Romans 13:13, commentary and pictures

To walk honestly as in the day is to live openly and uprightly as those who belong to the light, casting off drunken excess, sexual impurity and sensual indulgence, and quarreling and jealousy as works of darkness that have no place in Christian life.
The call comes with knowing the time to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer than when belief began and the night is far spent and the day is at hand, so the works of darkness must be put away and the armor of light put on in earnest preparation for Christ's coming.
That honest walk means putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for fleshly lusts, in complete self-denial that resists self-indulgence and overcomes evil with good.
It requires temperance and bodily holiness, governing appetite and passion by God's will, cleansing all defilement of flesh and spirit, and keeping eating, drinking, and conduct free from excess and impurity so the body as God's dwelling may glorify Him.
It is fulfilled in love that works no harm to a neighbor, breaking attachment to worldly habits, frivolous spending, and strife-filled speech, and giving life to earnest unselfish work with God for the saving of souls.

Honest Walk in Daylight

To walk honestly as in the day is to live openly and rightly as people who belong to the light and the day. It is to turn away from rioting and drunken excess and revelry, from chambering or sexual immorality and sensual wantonness, and from strife and quarrels and envying or jealousy. These are works of darkness that are incompatible with Christian life and must be refused by believers.

The call belongs with knowing the time to awake out of sleep, because salvation is nearer than when belief began. The night is far spent and the day is at hand, so the works of darkness must be cast off and the armor of light put on. This is earnest, faithful conduct in preparation for Christ's coming, rather than carelessness or participation in worldly pursuits.

The honest walk belongs with putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts and fleshly desires and cravings. This means complete self-denial and self-sacrifice and overcoming evil with good. It means resisting self-indulgence and frivolous appetites, including habits that divert money and attention from serving God and helping others.

The honest walk is one of the great reforms to be made in the love of Christ. For love works no harm and no ill to a neighbor and is the fulfilling of the law.

Temperance and Bodily Holiness

The verse gives Bible teaching on temperance and health reform that condemns indulged appetites and unhealthful practices and requires intelligent, practical knowledge and obedience. It supports educating the mind and conscience to practice temperance intelligently, and reform is to be advanced not by making articles of diet a test question but by educating the intellect and arousing the moral sensibility to take hold of health reform in an intelligent manner. Accountability rests on every person to follow the light God has given rather than the contrary example of others. In the call to reform, living openly and rightly as people of the day by rejecting drunken excess, sexual immorality, quarrels, and envy is connected with temperance and refusing indulgences that strengthen unholy passions.

It is God's warning about appetite and bodily habits that all must study and heed. Even those who advocate God's law must not encourage and indulge wrong appetites at the expense of health, but must become intelligent about the body as God's habitation and keep eating, drinking, and conduct free from lust and excess in order to glorify God. Intemperance and lustful indulgence weaken the mind and moral powers and set the lower passions against the soul, so appetite and passion are to be governed by God's will and habits that defile the body left behind. This requires standing on an elevated platform as watchful sentinels, refusing to serve flesh meat, tea, and coffee or to indulge perverted appetite in order to gain patronage, and refusing to employ physicians, nurses, and helpers unwilling to live the full light of health reform. The sick are to be taught to present their bodies as a living holy sacrifice instead of being given food that made them sick and will keep them sick.

The verse forbids licentiousness, adultery, wanton iniquity, and low and vile thought, talk, and deportment in married men and women, children, and youth who claim sacred truth yet have no moral power to resist temptation. Such indulgence destroys physical and mental powers and brings suffering and misery. The body as God's temple must be kept free from defilement, and all filthiness of flesh and spirit cleansed to perfect holiness in the fear of God, so as to be presented holy and blameless without spot or wrinkle. Putting away drunkenness, sexual immorality, strife, and envy is part of reforming life and honoring the body as God's temple.

The impure state of things the verse forbids describes conditions prior to the Lord's coming as a sign of His soon coming. That witness is dishonored when men and women teaching God's law break that law and hold truth apart from life without real living Christian principle controlling conduct and character. Every soul is therefore to keep the fear of God constantly before them, to keep their vessels unto honor in the sight of a holy God, and to be garrisoned with firm principles of eternal truth so as not to choose evil rather than good. Its standard of pure, self-controlled living states qualifications essential in the deacon that are equally essential in the elder.

Unselfish Practical Godliness

To put on Christ and make no provision for fleshly desires is to break every fine thread binding to worldly habits that divert the mind from God. This includes devotion to useless ornaments and frivolous gratification of taste, and all habits that divert money and attention from serving God and helping others. It requires complete self-denial and self-sacrifice in overcoming evil with good, resisting self-indulgence and frivolous appetites. Believers are to solidly resist the little rivulets of spending that gratify taste for frivolous things and let every penny and shilling and pound flow into channels that glorify God and relieve human need.

Rejecting strife and envying reaches speech, for improper, discouraging talk that stirs up strife belongs to the works of darkness and should be stopped. When needed, a person should remain silent and leave rather than join in, turning the situation toward love and good works.

The honest walk in the day is one of the great reforms made in the love of Christ, for love works no ill to a neighbor and is the fulfilling of the law. It means earnest, unselfish work for God in cooperation with God and Christ for the saving of souls, showing God's great interest in sinners and making the most of granted opportunities. It requires being healed of the leprosy of selfishness that has taken hold of the church. Laborers together with God must live this consistency so they can convince others of error with meekness, longsuffering, and gentleness, presenting a crucified and risen Saviour and the truth as it is in Jesus in love, leading but never driving and never accusing or denouncing.

Walking honestly also includes truthfulness in business, such as truthfully representing food as pure and never passing off something false as genuine.