Ephesians 5:16

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Redeeming the time.—Or rather, the opportunity, whenever it arises. The meaning of this phrase (used also in Colossians 4:5) is clearly illustrated by its use (although in a bad sense) in Daniel 2:8, “I know that you would gain the time”—i.e., catch the opportunity to escape from difficulty. To “redeem” is “to buy up for oneself”—not having essentially the idea of ransom or redemption, which attaches to the use of the word in Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5, only from the nature of the context. As applied to opportunity, it carries with it the idea, first of making sacrifice for it, then quickness in seizing it, and sagacity in using it to the utmost, whether by silence or by speech, by facing or avoiding danger, by yielding to a crisis (see Romans 12:11) or conquering it. The reason given that “the days are evil” must be taken in the widest sense, of all that induces temptation to swerve out of the “strictness” of the right way. The general lesson is that which is drawn by our Lord in the parable of the Unjust Steward—to apply the wisdom of the buyers and sellers of the world to the work of “the children of light.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:15-21 Another remedy against sin, is care, or caution, it being impossible else to maintain purity of heart and life. Time is a talent given us by God, and it is misspent and lost when not employed according to his design. If we have lost our time heretofore, we must double our diligence for the future. Of that time which thousands on a dying bed would gladly redeem at the price of the whole world, how little do men think, and to what trifles they daily sacrifice it! People are very apt to complain of bad times; it were well if that stirred them more to redeem time. Be not unwise. Ignorance of our duty, and neglect of our souls, show the greatest folly. Drunkenness is a sin that never goes alone, but carries men into other evils; it is a sin very provoking to God. The drunkard holds out to his family and to the world the sad spectacle of a sinner hardened beyond what is common, and hastening to perdition. When afflicted or weary, let us not seek to raise our spirits by strong drink, which is hateful and hurtful, and only ends in making sorrows more felt. But by fervent prayer let us seek to be filled with the Spirit, and to avoid whatever may grieve our gracious Comforter. All God's people have reason to sing for joy. Though we are not always singing, we should be always giving thanks; we should never want disposition for this duty, as we never want matter for it, through the whole course of our lives. Always, even in trials and afflictions, and for all things; being satisfied of their loving intent, and good tendency. God keeps believers from sinning against him, and engages them to submit one to another in all he has commanded, to promote his glory, and to fulfil their duties to each other.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Redeeming the time - The word rendered here as "redeeming," means "to purchase; to buy up" from the possession or power of anyone; and then to redeem, to set free - as from service or bondage; notes, Galatians 3:13. Here it means, to rescue or recover our time from waste; to improve it for great and important purposes.

Because the days are evil - Because the times in which you live are evil. There are many allurements and temptations that would lead you away from the proper improvement of time, and that would draw you into sin. Such were those that would tempt them to go to places of sinful indulgence and revelry where their time would be wasted, and worse than wasted. As these temptations abounded, they ought therefore to be more especially on their guard against a sinful and unprofitable waste of time. This exhortation may be addressed to all, and is applicable to all periods. The sentiment is, that we ought to be solicitous to improve our time to some useful purpose, because "there are, in an evil world, so many temptations to waste it." Time is given us for most valuable purposes. There are things enough to be done to occupy it all, and no one need have it hang heavy on his hands. He that has a soul to be saved from eternal death, need not have one idle moment. He that has a heaven to win, has enough to do to occupy all his time. Man has just enough given him to accomplish all the purposes which God designs, and God has not given him more than enough. They redeem their time who employ it:

(1) in gaining useful knowledge;

(2) in doing good to others;

(3) in employing it for the purpose of an honest livelihood for themselves and families;

(4) in prayer and self-examination to make the heart better;

(5) in seeking salvation, and in endeavoring to do the will of God.

