Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy.
Parallel translations
- KJV Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
- BSB Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
- NKJV Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
- NASB Let’s behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy.
- NLT Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Walk honorably as in daylight, not in drunkenness, immorality, or strife.
Overview
Paul specifies what casting off darkness means: turning from carousing, sexual sin, and quarreling, the deeds that belong to the night. Believers are to live as those already in the light of day, with visibly upright conduct. This verse famously helped lead Augustine to conversion, illustrating its power to call sinners to new life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 40
- Gal 5:21envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
- Eph 5:18Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
- 1 Th 4:3–5For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
- 1 Pet 4:3–5For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
- Eph 5:15Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
- 1 Th 4:12that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.
- 1 Jn 2:6he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
- Luke 21:34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
- 1 Pet 2:1–2Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,
- 1 Th 2:12to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
- 1 Th 5:17Pray without ceasing.
- Col 3:5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
- Gal 5:25–26If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.
- Col 1:10that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
- Phil 1:27Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that, whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;
- Eph 5:2–5Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
- 2 Pet 2:18–20For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
- Gal 5:19Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
- 2 Jn 1:4I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father.
- 1 Cor 6:9–10Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
- Jas 4:5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?
- Jas 3:14–16But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth.
- Gal 5:15–16But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.
- 1 Pet 2:11–12Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
- Eph 5:8For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
- Phil 2:3doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;
- Jude 1:23and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.
- 2 Pet 2:13–14receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
- Isa 28:7–8They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
- Phil 4:8–9Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.
- Luke 1:6They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
- Acts 2:15For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.
- Luke 17:27–28They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
- Eph 4:17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
- Luke 16:19“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.
- Matt 24:48–51But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’
- Amos 6:4–6Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall;
- Prov 23:20Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:
- Phil 3:16–20Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.
- Isa 22:12–13In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 13:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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