EPHES. v. 16.
WE are once again reminded, at this season of the year, that time is a privilege which we shall not always enjoy. Our years are fleeting away, one after another, into eternity, and it were well for us to consider what improvement we are making of them. Are we seeking to employ them for the glory of God, or for purely carnal and selfish ends? The Apostle Paul, in the opening part of the Epistle to the Ephesians, unfolds in a rich and impressive manner the truth that salvation is of the free and sovereign grace of God, in and through Jesus Christ. In the concluding chapters he makes it equally plain that if salvation is of grace, it is salvation unto holiness. He exhorts the faithful to be “followers of God, as dear children,” to avoid “all uncleanness or covetousness,” to walk as children of light, and to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Still more, he adds: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Sin is folly; holiness is wisdom. It is theirs to seek the redemption of their time from those base and foolish uses to which the children of disobedience put it, and to employ it for the highest of all ends—the glory of God and His Christ.
I. Let us notice, first, the lamentable misuse of time by men in general.
God made man upright at the beginning, and bestowed upon him many gifts that he might employ them to the glory of his Maker. One of these gifts was time—a period of existence in the world. But no sooner did man become a transgressor than he misused this as well as his other privileges. He began to spend his time in vanity, to the dishonour of God and the destruction of his soul. Thus it is that the very time of men, as fallen sinners, has come under the blight of God’s just displeasure. “All our days,” says the Psalmist, “are passed away in thy wrath” (Psalm xc. 9). Still more lamentable and dreadful is this in view of the privileges of a revealed Gospel. God sent His Word of mercy and truth during the Old Dispensation mainly among the Jewish people. Now He sends the same Word in a fuller and richer revelation to the very ends of the earth. He commands all men everywhere to repent and to believe the Gospel. The glad tidings of a finished redemption by the Son of God are now proclaimed to every creature under heaven for the obedience of faith. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation” (Mark i. 15, Acts xvii. 30, Rom. x. 16, 2 Cor. vi. 2).
And yet multitudes disregard this precious and all important message as an idle tale, and spend their time in fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the carnal mind, little considering that the destiny of the soul for weal or woe to an endless eternity, hangs instrumentally upon the use or abuse of time and its privileges. It is also suggested in the words of the Apostle that the people of God themselves are in danger of yielding to the suggestions of the devil and a corrupt nature, and of not employing their time like wise men but foolish. Such admonitions would never have been given if they were not required.
2. Observe, secondly, the call to the work of “redeeming the time.”
The children of God are not exhorted here to redeem the time in any sense of meritorious obedience, as if their right use of it purchased God’s favour and blessing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one meritorious Redeemer who, by His obedience and blood, has secured all the blessings of time and eternity for His people. Still, the “redeeming” spoken of has an important connection with this redemption. It belongs to the region of redemption applied, which is the grand outcome of redemption purchased. “Redeeming (or buying up) the time” is a branch of that sanctification which Christ is made unto His believing people. None, therefore, can redeem the time in the sense of the Apostle, except those who have first believed on the Lord Jesus as their personal Redeemer, and have experienced something of the efficacy of His blood in their guilty consciences and hearts. “Repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ” are the first steps in the important work of redeeming the time.
The children of God are to redeem the time by devoting it to those purposes for which it has been given them by the Redeemer. He came to “redeem them from all iniquity,” and they are therefore, in the strength of grace, to depart from iniquity in all its branches. They are called upon to eschew every form of evil or sin. Let the standard of their obedience be the whole preceptive will of God, as given in His Word. Still more, they are to redeem the time not merely by eschewing evil, but by following after that which is good with their whole heart and soul. Their time is to be devoted to the exercise of thoughts and words and works in the service of Christ. They are to redeem the time by seeking to have it filled with Christ, their glorious Redeemer, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. Their thoughts must meditate much upon Him; their words must be in harmony with His will and show forth His praise; and their actions must be employed for the advancement of His name and kingdom. And they must look to and depend upon Him as the source of all grace for the accomplishment of these things, if they are to redeem their time effectually to the praise and glory of God. Let them set Christ before them in their daily avocations as well as in all religious services. “Without me,” He saith, “ye can do nothing.” He is omnipotent, and so Paul was enabled to say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” This was written for the encouragement of the weakest and poorest souls to the end of time, whose desire is towards the Lord and the remembrance of His name.
3. A special reason is given to enforce the exhortation: “because the days are evil.”
The days in which the Apostle wrote were “evil,” in the sense that much persecution was abroad. The early Christians were exposed to cruel opposition from a “world lying in wickedness.” They were in danger of losing their lives at the hands of their enemies. Their foes were also on the watch for their halting, and if they were guilty of indulging in any manifest sin, their unfriendly observers would take occasion to blaspheme the name of Christ on that account. Is there not a lesson here for the professing Christian to-day? Persecution of an open and violent nature is not common, but it exists in secret forms. There is great need for the graces of watchfulness and holiness. “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”
The days were also “evil” in the sense that iniquity abounded on every hand. Jews and Gentiles were setting at nought the commandments of God. The Psalmist in his day was so minded that the more men made void the divine law, the more he loved the Lord’s commandments above gold. Something of this spirit should obtain among the children of God in our own time. The more wicked men are devoting their days and years to the service of sin and Satan, the more the believer should endeavour to redeem his time to holy purposes—to the service of his Divine Redeemer. “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.”
What must be said to you who are still in your sins? Your time and all your works, even the very best, are unredeemed from sin and the curse. All your labour is in the fire, and will come to nought. Never will you be able to redeem one moment to the real glory of God until you flee for refuge, as guilty sinners, to lay hold upon the hope set before you in the Gospel. You must, by grace, begin with faith in the once-crucified, but now risen and ascended Redeemer, if you are to spend one moment of your time in a way that shall prove profitable for eternity. May the Lord in His infinite mercy incline many thus to seek and follow Him during the year upon which we are about to enter!