They are to redeem time from all that would waste and destroy it - like recovering marshes and fens to make them rich meadows and vineyards. There is time enough wasted by each sinner to secure the salvation of the soul; time enough wasted to do all that is needful to be done to spread religion around the world, and to save the race. We should still endeavor to redeem our time for the same reasons which are suggested by the apostle - because the days are evil. There are evil influences abroad; allurements and vices that would waste time, and from which we should endeavor to rescue it. There are evil influences tending to waste time:

(1) in the allurements to pleasure and amusement in every place, and especially in cities;

(2) in the temptations to novel-reading, consuming the precious hours of probation to no valuable purpose;

(3) in the temptations of ambition, most of the time spent for which is wholly thrown away, for few gain the prize, and when gained, it is all a bauble, not worth the effort;

(4) in dissipation - for who can estimate the amount of valuable time that is worse than thrown away in the places of revelry and dissipation;

(5) in wild and visionary plans - temptations to which abound in all lands, and pre-eminently in our own;

(6) and in luxurious indulgence - in dressing, and eating, and drinking.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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 2Co 6:2; 1Pe 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; Joh 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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Redeeming the time; or, buying the opportunity: a metaphor taken from merchants, that diligently observe the time for buying and selling, and easily part with their pleasure for gain; q.d. Deny yourselves in your ease, pleasure, &c. to gain an opportunity of doing good.

Because the days are evil; either wicked, by reason of the wickedness of those that live in them, or troublesome, full of difficulties and dangers, by reason of men’s hatred of you, and so either depriving you of the opportunity of doing good, or exposing you to hazards for doing it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Redeeming the time,.... Or "buying time"; a like expression is used in Daniel 2:8, which we render, gain time: but in the Chaldee text it is, "buy time": and so Jacchiades, a Jewish commentator on the place, renders it, , "ye buy this opportunity"; and the Septuagint version uses the same phrase the apostle does here; but there it seems to signify a study to prolong time, to put off the business to another season; but here taking time for a space of time, it denotes a careful and diligent use of it, an improvement of it to the best advantage; and shows that it is valuable and precious, and is not to be trifled with, and squandered away, and be lost, as it may be; for it can neither be recalled nor prolonged: and taking it for an opportunity of doing good to ourselves or others, it signifies that no opportunity of discharging our duty to God and man, of attending on the word and ordinances of the Gospel, and to the private and public exercises of religion, of gaining advantage to our own souls, or of gaining the souls of others, and of doing good either to the bodies or souls of men, should be neglected; but even all risks should be run, and means used to enjoy it: in the Syriac and Chaldee languages, "time", comes from "to redeem": the reason the apostle gives for the redemption of time is,

because the days are evil; as such are, in which iniquity abounds, and many wicked men live, and errors and heresies prevail, and are days of affliction or persecution; see Genesis 47:9.

Geneva Study Bible

{h} Redeeming the time, because the {i} days are evil.

(h) This is a metaphor taken from the merchants: who prefer the least profit that may be before any of their pleasures.

(i) The times are troublesome and severe.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 5:16. Accompanying modal definition to the preceding ὡς σόφοι: ementes vobis (middle) opportunitatem, i.e. in that you make your own the right point of time for such walk, do not let it pass by unused. In this figurative conception the doing of that for which the point of time is fitted, is thought of as the purchase-price, by which the καιρός becomes ours. Comp. Colossians 4:5; LXX. Daniel 2:8; Antonin. vi. 26: κερδαντέον τὸ παρόν, Plut. Philop. 15: καιρὸν ἁρπάζειν. The opposite is καιρὸν παρίεναι, Thucyd. iv. 27. Galatians 6:10 is parallel as to substance. Classical writers say καιρ. πρίασθαι, Dem. 120. 26, 187. 22, but in the proper sense of buying for money. Others have thought of the sacrifice of all earthly things and of all lusts as the purchase-price (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius; comp. also Augustine, Flacius, Zanchius, Estius, Rückert, and others); but this is imported, since the context yields nothing else than the fulfilment of duty meant by the ἀκριβῶς περιπατεῖν; hence we have not, with Harless, to interpret it of the right moment “for letting the light of correction break in upon the darkness of sin” (comp. Michaelis and Rosenmüller), which would be to revert, at variance with the context, to the topic of the ἔλεγξις already ended. Luther[266] incorrectly renders: “Suit yourselves to the time.” That would be δουλεύειν τῷ καιρῷ, Romans 12:11. Similarly also Grotius (comp. Hammond): “quovis labore ac verborum honestis obsequiis vitate pericula et diem de die ducite.” Comp. Bengel, who compares Amos 5:13, and understands the prudent letting the evil day pass over “quiescendo vel certe modice agendo,” whereby the better time is purchased, in order to make the more use thereof. In opposition to Grotius and Bengel, it may be urged that this alleged mode of the ἐξαγοράζειν τὸν καιρόν is not mentioned by Paul, but imported by the expositor, and that the counsel of such a trimming behaviour is hardly compatible with the moral decision of the apostle, and with his expectation of the approaching end of the αἰὼς οὗτος. We may add that the compound ἐξαγορ. is not here to be understood as redeem (Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5), as e.g. Bengel would take it (from the power of evil men), and Calvin (from the devil), seeing that the context does not suggest such reference; but the ἐκ in the composition is intensive, and denotes what is entire, utter, as also in Plut. Crass. 2; Polyb. iii. 42. 2; Daniel 2:8.

