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Walking Wisely in Evil Days: Redeeming the Time (Ephesians 5:15–16) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. We're doing another deep dive
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  today, really getting into a specific passage and seeing what
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  it means for, well, for how we live our lives as Christians.
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  Today our focus is well, it's about urgency, but also
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  precision. We're looking at Ephesians
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  chapter 5, verses 15 and 16, a really packed couple of.
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  Verses. Absolutely.
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  Packed, Paul tells us there. Look carefully then, how you
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  walk. Not as unwise, but as wise.
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  Redeeming the time because the days are evil.
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  And looking at our sources, the consensus seems to be this isn't
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  just about being busy, it's more like a call to wise urgency.
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  Does that sound right? Yeah, Wise urgency captures it
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  well. It's this idea of stewardship,
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  but one that's born out of grace.
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  You know, it gives us a real ethical practical strategy.
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  So today we want to unpack what that careful walking means, what
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  redeeming the time really costs, and why Paul gives this command
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  right then. And the first thing I think we
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  have to get is that Paul doesn't just like, throw these commands
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  out there randomly. There's 15 isn't some standalone
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  proverb. It's woven really tightly into
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  the section right before it, Ephesians 5 verses 8 through 21.
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  That whole block deals with the Christian walk, with wisdom, and
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  with the Spirit. OK, so context is key.
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  Before we jump into redeeming time, we need to see where it
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  fits theologically. Where does Paul start this
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  section? He starts with the indicative.
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  That's just the reality of who God has made us in Christ.
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  Paul says it plainly. You were darkness, but now you
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  are light in the Lord. So the reality comes first.
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  Exactly. And the imperative, the command
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  to walk as children of light, that follows from the certainty
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  of who we are. We're not told to walk carefully
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  to become light. We walk carefully because we are
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  light. That's a crucial distinction.
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  Our identity in Christ is secure.
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  So why is the walk itself described as something needing
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  such careful attention? Is it about forgetting our
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  identity or something else? I think the difficulty comes
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  because that new identity immediately demands something
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  from us. Active engagement.
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  Discernment identity flows right into verse 10.
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  Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
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  The walk is hard because it demands we keep testing
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  everything, our habits, our conduct, our goals against God's
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  revealed will. And that testing takes work.
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  It needs a word informed critique of ourselves
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  constantly. Constantly.
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  And looking at the structure verse 15, look carefully then
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  how you walk seems like the bridge, doesn't it?
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  It takes that general call for discernment and makes a very
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  specific, very behavioral. That's a great way to put it.
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  It is the bridge. Verse 15 connects back to the
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  discernment in verse 10, and it pushes forward to verse 17,
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  understanding what the will of the Lord is.
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  So it's a sequence. What we are dictates what we
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  must discern, which then shapes how we walk with precision.
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  And that leads us to the power source needed for all this.
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  Yes, because you read this and you think, OK, how on earth do I
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  live with that level of constant precision?
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  It's clearly beyond just, you know, gritting my teeth and
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  trying harder. Right.
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  Where does Paul point for the the fuel for this kind of walk?
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  He points straight to the Holy Spirit.
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  The Spirit is the only sufficient power, the only
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  engine for this wise walking. Paul uses that really sharp
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  contrast in verse 18. Between being drunk with wine
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  and being filled with the spirit.
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  Exactly. Being drunk leads to debauchery,
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  loss of control. Being filled with the Spirit,
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  though, is also a kind of surrender, but it's surrender to
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  Christ's authority, and the result isn't loss of control,
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  but actually holy judgement and joyful obedience.
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  That's a powerful image. Drunkenness means losing
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  judgement to a substance, leading to dissipation.
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  Spirit filling means yielding judgement to God, leading to,
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  well, more spiritual control and coherence.
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  Precisely. And this yielding, this filling
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  is the absolute requirement for carrying out these commands
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  about wisdom and careful walking.
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  But, and this is important, Paul doesn't frame the Spirit feeling
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  as some kind of like private mystical experience.
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  Which is how many people think of it today.
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  Isn't it like an internal feeling?
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  Personal comfort. Right.
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  But Paul immediately corrects that idea.
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  He shows us the public, the corporate expression of being
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  spirit filled. OK, So what does that look like
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  according to the text? It looks like word filled
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  communal holiness. It happens within the church
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  body. Paul uses these very active,
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  interactive participles, addressing one another in psalms
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  and hymns, singing and making melody, giving thanks, and,
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  crucially, submitting to one another.
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  That's verses 19 to 21. So the careful wise walk isn't a
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  solo journey, it's sustained by the life of the church, by
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  speaking truth to each other and worship by mutual
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  accountability. That's it.
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  Wisdom is practiced together, powered by the Spirit, governed
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  by the Word. OK, let's shift then to the
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  posture itself, verse 15. Look carefully.
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  Not as unwise, but as wise. That command look carefully
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  bleeped. It sounds like more than just a
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  glance. Oh, much more.
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  It's an imperative, meaning keep watching, be constantly
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  attentive. It's like being on guard duty.
