think ahead, as Paul does, and to arrange our lives so that our desires are fed by what is good. The One we are waiting for is himself the light of that day, and his day is at hand.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Romans 13:11–14. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 4 verses
Passage under commentRomans 13:11–14
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details

We are here taught a lesson of sobriety and godliness in ourselves. Our main care must be to look to ourselves. Four things we are here taught, as a Christian's directory for his day's work: when to awake, how to dress ourselves, how to walk, and what provision to make.

I.When to awake:

Now it is high time to awake (Romans 13:11), to awake out of the sleep of sin (for a sinful condition is a sleeping condition), out of the sleep of carnal security, sloth and negligence, out of the sleep of spiritual death, and out of the sleep of spiritual deadness; both the wise and foolish virgins slumbered and slept, Matthew 25:5. We have need to be often excited and stirred up to awake. The word of command to all Christ's disciples is, Watch. "Awake - be concerned about your souls and your eternal interest; take heed of sin, be ready to, and serious in, that which is good, and live in a constant expectation of the coming of our Lord. Considering," 1. "The time we are cast into: Knowing the time. Consider what time of day it is with us, and you will see it is high time to awake. It is gospel time, it is the accepted time, it is working time; it is a time when more is expected than was in the times of that ignorance which God winked at, when people sat in darkness. It is high time to awake; for the sun has been up a great while, and shines in our faces. Have we this light to sleep in? See 1 Thessalonians 5:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:6. It is high time to awake; for others are awake and up about us. Know the time to be a busy time; we have a great deal of work to do, and our Master is calling us to it again and again. Know the time to be a perilous time. We are in the midst of enemies and snares. It is high time to awake, for the Philistines are upon us; our neighbour's house is on fire, and our own in danger. It is time to awake, for we have slept enough (1 Peter 4:3), high time indeed, for behold the bridegroom cometh." 2. "The salvation we are upon the brink of: Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed - than when we first believed, and so took upon us the profession of Christianity. The eternal happiness we chose for our portion is now nearer to us than it was when we became Christians. Let us mind our way and mend our pace, for we are now nearer our journey's end than we were when we had our first love. The nearer we are to our centre the quicker should our motion be. Is there but a step between us and heaven, and shall we be so very slow and dull in our Christian course, and move so heavily? The more the days are shortened, and the more grace is increased, the nearer is our salvation, and the more quick and vigorous we should be in our spiritual motions."

II.How to dress ourselves.

This is the next care, when we are awake and up: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand; therefore it is time to dress ourselves. Clearer discoveries will be quickly made of gospel grace than have been yet made, as light gets ground. The night of Jewish rage and cruelty is just at an end; their persecuting power is near a period; the day of our deliverance from them is at hand, that day of redemption which Christ promised, Luke 21:28. And the day of our complete salvation, in the heavenly glory, is at hand. Observe then,"

1."What we must put off; put off our night-clothes, which it is a shame to appear abroad in: Cast off the works of darkness." Sinful works are works of darkness; they come from the darkness of ignorance and mistake, they covet the darkness of privacy and concealment, and they end in the darkness of hell and destruction. "Let us therefore, who are of the day, cast them off; not only cease from the practice of them, but detest and abhor them, and have no more to do with them. Because eternity is just at the door, let us take heed lest we be found doing that which will then make against us," 2 Peter 3:11, 2 Peter 3:14.

2."What we must put on." Our care must be wherewithal we shall be clothed, how shall we dress our souls?

(1.)Put on the armour of light. Christians are soldiers in the midst of enemies, and their life a warfare, therefore their array must be armour, that they may stand upon their defence - the armour of God, to which we are directed, Ephesians 6:13, etc. A Christian may reckon himself undressed if he be unarmed. The graces of the Spirit are this armour, to secure the soul from Satan's temptations and the assaults of this present evil world. This is called the armour of light, some think alluding to the bright glittering armour which the Roman soldiers used to wear; or such armour as it becomes us to wear in the day-light. The graces of the Spirit are suitable splendid ornaments, are in the sight of God of great price.

(2.)Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 13:14. This stands in opposition to a great many base lusts, mentioned Romans 13:13. Rioting and drunkenness must be cast off: one would think it should follows, but, "Put on sobriety, temperance, chastity," the opposite virtues: no, "Put on Christ, this includes all. Put on the righteousness of Christ for justification; be found in him (Philippians 3:9) as a man is found in his clothes; put on the priestly garments of the elder brother, that in them you may obtain the blessing. Put on the spirit and grace of Christ for sanctification; put on the new man (Ephesians 4:24); get the habit of grace confirmed, the acts of it quickened." Jesus Christ is the best clothing for Christians to adorn themselves with, to arm themselves with; it is decent, distinguishing, dignifying, and defending. Without Christ, we are naked, deformed; all other things are filthy rages, fig-leaves, a sorry shelter. God has provided us coats of skins - large, strong, warm, and durable. By baptism we have in profession put on Christ, Galatians 3:27. Let us do it in truth and sincerity. The Lord Jesus Christ. "Put him on as Lord to rule you, as Jesus to save you, and in both as Christ, anointed and appointed by the Father to this ruling saving work."

III.How to walk.

