Let Us Walk Properly

“Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.” -Romans 13:13

Given their place in history as the new humanity, the new Israel, the new people of God, Paul urges them to join him in walking properly: ““Let us walk properly as in the daytime…”

The daytime is indicative of the opposite of darkness. The imagery is rather intuitive given the tendency in human decadence to put on the image of decency in the daylight, during the normal course of human interaction, and slip into something more vicious after the sun goes down. John tells us “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).

The list of vices Paul addresses is not meant to be all-inclusive (Cf. Gal. 5:19–21) but representative of the deeds men do under the cover of darkness. In other words, Paul is exhorting the believers at Rome to behave properly, and proper behavior is that which one does in the open, under the light of Christ, and wouldn’t mind doing even if everyone knew about it.