Redeeming the Time

And you, He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh... and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (Ephesians 2) > > This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (Ephesians 4:17–19) > > See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15–16)

The clock falls back and we gain an hour—but Scripture calls us to redeem far more than lost sleep, because our days are short and the times are evil.

Redeeming the Time

As we finished the book of Romans, I began thinking about where we'd go next. With the time change last night, one verse kept running through my mind: "redeeming the time, because the days are evil." There's a sense that when we fall back every November, we redeem the hour we lost when we sprang forward.

Tomorrow, nineteen others from our church and I will board a plane to Israel and lose nine hours. When we return, we'll redeem the time we lost—though your body doesn't quite figure that out for a few days. This idea of redeeming the time is an important one, and we see it here in the text.

The Context of Ephesus

A little context helps. The church in Ephesus—a major city in Asia Minor—was partially founded by the Apostle Paul. In Acts 16, Paul desired to go into Asia Minor, likely to Ephesus, but something withstood him. Ephesus was a key city: a political, multi-ethnic link between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire. For all intents and purposes, it was a world trade center, with goods flowing in from the east, from Africa, and from the west.

Ephesus also housed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—the great temple to the goddess Artemis, or Diana. People came from everywhere to buy and sell and to worship there. An entire industry of coppersmiths and craftsmen grew up around making little images of this false god to sell to pilgrims. The whole life of the city was tied up in this worship.

Because so many goods and ideas poured into the city, it became a melting pot of diverse philosophies. The citizens of Ephesus were not so unlike the citizens of our own nation. They didn't have the internet or cable TV, but their mindset was similar: they would take a little from this philosophy and a little from that deity—a teaspoon of Apollo, a cup of Diana—and build their own personalized worldview.

Personalized Worldviews, Then and Now

There was a time in our nation when, if you asked anyone about spiritual things, they would say, "Yeah, I'm a Christian." That's not the way it is today. If you talk with a neighbor or co-worker about faith, you may hear, "Well, I'm glad that works for you. I have my truth, and you have your truth." There are all kinds of competing worldviews in our day—and it was very much the same in the first-century Greco-Roman world of Ephesus.

Paul knew Ephesus was a strategic hub, and he was a strategic thinker who brought the gospel into places of great influence. At the end of his second missionary journey, he stopped there and found that something like the gospel had arrived. The people in the synagogue knew only the baptism of John the Baptist. They had heard, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," but it was Jesus who gave the full context of what the kingdom was. Paul shared Jesus with them, then had to leave quickly.

On his third missionary journey (Acts 19), Paul returned and stayed three years, seeing the church founded and established. From Ephesus, church planters went out to Smyrna, Sardis, and Pergamos—churches later named in Revelation. This church was established around 54 AD. Ten years later, Paul writes this letter from Rome—not staying in a beautiful house, but under house arrest in a Roman prison—to a church he deeply loved.

The Walk of the World

Paul reminds them how they once lived. "You used to walk this way," he says in chapter 2—in wickedness, after the course of this world, conducting yourselves according to the desires of your flesh. You did whatever your flesh wanted. That was how everyone in Ephesus lived. They crafted their own philosophies and did what they pleased, worshiping false gods at the temples of Diana, Apollo, and Bacchus.

If you live according to your own personalized worldview, it's a very foolish way to live. If you're not a boat builder and decide to build a boat, would you trust your life to it in a storm? A worldview is like that boat: will it stand up to the storms of life? Everyone goes through storms.

Every philosophy must accurately answer four essential questions: What is my origin? What is my identity? What is my purpose? What is my destiny? The worldviews people craft for themselves do not answer these questions accurately. The Scriptures do—because the gospel is not the invention of man but the revelation of God.

Just Do It

Most competing worldviews default to a mindset of "do whatever you want to do." We see it in our marketing. Burger King: "Have it your way." Sprite: "Obey your thirst." That's a philosophy—obey whatever your flesh wants. Nike: "Just do it." They never tell you what "it" is; they want you to figure out whatever you want to do and just do it. Interestingly, Nike was itself the name of a false god.

Paul says to the followers of Jesus in Ephesus, "You should no longer walk as the rest of the world walks." How did the world walk? First, "in the futility of your mind"—doing whatever your mind could conceive. As a result, your "understanding was darkened," because you were "alienated from the life of God." God is light, so a life separated from Him walks in darkness.

Their hearts were blind, disconnected from the One who shows the path to life, immortality, and abundance. Going after anything they pleased, they came to a place of being "past feeling." This is the condition of the whole world separated from God. This is what sin does, for "the wages of sin is death." Sin is using the equipment God gave us in a way it was never meant to be used—and it is deadly.

Past Feeling

One of the greatest illustrations of this is leprosy, known today as Hansen's disease. We often associate it with skin lesions and the loss of fingers and toes, but that loss is a secondary effect. The disease devastates the nervous system, robbing the hands and feet of the sense of touch. When you stub or break a toe, you don't realize it; a cut becomes infected and the appendage falls off, because you never knew it happened. Imagine grabbing a hot iron and not knowing it was burning you. That is what sin does—it makes us past feeling.

