Awake from Sleep

Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the 
armour of light.  Rom. 13:12.

We are not profited by the shining of the sun, and the day it produces, if our
eyes fail to perceive its light. Similarly, though the gospel is revealed and Christ
is proclaimed to the world, none are enlightened but those who receive it, who
have risen from sleep through the agency of the light of faith.  They who sleep
are not affected by the sun and the day; they receive no light and receive as
little as if there were neither sun nor day.  It is to our day that Paul refers
when he says:  "Knowing the season, that already it is time for you to wake out
of sleep."  In the light of our spiritual knowledge we are to rise from sleep and
lay aside the works of darkness.  Paul is not addressing unbelievers.  He tells
the Romans they know the time is at hand, that the night is past and the dawn
appears.  But why this passage to believers?  Because no one ever gets
to the point of knowledge where it is not necessary to admonish him, continually
to urge him to new reflections upon what he already knows; for there is danger
of his untiring enemies the devil, the world and the flesh—wearying him and
causing him to become negligent, and ultimately lulling him to sleep.  There
should, therefore, be continuous exhorting to vigilance and activity.  Hence
the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter or Helper, who incites and urges to good.
                                                 Martin Luther