Pay Attention to How You’re Living, Part 2

Scripture — Ephesians 5:15-16 (NRSV)

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Devotion

In yesterday’s Life for Leaders devotion, we focused on Ephesians 5:15. My paraphrase of this verse goes like this: “Pay attention to how you’re living, not as unwise people but as wise.” Or, as it says in The Message, “So watch your step. Use your head.”

Verse 16 continues the exhortation in verse 15: “making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” The NRSV translation irons out an intriguing wrinkle in the original Greek language of this verse. The verb translated as “making the most of” is exagorazō, which literally means to “buy up” or “redeem.” It appears in Galatians, where Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Gal 3:13). Thus, a more straightforward rendering of verse 16 might be, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (That, by the way, is how the King James Version translates this verse.)

What does it mean to redeem the time because the days are evil? And how can we do this?

Many Jews in the time of Jesus thought of this present age as evil. Although the perspective of Ephesians is more nuanced than the stark visions of Jewish apocalyptic thinking, Paul also articulates the evil character of our current existence. In Ephesians 2:2, for example, he says we once were “following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.” (2:2). Ephesians 6 identifies our struggle in life as “not against flesh and blood, but against . . . the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (6:12). Thus, labeling the days as “evil” does not condemn the literal days on the calendar as wicked. Rather it expresses the truth that our daily experience is filled with sin and dominated by the powers of darkness.

From a biblical point of view, evil does not reside only in those whose deeds score high on the index of terror and injustice. Rather, we all live in evil days. We all confront evil in our lives. Apart from Christ, we all are under the domination of evil. And we all live in a time when the battle between good and evil rages.

This is not good news! Yet we are not captive or hopeless. Rather, when we acknowledge the evil of our days, through Christ we have a chance to do something profoundly good. We can redeem the time. When we are watchful about how we live, when we use our time wisely, when we seize moments that might otherwise be wasted and fill them with wise deeds, we are in effect redeeming time from its diabolical bondage.

It’s worth noting that Ephesians 5:16 speaks of redeeming or buying time where we would talk about spending it. So, to use our English idiom, if we spend our time wisely, not wasting it on worthless or sinful activities, then that time will have been well spent. We will have invested our lives well.

Yesterday I encouraged you to set aside some time to pay attention to how you’re living. Today I’d offer similar encouragement. Sometime in the next few days, take a half-hour to reflect on how you’re spending your time. Once again, let this time of reflection be a conversation with the Lord. How are you doing when it comes to “redeeming the time”? In what ways do you spend wisely the time God has given to you? In what ways do you squander your time? Would you like to make changes in how you’re living? Will you talk with God about this?

When we learn to pay attention to how we’re living, one result is that we will make good use of our time. We will invest the hours God has entrusted to us in good work, good relationships, good service, and good prayer.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: How Are the Days Evil?.