ὅτι αἱ ἡμέραι πονηραί εἰσι] supplies a motive for the ἘΞΑΓ. Τ. ΚΑΙΡ., for the days, the present times, are evil, for moral corruption is now in vogue. So much the more must it intimately concern you as Christians (for how exalted is their task above the wickedness of the present time! Php 2:15; Php 3:20) τὸν καιρὸν ἐξαγοράζεσθαι. Beza, Flacius, Grotius, Hammond, Rosenmüller, and others refer ΠΟΝΗΡΑΊ to the misfortune of the time (Genesis 47:9; Psalm 49:6 [5]); but the context opposes the moral bearing of the Christian to the immoral condition of the time. According to de Wette’s here very unfounded scepticism, the writer is indistinct and hesitating, because he is bringing Colossians 4:5. into another connection.

[266] Who in earlier editions had rightly: release the time.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 5:16. ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρόν: buying up for yourselves the opportunity. Definition of the ὡς σοφοί, specifying the way in which they were to give token of the quality of wisdom. The expression occurs only once again in the NT (in Colossians 4:5); and there are but few proper parallels to it. The phrase as used in Daniel 2:8 has rather the sense of gaining time, delaying. The classical phrase καιρὸν πρίασθαι (used, e.g., by Demosthenes) has the plain meaning of purchasing for money. Even the κερδαντέον τὸ παρόν cited from Anton., vi., 26, and the καιρὸν ἁρπάζειν of Plut. (Philop., 15) are but partial analogies. In the NT the verb ἐξαγοράζειν has at times the sense of redeeming, ransoming one from another by payment of a price, and so it is applied to Christ’s vicarious death (Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5). It has the sense of ransoming occasionally in profane Greek (e.g., Diodor., 36, 1, p. 530). Hence some take the idea here to be that of redeeming, as from the power of Satan (Calv.), or from the power of evil men (Beng.); the sacrifice of earthly things being taken by some (Chrys. Theophyl., Oec., etc.) to be the purchase-price. But it is doubtful whether any such technical or metaphorical sense can be attached to the word here, where the subject in view is the plain duty of a careful Christian walk. The simpler sense of buying is more appropriate to the context. The ἐξ- probably has its intensive force, although Ellicott takes it to refer merely to the “undefined time or circumstances, out of which, in each particular case, the καιρός is to be bought”. Giving the Middle also its proper sense, we get the sense of “buying up for yourselves”. The thing to be “bought up” is the καιρός, not “the time,” but “the fit time,” the “opportunity,” and the purchase-money implied in the figure is left undefined, but may be the careful heed expended on their walk. Thus the sense comes to be this—the character of wisdom by which their walk was to be distinguished was to show itself in the prompt and discerning zeal with which they made every opportunity their own, and suffered no fitting season for the fulfilment of Christian duty to pass unused. Luther’s “suit yourselves to the time” would require some such phrase as δουλεύειν τῷ καιρῷ (Romans 12:11), and is otherwise inappropriate. Other explanations, such as Harless’s supposition that the matter in view is the fit time for letting the ἔλεγξις break in upon the darkness of sin, are remote from the immediate subject or impart ideas which are not in the text. The RV gives “redeeming the time” in the text, and “buying up the opportunity” in the margin.—ὅτι αἱ ἡμέραι πονηραί εἰσι: because the days are evil. Statement of motive for buying up the opportunity, viz., the evil of the time. The context makes it clear that what is in view is the moral evil of the days, not merely as, e.g., in Genesis 47:9, their difficulties and troubles (Beza, etc.). The fact that the times in which they lived were morally so corrupt was a strong reason for making every opportunity for good, which such times might offer, their own.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. redeeming the time] Lit., buying out (from other ownership) the opportunity. So Colossians 4:5. The same phrase occurs (Aramaic and Greek) Daniel 2:8; “I knew of a certainty that ye would buy the time”; where the meaning plainly is, “that ye would get your desired opportunity, at the expense of a subterfuge.” Here similarly the meaning is, “getting each successive opportunity of ‘walking and pleasing God’ at the expense of steady watchfulness.” In Colossians 4:5 the special thought is of opportunities in intercourse with “them that are without.” So, perhaps, here also, in regard of Ephesians 5:12-14.—Cp. Galatians 6:10; where render “as we have opportunity.”

