Saturday, January 25, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Romans 13
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 11
Key Verse
Romans 13:8 — “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”
Devotional Thought
In the middle of winter, when the news seems to bring only tidings of rulers and realms, of powers rising and falling, the thirteenth chapter of Romans speaks with startling directness. Paul, writing to a small and often persecuted church in the great city of Rome, tells them to be subject to the higher powers. He does not flatter the emperor; he simply declares that all authority is ordained of God. The believer’s posture is not rebellion but quiet, conscientious obedience—paying tribute, rendering honour, and above all, owing no man anything but love. This is not a naive trust in princes. It is a trust in the God who stands behind them, the same God who, as Psalm 11 declares, sits enthroned in heaven, His eyes beholding the children of men.
Paul moves quickly from the magistrate’s sword to the law of love. The commandments against adultery, murder, theft, false witness, and covetousness are all summed up in one sentence: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” In the short, dark days of January, when tempers grow thin and isolation presses in, this love is not an abstraction. It is the refusal to speak ill of a neighbour, the quiet payment of a debt, the honour shown to a difficult boss or a weary public servant. Love worketh no ill. It is concrete, daily, and unglamorous—and it fulfills the law.
Then comes the trumpet call: “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” Paul is not writing to sluggards but to saints who have grown drowsy. The night is far spent; the day is at hand. In the winter of the world, we are tempted to huddle and doze, to make provision for the flesh, to let the darkness feel permanent. But the armour of light is already ours in Christ. To put on the Lord Jesus is to live as those who know the morning is coming, even when the lamp still burns against the long cold.
So the psalmist’s question—“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”—finds its answer not in fleeing like a bird to the mountain, but in standing still and trusting. The foundations of Rome would one day crumble. The foundations of every earthly power will shake. But the Lord is in His holy temple. His throne is in heaven. The righteous are not called to panic, but to awake, to love, to walk honestly as in the day, and to wait for the countenance of the upright to be beheld by the God who loves righteousness.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you tempted to “make provision for the flesh”—to sleep spiritually through these short, dark days—rather than put on the Lord Jesus Christ?
- When earthly foundations seem to shake, do you flee like a bird to your mountain, or do you stand upon the truth that the Lord’s throne is in heaven?
Prayer
O Lord, our God, whose throne is in heaven and whose eyes behold the children of men: awake us from our slumber. We confess that we have too often loved our comfort more than Your law, and feared earthly powers more than Your righteous judgment. Teach us to render to all their dues, to owe no man anything but love, and to walk honestly as in the day. Cast off from us the works of darkness, and clothe us with the armour of light, even Jesus Christ our Lord. When the foundations tremble and the wicked bend their bow, let us not flee in fear, but trust in You alone, who trieth the righteous and loveth righteousness. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 11:1 — “In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?”