A WALK ON THE WISE SIDE: USING TIME WISELY

(Ephesians 5:15-17)

There is a wonderful verse in Romans 16:19. The latter half of that verse
says, “I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is
evil.” “I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is
evil.” That is the lesson of the next few verses we want to tackle in
Ephesians 5. Ephesians 1-3: great theology – forgiven, redeemed, adopted,
sealed and saved. Then in chapter 4 he begins to say, “Conduct yourselves
accordingly. Four times previously Paul has used the word “walk” to
introduce a section: Walk in unity; in holiness; in love and in light. Now,
walk in Ephesians 5:15 and all the way through 6:9, walk in wisdom. He
gives some very practical exhortations in this section. Verses 15-21
comprise an introduction. We’ve called it a “walk on the wise side” as
opposed to a walk on the wild side which is exactly what it is opposing.

The Command

Eph 5:15: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
16) making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17) Therefore
do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18) And do
not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
19) addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20) giving thanks
always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, 21) submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Notice his phraseology. “Look carefully then how you walk.” It’s a
command. You have a responsibility here to walk, to conduct yourselves
wisely. Details coming -- but let me drive home the point -- this is a
command. It is within our ability to do and it is expected that we will.
Look carefully – analyze, think about, consider, reflect upon, evaluate
comprehensively, truthfully and without rationalizing how you are living
and insure that it is wise. Don’t rationalize. Imagine what God is seeing
and how it looks from His perspective and you will get the point, for He
says in His Word, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the
knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov 9:10). Ask about every
lifestyle decision, how would God view this, and guess what? You will on
the path to wisdom. No commodity is more precious to a true believer than
wisdom. We read in Prov 16:16, “16) How much better to get wisdom than
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gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” God’s
perspective is that wisdom is far more important than money. Choose
wisdom first.

Look at Ephesians 5:14–15 Paul is saying, “Don’t walk in your sleep! Wake
up! Open your eyes! Make the most of the day!” I once knew of a guy who
often walked in his sleep at night. I thought that sounded rather exotic.
Sleepwalking. But then one night he walked right through a plate glass
patio door and cut himself to smithereens. Sleepwalking didn’t sound like
so much fun anymore. Similarly, sleepwalking Christians, drifting through
life with little thought of eternal realities will suffer great loss in the end.

A man who had been in a mental home for some years was being
considered for release. The head of the institution asked him, "Tell me, if
we release you, as we are considering doing, what do you intend to do with
your life?” The inmate said, "It would be wonderful to get back to real life
and if I do, I will avoid my former mistake. I was a nuclear physicist, you
know, and it was the stress of my work in weapons research that put me
here. If I am released, I shall confine myself to work in pure theory, where
the situation will be less difficult and stressful." "Marvelous," said the head
of the institution. "Or else," ruminated the inmate. "I might teach. There is
something to be said for bringing up a new generation of scientists."
"Absolutely," said the head. "Or, I might write. There is a need for books
on science for the general public. I might even write a novel based on my
experiences in this fine institution." "An interesting possibility," said the
head. “But what if none of those things work out?" “Well, in that case,”
said the patient, “I can always continue to be a teakettle."

See, that is precisely what we don’t want to do. Don’t just go on being a
teakettle. Rise above that existence. We don’t want to go on being what we
always have been. In fact, to do so is to deny what we are now. The Bible
teaches that at salvation every believer has already been made wise. Paul
wrote to Timothy: “You have been acquainted with the sacred writings,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”
(2 Tim. 3:15). By God’s grace, the saved “are in Christ Jesus, who became
to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and
redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Just as in Christ God miraculously makes us
immediately righteous, sanctified, and redeemed, He also makes us
immediately wise. The moment we were saved we became a repository of
wisdom that henceforth renders us responsible for our behavior. Because
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we are in Christ, “the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” that are hidden
in Him (Col. 2:3) are therefore also hidden in us. We cannot have salvation
without God’s wisdom any more than we can have salvation without his
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So once again, the real
challenge is to live in practice what we already have in position.

