What is the meaning of "redeeming the time" in Ephesians 5:16?

Christians are exhorted to 'redeem the time.' Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5. This does not mean 'to make up for lost time'; but to seize every favourable opportunity. In Dan. 2:8 the king said that the wise men sought 'to gain the time': that is, obtain a delay in the hope that the king might relent, or that something might happen that would save them.

90 In 1 John it is said, "If we walk in the light," that is, absolutely; but, realising position, we walk in it. It is position; we are actually there. It is not like standing in righteousness. Here he is looking at practice. Walking is a real thing. It is not as if I say, Christ is my righteousness. It is a real living place we are walking in. Of course he judges in detail all sins. All the Gentiles are walking in darkness - I refer to the passage in Ephesians. "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but wise." Uprightness is not sufficient. If I have to go through a bog, I may be perfectly sincere in seeking a house on the other side; but if I do not look about me, I may sink in the bog. I must look about me. It requires wisdom to go through this world, I mean as a Christian.

The expression "redeeming the time" is apt to be always misapplied. It means seizing opportunities. You get it in Daniel 2, where the king speaks to the Magi: "I know ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me." They wanted to redeem the time. Here I am to walk in such a way, so full of Christ, that, when an opportunity offers, I can bring Him out. The days are evil. You cannot always have an opportunity; you might be casting pearls before swine; but you must be in a condition to embrace every opportunity. In Daniel it is "gain the time," or as in the margin "buy" the fit moment. A thousand more opportunities would present themselves of bringing Christ before people if we were living in the power of the Spirit of God. The days are evil, we are told. The power of evil is there. You must not complain because the days are evil. The Lord can guide us through one day as well as another.

Eph. 5:15: "See that ye walk circumspectly, etc., not as fools, but as wise." This is not only to avoid certain things, but there is something to be gained: divine wisdom to live Christ. We have to walk with all the wisdom of God. Satan is seeking to trip us up, to dim our testimony, to cause that to be seen in us which is not Christ.

"Redeeming the time" (Eph. 5:16): we are called, in a world that is against us, to be awaiting every opportunity to seize for Christ. To live Christ before the world, that is wisdom; "redeeming the time" is not merely not wasting it. The devil seeks to preoccupy men's thoughts and affections: we want to redeem time from this, by seeking every opportunity of introducing Christ.

(Vv. 15-17). Thirdly, we are exhorted to walk wisely. Learning from the first fourteen verses that the true measure for a right walk is God's nature of light and love, we are to profit by this teaching, and “walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise.” In an evil world the Christian will need wisdom, but this wisdom is in regard to what is good. So, in another Epistle, the Apostle can write, “Be wise as to that which is good, and simple as to evil” (Romans 16:19). Our wisdom will be seen in redeeming the time, and understanding what the will of the Lord is. The days are evil, and if the devil could have his way there never would be a time or opportunity for that which is pleasing to the Lord. To do good we shall, as it were, have to seize the occasion from the enemy. If understanding the will of the Lord, we shall often find that an evil day can be turned into an occasion for doing good. Nehemiah, by prayer and fasting, learnt the will of the Lord concerning His people, so that when the opportunity came, in the presence of king Artaxerxes, he seized the occasion (Nehemiah 1:4; Nehemiah 2:1-5). It is possible to have a great knowledge of evil and yet be ignorant of the will of the Lord, and thus still be “unwise”.

44 Verse 16. This is likewise wisdom; it is to gain time in order to do good. The same expression is used in speaking of the magicians, the Chaldeans, in Daniel 2:8; they gained time in order to conceal their inability, they had the prudence of this world. We need wisdom in order to be able to do good in spite of Satan, whose power makes the present time one of difficulty. If we have this wisdom for good, we shall escape the wiles of Satan; we shall leave his nets on one side and pass on; we shall do the good that God may give us to do; we shall have time for God. If we are in God's light, we shall walk in the simplicity of that which is good, and God will be with us. Let us think of God-as Father and on what Christ did, in order to do like unto Him. If sleep overtake us, we must awake, and Christ will give us light.

Verses 17, 18. Verse 16 had shewn us that we must redeem the time. The days are evil when God allows Satan to exercise his power, and they are so in general until Jesus return; but there are times when God permits the enemy to govern more directly, and others when He puts a check on him. The evil days are a chastisement, a humiliation for the church; but he who is faithful has his way pointed out; he ought to redeem the time, to seize the opportunity of doing good; Neh. 6:3. This is why it is said (v. 17), "Be not unwise"; but there is also an energy, a force in the Spirit which is given to us, which is contrasted with the excitement by which the world thinks to produce faith - excitement which is evil - an evil course of life, the true character of which verse 18 shews us. When the Spirit descended upon the one hundred and twenty at Jerusalem, the world said, "They are full of new wine." The power of the Spirit in truth does put a man beyond the power of what is natural to himself; the words rise to his lips as a fruit of the Spirit's action, and he is the subject of a joy which flows over. In him who is full of the Holy Ghost there is what is not natural to man - something altogether extraordinary.

The believer's walk then is to be with sober care and consideration, not as that of ungodly fools (v.15). God's love and God's light have been powerful incentives for our walk, now we are also to use God-given wisdom in walking circumspectly. Being wise is a true characteristic of a believer. "Redeeming the time" (v.16) is fully and rightly using the opportunities that each occasion may offer. Such care and concern is of great importance because the days are evil. For though a believer is not a fool, yet he may be unwise and not use his time to advantage. Let him not be this way, but understand what the will of the Lord is for him (v.17). To understand is not simply to know, but to rightly perceive what he knows. The will of the Lord is always spiritually profitable.

In conclusion of the spiritual portion of the epistle, the apostle charges them to walk wisely to them that are without, commending Christ by their walk; they have to learn wisdom for the practice of their position as confessing the Lord in the world which knows Him not. As to "redeeming the time" (Eph. 5:16), it is added, "because the days are evil," it would be saving the time to good ends, which in the world is used to evil. He closes with a charge that their words should not be idle, but in love, and seasoned with that salt that must be in themselves.

We should also pray for others who are in the Lord's work and it is Paul's desire here that the Lord should open a door for him. Sometimes we listen to news from the Lord's work where someone writes that there are many open doors, but Paul does not ask for many doors, he only asks for one because you cannot pass through many doors at one time. Therefore he requests this prayer that the Lord might open one door for him, so that he might announce the mystery of Christ which comprises the whole Christian truth. We pray for the gospel, and this is important, but it is not all, we should pray that the whole Christian truth is proclaimed. Then Paul speaks of our walk in relation to those without who watch us and we should redeem the time. This does not mean that you must work for twenty-four hours a day but it means that you have to do the right thing at the right time, this must be our exercise in our walk. If there is an opportunity then we should take it under the Lord's guidance, this is the meaning of redeeming the time.

I bring the incident before the readers of Simple Testimony, at the risk of being smiled at. The value of the odd moments for reading, for prayer, for dropping a word of comfort, for handing out a gospel booklet or two, came home to me in no ordinary way. I thought with redoubled interest of the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesian saints—“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” that is, seizing the precious, priceless opportunities as they occur. They are ours for the moment—ours to use or to abuse then gone for ever beyond recall.

In verse 5 the unconverted are spoken of as "them that are without." There are those within the Christian circle and those without it, and it is very important that we should be right in our relations with those without. We are set in a place of testimony in regard to them. First our general behaviour towards them is to be marked by wisdom. That being so we are sure to have opportunities for witnessing which we are to redeem by seizing them as they present themselves.