Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Redeeming the time - The word rendered here as "redeeming," means "to purchase; to buy up" from the possession or power of anyone; and then to redeem, to set free - as from service or bondage; notes, Galatians 3:13. Here it means, to rescue or recover our time from waste; to improve it for great and important purposes.
Because the days are evil - Because the times in which you live are evil. There are many allurements and temptations that would lead you away from the proper improvement of time, and that would draw you into sin. Such were those that would tempt them to go to places of sinful indulgence and revelry where their time would be wasted, and worse than wasted. As these temptations abounded, they ought therefore to be more especially on their guard against a sinful and unprofitable waste of time. This exhortation may be addressed to all, and is applicable to all periods. The sentiment is, that we ought to be solicitous to improve our time to some useful purpose, because "there are, in an evil world, so many temptations to waste it." Time is given us for most valuable purposes. There are things enough to be done to occupy it all, and no one need have it hang heavy on his hands. He that has a soul to be saved from eternal death, need not have one idle moment. He that has a heaven to win, has enough to do to occupy all his time. Man has just enough given him to accomplish all the purposes which God designs, and God has not given him more than enough. They redeem their time who employ it:
(1)In gaining useful knowledge;
(2)In doing good to others;
(3)In employing it for the purpose of an honest livelihood for themselves and families;
(4)In prayer and self-examination to make the heart better;
(5)In seeking salvation, and in endeavoring to do the will of God.
They are to redeem time from all that would waste and destroy it - like recovering marshes and fens to make them rich meadows and vineyards. There is time enough wasted by each sinner to secure the salvation of the soul; time enough wasted to do all that is needful to be done to spread religion around the world, and to save the race. We should still endeavor to redeem our time for the same reasons which are suggested by the apostle - because the days are evil. There are evil influences abroad; allurements and vices that would waste time, and from which we should endeavor to rescue it. There are evil influences tending to waste time:
(1)In the allurements to pleasure and amusement in every place, and especially in cities;
(2)In the temptations to novel-reading, consuming the precious hours of probation to no valuable purpose;
(3)In the temptations of ambition, most of the time spent for which is wholly thrown away, for few gain the prize, and when gained, it is all a bauble, not worth the effort;
(4)In dissipation - for who can estimate the amount of valuable time that is worse than thrown away in the places of revelry and dissipation;
(5)In wild and visionary plans - temptations to which abound in all lands, and pre-eminently in our own;
(6)And in luxurious indulgence - in dressing, and eating, and drinking.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Ephesians 5:16:
Galatians 3:13
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