There is an urgency in loving our neighbors because time marches on. We cannot procrastinate because the time for our ultimate salvation is closer than most of us realize (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Ephesians 5:14-17; I Thessalonians 5:5-8; I Peter 4:7). The reign of evil is coming to a close (Isaiah 60:1-2, 12-20; I John 2:8). Christ will be coming soon (Philippians 4:5; Hebrews 10:25; James 5:8).<\/p>\n
It is easy to procrastinate when you think you have tomorrow to change, but we don’t have the luxury of time. Therefore, we must both rid ourselves of sin and protect ourselves with righteousness. It is not enough to do one without the other.<\/p>\n
When a person approaches being a Christian as only a matter of removing sin, he leaves himself defenseless (Matthew 12:43-45; II Peter 2:20-22). A person has to arm himself (Ephesians 5:10-17).<\/p>\n
When a person believes they can be a Christian ignoring the sins in their lives and living for God, they will not last. In truth, they really don’t understand what it means to be righteous (Romans 6:1-2; Ephesians 5:11-13; I Peter 4:1-3).<\/p>\n
To illustrate the fact that we must walk properly, Paul lists out sins commonly committed at night:<\/p>\n
Revelry:<\/strong> Letting loose. It refers to the riotous processions Greeks had in following Bacchus, the god of wine.<\/p>\n Drunkenness:<\/strong>\u00a0Being intoxicated.<\/p>\n Lewdness:<\/strong> Literally to lie down in bed. It is a euphemism for sexual intercourse, just as we use “sleeping around” today (Hebrews 13:4).<\/p>\n Lust:<\/strong> Licentiousness; that is having a license to sin. It refers to someone acting like an animal in the pursuit of pleasure or shameless behavior.<\/p>\n Strife:<\/strong> Quarreling, being contentious.<\/p>\n Jealousy:<\/strong> Wanting to keep what you think belongs to you.<\/p>\n Paul groups these sins into three groups: sins related to drinking, sins related to sex, and sins related to uncontrolled emotions. Contrast them to the three descriptions of proper living: soberly, righteously, and godly (Titus 2:12).<\/p>\n Instead of sins, righteousness fills a Christian’s life so thoroughly that there is no room for the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 3:27; 5:16; Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:8-10). As Christians, we cannot make any allowance for sin or give forethought to sinning.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRomans\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Service to Ourselves: A Changed Life We don’t have a lot of time\u00a0(Romans 13:11-12a) There is an urgency in loving our neighbors because time marches on. We cannot procrastinate because the time for our ultimate salvation is closer than most of us realize (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Ephesians 5:14-17; I Thessalonians 5:5-8; I Peter 4:7). The reign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":22351,"menu_order":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41310","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22351,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/pauls-letter-to-the-romans\/","url_meta":{"origin":41310,"position":0},"title":"Paul’s Letter to the Romans","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul's Letter to the Romans by Jeffrey W. Hamilton April 2014 Introduction Background Marking Up the Text Segmenting the Text A Sample Outline of Romans Salutations\u00a0(Romans 1:1-15) The Righteousness of God The Righteousness of God\u00a0(Romans 1:16-17) The Sins of the Greeks\u00a0(Romans 1:18-32) God's Impartiality\u00a0(Romans 2:1-16) The Sins of the Jews\u00a0(Romans\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jan-Lievens-St.-Paul-Writing-to-the-Thessalonians.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jan-Lievens-St.-Paul-Writing-to-the-Thessalonians.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Jan-Lievens-St.-Paul-Writing-to-the-Thessalonians.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/pauls-letter-to-the-romans\/service-to-god-a-holy-and-living-sacrifice\/","url_meta":{"origin":41310,"position":1},"title":"Service to God: A Holy and Living Sacrifice","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Service to God: A Holy and Living Sacrifice A reasonable service\u00a0(Romans 12:1) Realizing the awesome way God has brought salvation to all of mankind in His great mercies, it should spur us to serve God. God is the Father of mercies (II Corinthians 1:3) and we are the beneficiaries of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57031,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/christ-in-you-a-study-of-colossians\/a-changed-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":41310,"position":2},"title":"A Changed Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A Changed Life Text: Colossians 3:1-17 Seek the Things Above - Colossians 3:1-4 Paul's previous point was that if a person has died with Christ, there is no reason to submit to decrees that come from the world (Colossians 2:20). This is actually a chain of statements: Made complete in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64624,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/pauls-letter-to-the-romans\/dead-to-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":41310,"position":3},"title":"Dead to Sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Dead to Sin How can we continue in sin?\u00a0(Romans 6:1-7) If our sins caused God to give such rich blessings, then it could be argued that sin doesn't matter because God will take care of the problem (Romans 5:20). Paul takes the argument to the extreme to say that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64581,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/pauls-letter-to-the-romans\/a-sample-outline-of-romans\/","url_meta":{"origin":41310,"position":4},"title":"A Sample Outline of Romans","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A Sample Outline of Romans I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Salutation (Romans 1:1-15) II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Righteousness of God (Romans 1:16-17) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Condemnation of Mankind \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Sins of the Greeks (Romans 1:18-32) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s Impartiality (Romans 2:1-16) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Sins of the Jews (Romans 2:17-3:8) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No one is justified before God (Romans 3:9-20) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Justification (Romans 3:21-5:11) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sin versus Righteousness (Romans\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39429,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/liberty-a-study-of-galatians\/help-each-other-out-of-the-world-and-into-the-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":41310,"position":5},"title":"Help Each Other: Out of the World and into the Spirit","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Help Each Other: Out of the World and into the Spirit Galatians 6:1-10 Bearing Burdens (Galatians 6:1-5) While we strive to live by God's way, we aren't always successful (I John 1:8,10). It is the duty of the spiritual to rescue those caught up in the ways of the flesh.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41310\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}