Today we begin worship with:
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
When we are up north, the weather and our activities change so dramatically throughout the day. Regularly we "cast off" the long pants needed for the chilled mornings to "put on" the swimsuits of the afternoon, only to put back on the flannel shirt for the evenings campfire.
What Paul is describing here is rather a one-time decision to cast off "works" and put on "armor". He explains further, what (or better said, "who") we are putting on:
Romans 13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
The flesh clamors for our attention and our attentive "provision" (pronoia). But covered by armor the flesh is silenced and the call to battle can be heard above its complaints. We are not called to an ascetic lifestyle where the battle is against the body, but rather we are called to a generous lifestyle where the battle cry is "love" (Romans 13:8-10).
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