Redeeming the Time

In his epistle we know as Ephesians, Paul has this wonderful paragraph just before he introduces the household code of Ephesians 5:22-6:9. Various translations identify the paragraph differently, but I’m convinced the paragraph that precedes the household code should be 5:15-21. It is a “the rubber meets the road” kind of paragraph about the daily life of a follower of Jesus.

In my mind, the paragraph revolves around what it means to be “a Spirit-filled believer.” (5:18) As an aside, similar vocabulary is used in Acts 6:1-7 as one of the characteristics of the seven chosen to serve as “table waiters” in the earliest, early church. In Paul’s mind, a spirit-filled person is one who walks (lives) carefully (15), makes the most out of the opportunity (16), understands the will of God (17), worships (19), is thankful (20), and submits to one another out of reverence for Christ (21).

Every one of those characteristics of a spirit-filled follower of Jesus is something that each of us can work on in our daily living. No doubt, each is worth thinking about and reflecting on regularly. But today, I’m drawn to the phrase “make the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.”

I remember when, early in my life as a college instructor, we had a faculty workshop on time management. It was back in the day when Day Timer materials were the rage. That was long before smartphones and Outlook calendars were so easily accessible. The presenter for this workshop was intense, and even though I had a Day Timer calendar I carried with me all the time, I thought that I really was pathetic when it came to time management. He began and ended his presentation by quoting (misquoting, actually) this verse. I can still hear him insisting that “Paul commands you to use your time well.”

The problem is, Paul isn’t talking about time as in chronology, daily schedules, etc., he is talking about time as in the age in which you’re living. Paul knows a word that would more likely mean chronology, but he doesn’t use it here. This is a much bigger word – ultimately referring to “the new age,” or “the age of the kingdom of God.” Or, as I sometimes describe it in my classes, “the age between Pentecost in Acts 2 and the reappearing of Jesus at the end of this age.” It is the “in-between-the-times-time,” as the late I. Howard Marshall described it.

That seems to imply that rather than stressing out about how many Zoom meetings are on my schedule today, I should be thinking something like this: “In light of the fact that this is the age in which God is calling ‘all humans to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9), what am I doing to help God in that project?” That could very well mean I work on good time (chronology) management, but it could also mean, like I see in Jesus’ life, a willingness to be interrupted so that He could make the most of the opportunity . . . time . . . age.

It could also mean, like I see in Jesus’ life, a willingness to be interrupted so that He could make the most of the opportunity.

Paul’s “making the most of” word is also interesting. It was a marketplace word in his world and had to do with trading, perhaps something like “to drive a hard bargain.” Having visited lots of marketplaces in developing nations, I know I’m not good at “driving a hard bargain” when it comes to purchasing things. I still remember the necklace I wanted to purchase for my wife while I was in Guadalajara, Mexico, as a gift when I got home. The seller wanted me to pay $200. My native Mexican friend looked at me and said to the seller, “We’ll be back.”  We walked around a while, went back to the stall where the necklace was, and my friend said, “Let me do the talking.” I did. I ended up paying around $30 for the necklace.

What if I could learn to use my opportunities in this age of the kingdom of God that well?

Paul’s encouragement about how we use our opportunities is rooted in his conviction that “the days are evil.” So are ours. Little has changed on that front.

All of this has me thinking personally about my opportunities. Here are some of my questions.

• Do believers “make the most of the opportunity” when they casually pass along all kinds of information on social media that is not true?
• Do believers “make the most of the opportunity” when they constantly say, write, and post unkind things about politicians with whom they disagree? That’s a left and right phenomenon, by the way.
• Do believers “make the most of the opportunity” when they blatantly ignore science and its guidelines about the pandemic in the name of personal freedom?
• Do believers “make the most of the opportunity” when they dismiss concerns about the uneven scales of justice in ways that ignore the value of every human created in the image of God?
• Do believers “make the most of the opportunity” when they allow political alliances and opinions to overwhelm their Christian witness?
• Do believers . . . what would your question be?

It interests me that when I read the first scene of the Book of Acts (1:1-6:7), we see external forces, primarily Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, trying to stop the progress of the gospel. But it doesn’t work. Luke keeps telling stories of growth with very impressive numbers. He talks about “no needy people” and a kind of sharing of resources that is amazing.

It is only when there is an internal problem – the bad behavior of Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5:1-12 – that a wrinkle develops in the life and witness of the church. Soon, we find fellow believers fighting over who got the biggest piece of fried chicken at the fellowship meal last week. (Acts 6:1-7)

Maybe the best way we could “make the most of our time” is to quit pointing fingers at those external to the faith and start looking internally so that our behavior can look more like Jesus and less like some political theory. That would help us be more and more what a “spirit-filled believer” should look like.