Romans 13:11

Christian practice: duty enforced by the prospect of the Lord's Return

11. And that, &c. In this last section of the chapter, St Paul enforces all the preceding precepts (of cch. 12, 13) by the solemn assertion of the approach of the eternal Day of Resurrection and Glory. Then all that was painful in effort would be over, and the results of "patient continuance in well-doing" would be realized for ever.

Language such as that of this passage is often taken to prove that St Paul expected an imminent return of the Lord, and taught it as a revealed truth. But the prophetic part of ch. 11 is sufficient to shew that he looked for an extendedfuture. And the expectation here expressed, as a main item of Christian truth, by this great prophet of the Gospel, has been accepted ever since by successive generations of believers as the just expression of their own attitude of hope.

It is plain that the Lord Himself both implied and sometimes distinctly foretold a longinterval. See Matthew 25:19.

the time the occasion; same word as Romans 3:26, where see note. The "occasion" is, in fact, the "last days;" the times of Messiah. (See Acts 2:16-17.)

out of sleep The sleep of languor and forgetfulness. The Lord had used this metaphor in connexion with His Return; Matthew 24:42; Matthew 25:13. See elsewhere in St Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5:6. Also Revelation 3:3; Revelation 16:15.

our salvation See note on "salvation," Romans 1:16. It is here the "salvation" of resurrection-glory.