because the days are evil] As if to say, “Make this sustained effort of getting opportunity; for it will be needed. The ‘days’ of human life in a fallen world do not lend themselves to it. Circumstances, in themselves, are adverse, for sin attaches to them.”

The Apostle very probably had in view the special difficulties of the then present time, but his words have a permanent bearing on each following period with its new phases of difficulty, all related as they are to the permanent underlying difficulty, sin.

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 5:16. Ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρὸν, redeeming the time) So the LXX., καιρὸν ὑμεῖς ἐξαγοράζετε, Daniel 2:8, ye (would) gain the time. The days, says Paul, are evil, and are in the power of wicked men, not in your own power. Wherefore, since you see that you are hard pressed, endeavour, until the hostile intervals of this unhappy period pass away, to pass through and spend your time, if not with profit, at least without loss, which is done by keeping quiet, or at least by acting with moderation. This is the force of the verb דמם in a passage of Amos, which will be presently quoted. Wisdom and ἀκρίβεια, circumspection, are commanded, not sloth. There is however one mode of acting in summer, another in winter, even with greater labour [in the former than in the latter]. Those who in evil days seek meanwhile no fruit of time, but [the mere gaining of] time itself (according to the example of the Magi, Daniel 2, or like a besieged city waiting for assistance), these act wisely, and in the end will the better use the time, which they have thus redeemed (gained). Sirach 10 :(27) 31, Μὴ δοξάζου ἐν καιρῷ στενοχωρίας σου, boast not in the time of thy distress. A similar expression occurs in Polycarp’s Ep. to the church at Smyrna, where the martyrs are said, διὰ μιᾶς ὥρας τὴν αἰώνιον κόλασιν ἐξαγοραζόμενοι, to have bought off (gained exemption from) everlasting punishment by the sufferings of one hour.—§ 2. The opposite is to lose (throw away) time.—ἡμέραι, days) ch. Ephesians 6:13.—πονηραὶ, evil) Amos 5:13, ὁ συνιῶν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ (ידם) σιωπήσεται, ὅτι καιρὸς πονηρός ἐστιν, he who has understanding at that time will be silent, because it is an evil time.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Redeeming the time, because the days are evil; or, buying up for yourselves the opportunity, the idea being that of a merchant who, knowing the value of an article and the good use to which he can put it, buys it up. The opportunity is the opportunity of spreading the light and acting according to it; and the reason assigned, "because the days are evil," indicates that, owing to the prevalence of evil, there is much need for the light over which the Christian has control. It may be hinted likewise that the prevalence of evil is apt to cool the love and diminish the zeal of the Christian; hence the need for special eagerness of spirit in the matter - he must greedily watch for his opportunity. Ephesians 5:16

Vincent's Word Studies

Redeeming the time (ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιπόν)

See on Colossians 4:5.