The Incentive

Now, Paul doesn’t just say walk wisely for no reason. He gives us an
incentive. Beginning at verse 15: “Look carefully then how you walk, not
as unwise but as wise, 16) making the best use of the time, because the days
are evil.” Why are we to walk on the wise side? Because the days are evil.
The days are evil? What does he mean by that?

Well—we don’t have to look far. We don’t even have to get out of
Ephesians. Remember Eph 2:1-3: “1) And you were dead in the trespasses
and sins 2) in which you once walked, following the course of this world,
following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in
the sons of disobedience— 3) among whom we all once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” If you were with us
when we studied that you will remember that we identified the three great
enemies of every believer right there – the world (outside, cultural anti-God
influences), the flesh (the old sin nature still working on us) and the devil
(evil personified, and identified here as the prince of the power of the air).
That trio of supernatural “bad guys” is constantly working on us to walk
unwisely – take a walk on the wild side. “Come on over and enjoy all the
enticements of the flesh and of power and of greed. Escape the boredom of
ordinary life. We will dazzle you.” And indeed they will – for awhile.
But after that while, the price is steep. In contrast, God is saying, “Take a
walk on the wise side. The days in this world always have been and always
will be evil since the Fall. True, there is pleasure in sin for a time. But time
is short. Get an eternal perspective. Walk not as unwise, but as wise.”

Now – the question – what does it mean to walk as wise? Obviously as we

suggested right at the beginning, it is to walk with God’s perspective in
mind rather than mine. But to help us out, Paul is going to give several
instructions through 6:9 to help. In verses 15-21 we will see four great
introductory instructions. What does it mean to walk not as unwise but as
wise. It means to I) Use Time Wisely (16); II) Uproot Foolishness (17);
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III) Understand God’s Will (17) and finally, IV) Unleash the Holy Spirit
(18-21). In coming weeks we will study those in more detail. Let’s start
today with the first. How do we walk wisely? By using time wisely.

I. Use Time Wisely

Look at verses 15-16 again: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as
unwise but as wise, 16) making the best use of the time, because the days
are evil.” Making the best use of time. I prefer the old King James
rendering “redeeming the time” because that is exactly what the Greek says
here and it encourages us that we can perform an almost God-like function
when it comes to time. We can redeem it. What a thought!

Too often we are like the boss who gives one of his sales representatives an
almost impossible assignment – fifteen cities in nine days. When the rep
returns, the boss says, “All right, where are the orders?” The rep replies,
“Orders? What orders? I’ve been way too busy traveling to have time to
take orders?” This is perhaps the greatest danger of life – that we get so
busy living that we forget what we are living for and arrive at the end only
to find that we have wasted it all. Oh – what a tragedy that would be.
We’ve spent a lifetime of activity to no eternal purpose whatsoever.

So – we must redeem the time. Time is a resource equally available to all.

But it must be redeemed. It must be bought back. It is under the sway of
an evil master, and we must redeem it. Some translations read “make the
most of our time” or “make the most of every opportunity.” That is the
sense to the instruction. The days are evil. The world and the philosophies
of the age in which we live are not oriented toward the God that we serve,
and so we must take advantage of every opportunity to represent Him, to
show Him off, to speak of Him, to live like Him. We have friends and
relatives who are not saved and nothing about the world in which they live
will point them to Christ, so we must take advantage of every opportunity.
All of those things are true, but nothing captures the sense of the passage
quite so succinctly and pointedly as that we must redeem the time.

Now, what does it mean to redeem the time? Notice it does not say
“making the best use of time”. It says, “making the best use of the time.”
That word “the” is important. W have only one word for time in English,
but Greek has two. The first is χρονος which refers to clock time – the flow
of time measured in hours, minutes and seconds. One event following
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another. It is the basis for our word “chronology.” That is not the word
Paul uses here. Rather, he uses καιρος – kairos, which means a fixed
season of time – an epoch, a special period of time, an allotment of time
that is especially significant or favorable. It’s like saying, “The golden age
of baseball was the time of Babe Ruth.” Jesus used it this way when He
said, “My appointed time is near” (Matt 26:18), referring to His coming
crucifixion.