When we are up and dressed, we are not to sit still in an affected closeness and privacy, as monks and hermits. What have we good clothes for, but to appear abroad in them? - Let us walk. Christianity teaches us how to walk so as to please God, whose eye is upon us: 1 Thessalonians 4:1, Walk honestly as in the day. Compare Ephesians 5:8, Walk as children of light. Our conversation must be as becomes the gospel. Walk honestly; euschēmonōs - decently and becomingly, so as to credit your profession, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and recommend religion in its beauty to others. Christians should be in a special manner careful to conduct themselves well in those things wherein men have an eye upon them, and to study that which is lovely and of good report. Particularly, here are three pairs of sins we are cautioned against: - 1. We must not walk in rioting and drunkenness; we must abstain from all excess in eating and drinking. We must not give the least countenance to revelling, nor indulge our sensual appetite in any private excesses. Christians must not overcharge their hearts with surfeiting and drunkenness, Luke 21:34. This is not walking as in the day; for those that are drunk are drunk in the night, 1 Thessalonians 5:7. 2. Not in chambering and wantonness; not in any of those lusts of the flesh, those works of darkness, which are forbidden in the seventh commandment. Downright adultery and fornication are the chambering forbidden. Lascivious thoughts and affections, lascivious looks, words, books, sons, gestures, dances, dalliances, which lead to, and are degrees of, that uncleanness, are the wantonness here forbidden - whatsoever transgresseth the pure and sacred law of chastity and modesty. 3. Not in strife and envying. These are also works of darkness; for, though the acts and instances of strife and envy are very common, yet none are willing to own the principles, or to acknowledge themselves envious and contentious. it may be the lot of the best saints to be envied and striven with; but to strive and to envy ill becomes the disciples and followers of the peaceable and humble Jesus. Where there are riot and drunkenness, there usually are chambering and wantonness, and strife and envy. Solomon puts them all together, Proverbs 23:29, etc. Those that tarry long at the wine (Proverbs 23:30) have contentions and wounds without cause (Proverbs 23:29) and their eyes behold strange women, Proverbs 23:33.

IV.What provision to make (Proverbs 23:14):

"Make not provision for the flesh. Be not careful about the body." Our great care must be to provide for our souls; but must we take no care about our bodies? Must we not provide for them, when they need it? Yes, but two things are here forbidden: - 1. Perplexing ourselves with an inordinate care, intimated in these words, pronoian mē poieisthe. "Be not solicitous in forecasting for the body; do not stretch your wits, nor set your thoughts upon the tenter-hooks, in making this provision; be not careful and cumbered about it; do not take thought," Matthew 6:31. It forbids an anxious encumbering care. 2. Indulging ourselves in an irregular desire. We are not forbidden barely to provide for the body (it is a lamp that must be supplied with oil), but we are forbidden to fulfil the lusts thereof. The necessities of the body must be considered, but the lusts of it must not be gratified. Natural desires must be answered, but wanton appetites must be checked and denied. To ask meat for our necessities is duty: we are taught to pray for daily bread; but to ask meat for our lusts is provoking, Psalm 78:18. Those who profess to walk in the spirit must not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, Galatians 5:16.

Historical interpretation

Two Centuries of Reception

8 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

8 quotes · AD 215–420
Ante-NicenePost-Nicene
200300400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 215Clement of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceThe Stromata Book 4
We shall, however, treat of prayer in due course by and by. But we ought to have works that cry aloud, as becoming "those who walk in the day."
d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn Fasting
Which alliance the apostle withal was aware of; and hence, after premising, "Not in drunkenness and revels," he adjoined, "nor in couches and lusts."
d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn Fasting
Whether, moreover, the apostle had any acquaintance with xerophagies-(the apostle) who had repeatedly practised greater rigours, "hunger, and thirst, and fists many," who had forbidden "drunkennesses and revellings" -we have a sufficient evidence even from the case of his disciple Timotheus; whom when he admonishes, "for the sake of his stomach and constant weaknesses," to use "a little wine," from which he was abstaining not from rule, but from devotion-else the custom would rather have been beneficial to his stomach-by this very fact he has advised abstinence from wine as "worthy of God," which, on a ground of necessity, he has dissuaded.
d. AD 253Origen of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
These are the works of darkness, which are also called the “works of the flesh,” in which people bind their flesh to luxury and uncleanness rather than to holiness or the Lord. “Reveling” refers to dishonorable and extravagant banqueting, which inevitably is prone to sexual immorality.… “Quarreling and jealousy” are really acts of the mind, but like everything else here, they are called acts of the flesh.
d. AD 384AmbrosiasterPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES
It is true that people do not sin in public, so let us behave as if we were constantly in the public eye. For there is nothing more public than the truth.…Crimes are hatched in large supplies of wine, and many kinds of lust are stirred up. Therefore banquets of this kind are to be avoided.… Debauchery is another result of this sort of thing. Paul was right to warn them against quarreling and jealousy, because both of these things lead to enmity.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on Romans 24
"Not in rioting and drunkenness." Not that he would forbid drinking, but the doing it immoderately; not the enjoying of wine, but doing it to excess. As also the next thing he states likewise with the same measure, in the words,

"Not in chambering and wantonness;" for here also he does not prohibit the intercourse of the sexes, but committing fornication. "Not in strife and envying." It is the deadly kind of passions then that he is for extinguishing, lust, namely, and anger. Wherefore it is not themselves only, but even the sources of them that he removes. For there is nothing that so kindles lust, and inflames wrath, as drunkenness, and sitting long at the wine. Wherefore after first saying, "not in rioting and drunkenness," then he proceeded with, "not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying." And even here he does not pause, but after stripping us of these evil garments, hear how he proceeds to ornament us, when he says,
d. AD 418PelagiusPost-NiceneSourcePELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS
Just as the light of day keeps everyone from doing what he would freely do at night, so too, knowledge keeps us from ignoring the commands of the law. A revel is a luxurious banquet, but we have a spiritual feast. Moreover, that drunkenness is ruinous and an occasion for debauchery is further proved by the fact that Paul has added “licentiousness.” That quarrelling and jealousy are also objects of reproach is demonstrated both here and by many other examples.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceHOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 46
Let us live our lives in the same way now as we are going to live in the day, that is, in the future world.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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