Vv. 11-14. In the closing verses of the chapter Paul enforces this exhorta- tion to mutual love as the fulfilling of the law by reference to the approaching Parousia. We must all appear (and who can tell how soon ?) before the judgment- seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body: if the awe and the inspiration of that great truth descend upon our hearts, we shall feel how urgent the Apostle’s exhortation is. καὶ τοῦτο: cf. 1 Cor. vi. 6, 8. In classi- cal writers καὶ ταῦτα is commoner. It
8—14.
699
11. ΚΑΙ τοῦτο, εἰδότες τὸν καιρὸν, ὅτι ὥρα ἡμᾶς 1 ἤδη ἐξ ὕπνου
ἐγερθῆναι.
a a , ” viv yap ἐγγύτερον ἡμῶν ἡ σωτηρία, ἢ ὅτε ἐπιστεύσαμεν.
{1 Cori v.
12. ἡ νὺξ προέκοψεν, ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα ἤγγικεν' ἀποθώμεθα οὖν τὰ ἔργα 5; Eph.
τοῦ σκότους, καὶ ἐνδυσώμεθα ” τὰ STAG τοῦ φωτός. 13. ὡς ἐν ἡμέρα,
εὐσχημόνως περιπατήσωµεν, μὴ κώµοις καὶ µέθαις, μὴ κοίταις καὶ 4 { , ” > - E .
ἀσελγείαις, μὴ ἔριδι καὶ ζήλῳ: 14. GAN ἐνδύσασθε τὸν Κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν hie 13.
ν.δ, τα πα τα. η Thess. ν, Ἡ. v.
h Acts xxiv.
Χριστὸν.ὃ καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς ' πρόνοιαν μὴ ποιεῖσθε eis ἐπιθυμίας. i
1 ημας DEFGL; but 8'ABCP give υµας. υμας is put in text by Weiss, W. and
H., and Tischdf.; and’ by W. and H. and Treg. in margin.
SABC before the pronoun.
All put ηδη with
2 For και ενδυσωµεθα read ενδυσωµεθα δε with ABC'D!P, W. and H. bracket& ;
Sy! and a MS. of Sah. have neither και nor δε. For οπλα AD read εργα.
μη εριδι
και ζηλω; B reads the plural ερισι κ. ζηλοις, which W. and H. put in margin, but it is probably a case of conforming instinctively to the other clauses; cf. the converse change of plural (αι διαθηκαι) into singular in note *, page 657 (also in B).
3 For xvptov |. X. B and Clem. give Χριστον Ίησουν without κυριον, which W. and H. print in margin, keeping κ. |. Χ. tn text.
sums up all that precedes, but especially vers. 8-10. εἰδότες τὸν καιρόν: 6 καιρὸς is not ‘‘the πια”) abstractly, but the time they lived in with its moral import, its critical place in the working out of God’s designs. It is their time regarded as having a character of its own, full of significance for them. This is unfolded in ὅτι Spa ἤδη κ.τ.λ. ἤδη (without waiting longer) is to be con- strued with ἐγερθῆναι: “it is time for you at once to awake” (Gifford). No Christian should be asleep, yet the ordinary life of all is but drowsy com- pared with what it should be, and with what it would be, if the Christian hope were perpetually present to us. viv yap ἐγγύτερον ἡμῶν ἡ σωτηρία: for now is salvation nearer us than when we be- lieved. % σωτηρία has here the trans- cendent eschatological sense: it is the final and complete deliverance from sin and death, and the reception into the heavenly kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This salvation was always near, to the faith of the Apostles; and with the lapse of time it became, of course, nearer. Yet it has often been remarked that in his later epistles Paul seems to contemplate not merely the possibility, but the probability, that he himself would not live to see it. See 2 Cor. ν. 1-10, Phil. i, 23. ὅτε ἐπιστεύσαμεν: when we became Christians, 1 Cor. iii. 5, xv. 2, Gal. ii. 16.
Ver. 12. ἡ νύξ προέκοψεν: the true day dawns only when Christ appears; at present it is night, though a night that has run much of its course. dro0dpeba
οὖν τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους. Things that can only be done in the dark—that can- not bear the light of day—are therefore to be put away by the Christian. For ἀποθώμεθα (properly of dress) cf. Jas. i. 21, 1. Pet. Ἡ. 1, Heb. xii. 1. τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτός: for τὰ ὅπλα see on chap. vi. 13, Eph. vi. 11, 1 Thess. v. 8. The idea is that the Christian’s life is not a sleep, but a battle. τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτός does not mean ‘shining armour’; but (on the analogy of τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους) such armour as one can wear when the great day dawns, and we would appear on the Lord’s side in the fight. An allusion to the last great battle against the armies of anti-Christ is too remote, and at variance with Paul’s use of the figure elsewhere.