As used here, it reflects the fact that God has set boundaries on our lives.
We don’t have time without end. We have “the” time – whatever time He
has fixed for us. We have “the” opportunity. It isn’t forever. What he is
urging here is that as we are presented with individual opportunities in our
lifetime, we buy them up, take advantage, serve Christ while we can.

Now, the word which is translated “making the best use or most” is usually
translated “redeeming” and it means “to rescue by buying.” It was
commonly used to speak of the redemption of slaves from their servitude.
To be redeemed was to be bought out of slavery. The mere passing of time
– the mere sequence of days and months and years is neutral – neither good
nor bad. But in urging us to redeem time, Paul is implying that the time is
held hostage or subject to evil. In fact, he cleverly makes that point with his
next phrase. Why do we need to redeem time? He answers, “because the
days are evil.” What are days? Why, they are time, are they not? They are
just one specific measurement of time, and he says they are evil.

So, in what sense are days evil? Well, days are evil in the sense that they are
happening under the present anti-God world system that dominates time and
history. The Fall of Genesis 3 affected not just man, but nature and time
as well. Everything since tends toward evil and not good. Just as material
things run down, wear out and become corrupted when left to themselves,
so human nature tends toward selfishness and evil left to itself. Our world
system encourages us to deny, minimize or ignore God. Intervention is
required to change that – exactly what Paul is urging when he says, make
the most of the time, the opportunity that is yours.

Here is Paul’s word picture. He uses a present tense word which means that
this must be an ongoing, continuous action. Here you are in the market
place of time and you see an opportunity, a chance to reflect or represent
God. Paul is saying, “buy it up.” Do it. And then a few minutes later when
another comes along, “buy it up.” You can’t buy for the future and you
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can’t go back and buy what you missed in the past. But you can surely buy
for the present moment and that’s the way he wants us to live.

Now, it seems pretty clear that the “evil days” will not help us with this
process, right? In fact, the evil days, the philosophies of the world system
in which we live, will tell us some lies with respect to time and the
opportunities that it represents. Let me suggest two or three to help us see
how we can “make the best use of” or “redeem” the time – the opportunities
and chances that God gives us. What are some “evil day” lies?

A. You have plenty of time

This is such a big lie. It goes something like this. As we look into the new
year, we look at a block of time. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days,
8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And then we think, I
have probably have at least 50 more of those years – so more than 1.5
billion seconds. Man – that’s a lot of time, isn’t it? Surely it’s not a big
deal if I waste one here and there. But let me ask this. But those 50 years
aren’t a promise – they are only a possibility, right? You might not make it
quite that far. In fact, we’re not actually promised the 31 million second for
next year, are we? Just seems like a reasonable assumption given the laws
of probability. But what do we really have? We really have now, don’t
we? Now, and nothing more. The truth is, if I don’t redeem it now, this
opportunity, this moment, I have no guarantee that another possibility is
ever coming. The Bible says in Psa 90:12, “12) So teach us to number our
days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Wisdom redeems now! It turns
out that “the” time is now – nothing beyond now is guaranteed.

Lee Atwater wanted to reach two goals before he was forty: manage a
winning presidential campaign and head the Republican party. He
accomplished both—the first by managing the 1988 Bush campaign, the
second when the president-elect asked him to become chairman of the
National Republican Committee. But shortly thereafter, Atwater’s goals
changed drastically. During a speech at a fund-raiser in 1990, he suddenly
began to shake uncontrollable. He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed
with cancer—an egg-sized tumor was on his brain. Radiation killed it, but
could do nothing for a second tumor. Before has death on March 29, 1991,
Atwater wrote about the 1980’s as the decade of acquiring wealth, power,
and prestige. He had subscribed to it wholeheartedly. “But you can acquire
all you want and still feel empty,” he wrote. “What power wouldn’t I trade
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for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an
evening with my friends….” There are no guarantees, Beloved. All we
really have to redeem is now. It is said that the last words of Queen
Elizabeth I were “I would give all I have for one more hour.” To use time
wisely is to seize every opportunity for Christ as though it were the last you
will have. You never know when it will be.

