The King James Version uses the word “redeem,” as in “redeeming the time.” To us redeem is a salvation word, but originally it comes from the marketplace and means to “buy back” or to “purchase” something. You “redeem” something when you buy it for your own use.
The NIV uses the word “opportunity” instead of time. That’s because the Greek language has two basic words for time. One word refers to the passage of time in the sense that we talk about hours, minutes and second. “What time is it?” “It’s 6:22 PM. We’re leaving in eight minutes.” That’s one sort of time. The other Greek word refers not to the strict passage of time but to the moment of opportunity that requires action. It’s what Martin Luther King meant when he told the vast crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on a hot August day in 1963, “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.” It’s that phrase-the fierce urgency of now.”
Paul says there is a particular reason we must “redeem the time” and grasp “the fierce urgency of now.” Check that little phrase at the end of verse 16. “Because the days are evil.” Here’s another translation. The Message Bible says, “These are desperate times!”
Paul writes these words while chained to the guards in a Roman jail. The emperor was a man by the name of Nero, a perverted excuse for a king. Before too long he would set fire to Rome and blame the Christians. Later he would order Paul beheaded. And Ephesus was a city wholly given over to heathenism. In Paul’s day it was the most important city in the Roman province of Asia. Located near the coast, Ephesus served as a center for international commerce. It was a prosperous, bustling, booming city. It was home to the famous Temple of Artemis. That was the glory of ancient Ephesus. Artemis was called Diana by the Romans. But they referred to the same thing. Artemis was the goddess of sex. Her temple was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The central portion contained a statue of a woman with many breasts, symbolizing unfettered sexual freedom. We in this century have nothing on the ancient world. The people worked themselves up into a religious frenzy and then followed their lustful desires. One ancient writer said of the Ephesians, “Their morals were lower than animals.” Astrology, black magic, and sorcery joined with sexual perversion to produce a degraded form of idolatry that held ancient Ephesus in its grip.
Meanwhile clouds of persecution are rolling in on the horizon. As the gospel spread, it encountered opposition that saw Jesus and his followers as a threat. The crosscurrents of heresy threatened to undermine the purity of the gospel. That’s what Paul meant when he said, “These are desperate times!”
Evil days tempt us to despair, encourage us to give up, to say, “We can’t do it” because the day is dark, the hearts of men have grown cold, and there is nothing to be done. I for one refuse to think like that. Sometimes we give up too soon. The things that make it difficult for us for live as Christians are the things that make us shine.
-Hard times are blessings in disguise.
-Days of moral compromise offer incredible opportunities for the gospel.
When the world around us seems to be going haywire, we have an incredible opportunity to display the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. The darker the night, the brighter the light shines. Redeem your time!
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