PRECIOUS TIME
Ephesians 5:14-17 … Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Money comes and goes. Affection and love can come and go. Fame and position comes and goes, but time is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Time stretches before us in a seemingly endless ribbon. Time can be interrupted yet continues to progress without fail. Time can be grasped yet remain elusive and leave us scrambling. Time is made up of singular moments which, though memorable and unique, are part of a continuity of seamless advance. Who can re-take a defeated moment or re-live a victorious event? Where but the Bible would such an unbelievable concept originate; redeeming the time.
The Bible does not suggest we might go back and redo or remake time. The translators did not confuse the correct word and placement. We don’t need to search the original documents or study the Greek text. The Bible states we can be redeeming the time and means exactly what it says. It’s not a question of what it means but more how it can be accomplished. Contrary to some people’s opinion the Bible always and without question answers every question or perceived dilemma it may pose. Many of us simply don’t like the answer, don’t believe the answer, or aren’t aware of the questions and fail to dig for the truth. It’s time to get back to simply believing the Bible and quit second-guessing God. For instance, the Bible has made it clear the earth is round and there are paths in the sea. It has made this clear before men knew it and proved it to be so. Scoffers would jeer, taunt, and torture anyone who believed the Word of God against man’s sound conjecture. Yet, if not for some men’s belief in God’s word we would not have charted the currents of the oceans or discovered the “new world”. So, can we redeem time?
This passage is not God’s revelation of an unknown and futuristic time machine. Unlike Jules Verne’s disquieting tale, a state of utopia will occur in due time and under God’s benevolent and just rule. To take advantage of this opportunity of redeeming the time requires a particular operator and operation. The redeeming of time is not available to all people or peoples. As we go through this life time is already set and determined. The course and speed for each of us may vary in our own relevant perception of its progress, but everyone has a distinct end point. We cannot change the date nor can we usually anticipate the moment of the ending of time for each of us. There’s a distinct possibility that saints which return at Christ’s second coming will have no constraint of time. But today, redeeming the time is for every saint in the here and now.
Our lives are dictated from conception to be bound to sin. We are bound until we are regenerated with the Holy Spirit of God at the time of our rebirth in Christ Jesus. Being bound to sin caused us to follow a specific path. Every slave or bondman must follow the course of its master. Sinners follow the direction and whim of sin. Sin is the master, the sinner a slave. The path of sin is evil and the days bound to sin are evil days. When we are redeemed we are redeemed of the evil days we were once shackled and forced to endure. Redemption from the bonds of sin is redemption of the time we could and would have devoted to evil in our days.
Many people fail to realize how precious time is for the saint. We should never take it for granted or devote it to evil in any way. Jesus saved us from Hell, a life of bondage to sin, and redeemed the time we would have wasted in vanity. Vain pursuits are no longer the avenue of the saint. We must live to make every moment count for the glory of God. How is this possible? We must do as God’s Word instructs and walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, being not unwise but centered in God’s perfect will. Is this vanity? Not in the least. Vanity is temporal. God’s glory is eternal.
It is commanded and imperative for every saint to use God’s redeemed time in God’s way. After all, the days we were allotted in sin’s bondage were all vanity because, in sin, the days are evil. Time is worth more than all the money in the entire world. Time can’t be refunded or exchanged.
John 1:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Jesus had precious time. The Son of God had given up timeless eternity for a short walk in time’s prodding advance. Jesus made every good use of time in His short time among the unreceptive. Can’t we do the same?
Every day people remind us how precious their time is. It doesn’t matter whether they are spending time on vanity or God. Each moment for both is equally expensive and costly, but the moment is either temporal and vain or eternal and glorious. Why do we waste our time on vanity? Why must God goad and prod His children into doing God’s work and living God’s way? It is a wonder God stays His hand and doesn’t just chuck the whole bunch of us. If our children devoted as little time to our rules and showed very little love toward us, how would we react? It’s time we truly understood the seriousness and abundant blessing of redeemed time.
The days are evil and getting more so every day.
Have you redeemed the time?
It can be done, one soul at a time!