B. Time is All Important

This lie keeps us focused on the here and now as though that was all there
is. We know deep down that it is not, but all our attention is given to
temporal things. When you think about it, most of the world focuses a
lifetime of effort on providing ease for the 5 years on average we live after
retirement. And even that often fails. What a waste.

When we are living only for an earthly future, then we have bought much
too high and sold too low. John Wesley once mused on earthly greatness:
“I was in the robe-chamber, adjoining to the House of Lords, when the
King put on his robes. His brow was much furrowed with age, and quite
clouded with care. And is this all the world can give even a King? All the
grandeur it can afford? A blanket of ermine around his shoulders, so
heavy and cumbersome he can scarce move under it! A huge heap of
borrowed hair, with a few plates of gold and glittering stones upon his
head! Alas, what a bauble is human greatness! And even this will not
endure.” Don’t let that be you, Beloved. Give to the Lord’s work; live for
His glory; reflect His holiness; speak a word for Him. That’s what will last.
The rest is chaff. Redeem the time. Live for eternity, not for now.

C. Busyness Equals Productivity

There are many other lies, but let us consider one more – the idea that
busyness equals productivity. We can get so busy, sometimes even with
good things, that we forget the best. We can love family and we can love
church and we can forget the Lord who makes it all worthwhile. Was that
not Martha’s problem in Luke 10? She just wanted to make dinner for the
Lord a memorable occasion. But she got all bothered and troubled.
Meanwhile, Mary made sitting at the feet of Jesus not only a memorable
occasion but also the only eternally rewarding thing. Jesus said of her in
Luke 10:42, “42) But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good
portion, which will not be taken away from her.” To use time wisely is to
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spend every single moment of it with the Savior and to devote a significant
time specifically to Him on a daily basis.

In Tolstoy’s Man and Dame, Fortune the hero is told he can have the right
to all of the land around which he can plow a furrow in a single day. The
man starts off with great vigor, and is going to encompass only that which
he can easily care for. But as the day progresses he desires more and more
rights. He plows and plows, until near day’s end he realizes he has no
chance to return to his starting point. In his effort to do so, he falls dead of a
heart attack. In the end the only right he secured was to 18 square feet of
land in which he was buried. Beloved, we must not get so busy that we
neglect the one thing that is necessary – time with Him. Redeem the time.
Be with Him. Don’t get so busy you forget what’s important.

Conclusion

In the movie, Dead Poets Society, the English teacher, John Keating, played
by Robin Williams, has a student read a line from the poem, “Famed”, by
Robert Herrick.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

Old time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

Immediately Keating interjects the idea of carpe diem. He asked his

students, “Who knows what it means?” A student in the front of the class
said, “It means to seize the day.” In answer to his own question as to why it
is important to seize the day he says: “Because we are food for worms,
lads, because believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is
one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die.” Then he shows them
a case full of photographs, much like the writer to Hebrews introduces the
Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11. He reminds them of those who have
preceded them at the school and how they seized their opportunities. As the
boys are captivated by these pictures, Keating said, “…if you listen real
close you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in, and
listen. You can hear it – [just like those witnesses in Hebrews 11]. You can
hear them: “Carpe…carpe…carpe diem.” Seize the day, Beloved! Buy up
every opportunity like you were buying up jewels at the jewelry store. Live
for eternity. Rise above the tedium of the evil days. Make your lives
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extraordinary. Redeem the time. I want you to be wise as to what is good
and innocent as to what is evil.. Let’s pray.