God created us with a conscience, a sense of wrongdoing. When Adam and Eve sinned, they instantly recognized their failure. But over time, in the fall, man becomes past feeling, no longer even realizing when he is misusing the equipment God has given him. So Paul says: you used to walk that way—now, no longer walk as the rest of the world walks.

Walk Circumspectly

How, then, should we walk? "See then that you walk circumspectly." It's not a word we use often. The original Greek is akribōs—the same root that sounds like our word "acrobat." Every four years at the Olympics, the gymnastic events boggle my mind: people tumbling on a four-inch beam. While they do it, their minds are not on what they'll do later—they're focused on the task at hand, walking carefully, accurately, circumspectly.

In high school I played football, and from time to time the coach would have to say, "Miles, get your head in the game." Essentially that's what Paul is saying here: church, get your head in the game. Walk circumspectly—paying attention, engaged, not meandering through this life—because God has a purpose and a task He wants us to accomplish.

In chapter 6, Paul describes the armor of God using Roman imagery. One reason the Roman army was so effective is that they thought through their armor. They crafted their helmets so that soldiers could hear both the battle in front of them and the call of the generals behind them. They were circumspect—aware of what was happening. Paul says: be engaged, be aware, get your head in the game.

Four Reasons to Walk Circumspectly

First, it's foolish not to—"not as fools." It's like the scene in Wayne's World where Wayne's ex-girlfriend rides by on her bike, says, "Hi, Wayne," and rides straight into a parked car, flying over the handlebars. That's not walking circumspectly.

Second, it's wise to do so—"but as wise." Third, it's redemptive—"redeeming the time." We have a task to complete and a purpose to which God has called us, and time is short. In Romans 13, Paul says it's high time to awake and re-engage. Moses, in Psalm 90, prays, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Whether you're young or old, the time is short.

Fourth, the days are evil. There are snares and traps set for us. In chapter 6, Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God because we have a wily adversary. The difference between him and Wile E. Coyote is that the coyote never caught his prey—but the enemy ensnares many people, including many Christians, because they meander through their Christian existence, foolish and not redeeming the time.

How to Walk Circumspectly

How do I actually walk circumspectly? Paul gives specifics. Verse 17: "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." One of the most often asked questions of pastors is, "What's God's will for my life?" We want specifics—where to live, whom to marry, what job to take—but God gives us clear specifics in His word.

Here's one, verse 18: "Do not be drunk with wine"—which the King James calls "excess"—"but be filled with the Spirit." Yes, this clearly forbids drunkenness, but it has a wider view, because many things can intoxicate and bring us under their influence: pornography, shopping, eating. The people in Ephesus had many things to be absorbed with. Paul says: don't be intoxicated by the things of this world, but be filled with the Spirit. Literally, "be being continuously filled" with God, His kingdom, and His Spirit.

The Evidences of Being Spirit-Filled

When someone is intoxicated by alcohol, there are clear evidences. There are also evidences when a person is filled with the Spirit. Many immediately think of speaking in tongues or the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12–14, but that is not what Paul names here.

The first evidence is worship (verse 19): "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." If you are filled with the things of this world, it will be evident; if you are filled with God, it will be clearly seen in the worship of your life. And worship is not just singing at church—it's the devotion of your life. You become like what you worship.

The Psalms make this clear: the gods of this world are silver and gold, "eyes they have but they do not see, ears they have but they do not hear... and those who serve them are like them." You become like what you serve. We see it everywhere—someone devoted to surf culture starts to smell like wax and talk like the beach; someone into motorcycles begins to look like the leather and chains they admire. The god you worship is the god you will become.

The second evidence is thanksgiving (verse 20): "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." We set aside one day a year for giving thanks, but the Christian's whole life should be about thanksgiving.

The third evidence is submission (verse 21): "submitting to one another in the fear of God." Yielding to others is not of this world. The world is all about me—"have it your way," "just do it," "obey your thirst." The marketing of this world is aimed at you because it knows you are all about you. But Philippians 2:3, written near the same time, says, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." That is a Spirit-led life.

Closing Prayer

We're living in difficult, evil days—and have been for millennia since the fall. We need to be those who redeem the time, taking hold of it and taking advantage of the days in which we live, just as many of you took advantage of that extra hour of sleep last night. I know there are many ways I take my time for granted, so this week I've found myself asking the Lord to help me. If that's your prayer too, pray with me:

Lord, I recognize that it's my propensity to be vain in my mind and blind in my heart. I see how easily I become separated from You, how easily I find myself walking not in the light but in darkness. Help me to walk circumspectly—to have my head in the game, to be diligent and not meandering. Help me to recognize the wickedness around me and to wisely redeem the times. Help me not to be intoxicated by the things of this world, but to be filled by Your Spirit. Fill me with Your Spirit, and may Your presence be evident in my life—in the way I worship You, in the devotion of my life, in my thanksgiving toward You, in my putting others above myself. Lord, work these things out in me this week, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.