Sermon Tone Analysis

Redeeming the Time!

16.

Redeeming the time—(Col 4:5).

Greek, “Buying up for yourselves the seasonable time” (whenever it occurs) of good to yourselves and to others.

Buying off from the vanities of “them that are without” (Col 4:5), and of the “unwise” (here in Ephesians), the opportune time afforded to you for the work of God.

In a narrower sense, special favorable seasons for good, occasionally presenting themselves, are referred to, of which believers ought diligently to avail themselves.

This constitutes true “wisdom” (Eph 5:15).

In a larger sense, the whole season from the time that one is spiritually awakened, is to be “redeemed” from vanity for God (compare 2 Co 6:2; 1 Pe 4:2–4).

“Redeem” implies the preciousness of the opportune season, a jewel to be bought at any price.

WAHL explains, “Redeeming for yourselves (that is, availing yourselves of) the opportunity (offered you of acting aright), and commanding the time as a master does his servant.”

TITTMANN, “Watch the time, and make it your own so as to control it; as merchants look out for opportunities, and accurately choose out the best goods; serve not the time, but command it, and it shall do what you approve.”

So PINDAR [Pythia, 4.509], “The time followed him as his servant, and was not as a runaway slave.”

because the days are evil—The days of life in general are so exposed to evil, as to make it necessary to make the most of the seasonable opportunity so long as it lasts (Eph 6:13; Ge 47:9; Ps 49:5; Ec 11:2; 12:1; Jn 12:35).

Besides, there are many special evil days (in persecution, sickness, &c.).

when the Christian is laid by in silence; therefore he needs the more to improve the seasonable times afforded to him (Am 5:13), which Paul perhaps alludes to.

“Redeeming” is exagorazō (ἐξαγοραζω), “to buy up.”

In the middle voice as it is used here, it means, “to buy up for one’s self or one’s advantage.”

Metaphorically, it means, “to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good,” so that zeal and well-doing are as it were the purchase-money by which we make the time our own” (Thayer).

“Time” is not chronos (χρονος), “time as such,” but kairos (καιρος), “time as regarded in its strategic, epoch-making, seasonable, opportune seasons.”

The idea is not to make best use of time as such, which is what we should do in the sense of not wasting it, but of taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

“Evil” is not kakos (κακος), “evil in the abstract,” but ponēros (πονηρος), “evil in active opposition to the good, pernicious.”

The wise are asked to watch carefully how they walk.

One might initially interpret this in light of the vulnerability of the children of light to stray from the way of goodness, justice, and truth (5:9).

It is more likely, however, that watching carefully should be understood in relation to 5:16—exploiting the moment to the full, because the days are evil.

The meaning of that line is not immediately clear, however.

The Greek behind exploit (exagorazō) means “to buy” or “redeem” something; in its middle form (as here) it can also mean “to buy off” or “pay off” someone.

If interpreted in the latter sense, the wise “pay off” wrath (alluded to with the phrase the evil days) and thus “redeem the time” (BAGD: 271), much the way Christ “redeems” those under the curse of the law in Galatians 3:13 and 4:5.

Time is thus “saved” from wrath (Barth, 1974:578; Best, 1998:505; Lincoln: 341).

A less fanciful and more common interpretation understands the word exagorazō in a “commercial” sense of “snapping up all chances at a bargain that are available” (R. Martin, 1991:66; so also at Col. 4:5).

Applied to time, it means “gobbling up every available opportunity” (E.

Martin: 200; cf.

Büchsel, 1964a: 128; Schnackenburg: 235).

Time is not neutral, but it is laden with opportunities to be seized—hence the term kairos (“opportune time”) rather than chronos (time as “duration”).

To watch carefully how one walks is thus to “purchase” every opportunity to expose the darkness (5:11) and thus to participate in the redemption of time, the transformation of darkness into light (5:13–14).

What lends urgency to this call?

Interpreted in light of Paul’s typical apocalyptic eschatology, time is to be exploited because it is short.

The evil days are the time of intensifying crisis before the day of judgment and redemption (cf. the evil day in 6:13).

Similarly, Romans 13:11–14 exhorts that since the day of salvation is nearer than ever, believers are to “take off the works of darkness” (TRYN; cf.

Eph.

4:22; 5:11), “put on the weapons of light” (TRYN; cf.

Eph.

6:10, 14–18), and say no to drunkenness and sleep (cf.

Eph.

5:14, 18; 1 Thess.

5:2–8).

In short, the wise had better know that they are living in the last days and that there is no time to waste.

Whatever time there is must be used to get ready for the day of redemption.

I. Guard Your Time, 5:15–16

Time management is big these days.

“Habit 3” in Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is, “Put first things first.”

One statement in particular from that chapter jumps off the page: “ ’Time management’ is really a misnomer—the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves” ([New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989], 150).

Covey is right.

And the Apostle Paul was ahead of us all.

Here’s what the apostle had to say about the use of time:

(1) Don’t expect help from our culture in time management.

Using time well is an exercise in priorities.

Everyone has exactly the same number of minutes in a day.

Some people use time well and get the right things done the right time; others, however, waste time both in inactivity and in poor priority.

I went to college at seventeen; I was not mature.

I did whatever the guys around me did.

If I needed to study but the guys wanted to play dominoes, I played dominoes.

I let the people around me set the agenda.

I wanted to be with and in the group more than I wanted to be a serious student.

I wasn’t doing anything necessarily bad; I was just leaving undone the good—and that’s how I was “bad.”

Now I see all the neighborhood gathering places dotted with sports bars and places just to “hang out.”

Go to those places; they will help you “pass the time.”

But they won’t help you “make the most of the time” (5:16a).

(2) Paul put a Christian interpretation on time management.

Because we are Christians, we are actually soldiers in Christ’s army.

We are under orders.

This is not in our text, but it is implied.

“Be careful then how you live” (5:15a).

He does not mean be careful of how you get out of bed, but rather be careful because you live in a culture that will seduce you.

“The days are evil” (5:16b).

It’s not that taking in a ball game or going to a show or dinner with friends is immoral.

The problem lies in a different place.

I can do only so much of that and still do what the Lord requires.

I do very little that is just outright wrong.

I do a lot of stuff, however, that keeps me from accomplishing God’s work.

So for me, “getting it all together” means doing all that the Lord expects of me and then doing the light and pleasant thing.

When I prioritize this way, I am wise (see 5:15b).

Nobody has an inexhaustible supply of time.

Jesus said, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work” (Jn 9:4).

Paul urged us to make “the most of the time.”

A Latin phrase that lingers is “tempus fugit,” meaning “time flies.”

Paul knew it.

That’s why he told us to make the most of our time, for at the Last Day all of us must give an account of the way we used it.

Life is short (v.

16a).

“Buying up the opportunity—taking advantage of it.”

An old Chinese adage says, “Opportunity has a forelock so you can seize it when you meet it.

Once it is past, you cannot seize it again.”

Our English word opportunity comes from the Latin and means “toward the port.”

It suggests a ship taking advantage of the wind and tide to arrive safely in the harbor.

The brevity of life is a strong argument for making the best use of the opportunities God gives us.

The days are evil (v.

16b).

In Paul’s time, this meant that Roman persecution was on the way (1 Peter 4:12–19).

How foolish to waste opportunities to win the lost when soon those opportunities might be taken away by the advances of sin in society!

If the days were evil when Paul wrote this letter, what must be their condition today?

As we obey His will, we “buy up the opportunities” (redeem the time, v. 16) and do not waste time, energy, money, and talent in that which is apart from His will.

Lost opportunities may never be regained; they are gone forever.