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  You need an alert gaze looking ahead.
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  And then there's the adverb a cribus.
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  A cribus that means. Careful accuracy, precision.
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  This is where it gets really practical.
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  Grace doesn't make us lazy or passive because we've been
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  redeemed. Grace actually demands this kind
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  of rigorous watchfulness. So precision is the opposite of
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  just stumbling through life accidentally.
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  It's a commitment, isn't it? A commitment to make sure the
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  whole pattern of life, work, home, downtime lines up with
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  what is pleasing to the Lord. That's the goal, and it's a high
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  bar. This precision requires that
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  word governed evaluation. We talked about holding the
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  mirror of Scripture up to everything.
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  Habits, feelings, even how we react to things.
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  It's stopping to check our steps against God's map, not just our
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  own feelings or what seems easiest.
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  Yes. It's what sanctification looks
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  like in practice. Alert discriminating steps.
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  And the opposite of this wise walk is the life of the unwise,
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  The asafoi. You mentioned this isn't about
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  IQ points. No, definitely not.
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  It's a covenant category. Being Asape means being
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  unaligned. Your life is uncalibrated to
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  what pleases God. In Scripture.
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  Wisdom and folly are always moral categories tied to your
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  relationship with God and His standard.
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  So the fool isn't necessarily unintelligent, but the one who
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  rejects God's standard. That's the heart of it.
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  And how does this lack of wisdom, this foolishness, show
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  up? It sounds like maybe Nah, a lack
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  of purpose. It often looks like spiritual
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  inertia, just kind of drifting the unwise.
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  Life tends to react passively to whatever comes along, the pings
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  and pressures. As the sources put it, the world
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  sets the agenda, or maybe just your own desires at that moment.
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  Instead of intentionally choosing steps based on God's
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  Word. Right.
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  It's that slow, subtle slide away from God that often feels
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  comfortable, even normal. And if a life is uncalibrated,
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  it means it's running on different standards, not God's.
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  Will. Our sources point out a few
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  counterfeit standards that enable this drift.
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  What's the big one? Probably the most common 1 today
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  is pragmatism. Just judging everything by the
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  results. If it works, it must be right.
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  Confusing functionality with faithfulness.
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  Exactly. You can justify almost anything,
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  harshness, cutting corners, compromising truth, if the end
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  result looks good or efficient. But God cares about how we walk,
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  not just the destination. The huge trap?
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  What about errors related to spiritual guidance?
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  Well, there's mysticism. That's the chase for, you know,
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  extra biblical impressions, private whispers, feelings as
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  the main guide for decision. Instead of relying on scripture.
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  Right wise walking relies on the public revelation of God's Word.
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  Seeking some private special word often bypasses the clear
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  standard Paul sets for discernment right here in
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  Ephesians. And the third counterfeit, it
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  relates to effort, doesn't it? Yes, legalism.
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  This is that nagging suspicion that our effort, our precision,
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  somehow earns God's favor. It shifts our assurance away
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  from Christ's finished work onto our own performance.
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  Which makes the whole effort anxious and striving, not
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  grateful. Totally true.
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  Precision flows from gratitude because we're accepted, not in
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  order to be accepted. It's an act of love, not wage
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  earning. So passivity, distorted
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  guidance, anxious striving, they all fail because they either
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  ignore God's standard or get the motivation wrong.
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  They do, and thankfully, because God's standard is clear, we
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  actually have a way to test our actions, a kind of moral
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  diagnostic, even when things seem to be working.
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  OK, let's look at that diagnostic.
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  James 3.17 gives us this profile of true wisdom.
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  Right, James says. Wisdom from above is pure, then
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  peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good
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  fruits, impartial and sincere. That's the checklist.
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  So if we make a decision, maybe even a strategic one, but the
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  way we carry it out makes us argumentative, harsh, unwilling
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  to listen, defensive. Then it fails the wisdom test.
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  Regardless of the outcome. If your wise strategy leads to
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  ungodly behavior in you or towards others, it wasn't truly
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  wise in God's eyes. The process reveals the source
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  of the wisdom. That's a vital check.
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  OK, so the posture is precision. Now, how does that translate
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  into an active strategy that takes us right into verse 16,
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  redeeming the time. What does that phrase actually
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  mean? This is where the urgency really
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  kicks in. The Greek is exaggerazum annoy
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  tonkiron literally buying up the Kairos, and it's a present
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  participle, meaning it's something we should be doing
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  continually. Buying up like at a market.
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  Exactly like that. The verb exaggerazi's is a
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  marketplace term. Imagine seeing a valuable,
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  scarce item you absolutely need and you quickly pay the price to
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  secure it before it's gone or someone else grabs it.
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  That's the image. Wow.
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  And that specific verb xagarazu? That's significant, isn't it?
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  Isn't that the same word Paul uses for?
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  For Christ's redemption, yes, buying us out of slavery to sin
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  and the law paying the price with his blood.
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  So the connection is huge. It's foundational.
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  Our sources call it the Grammar of Grace.
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  Christ's finished work, His buying us, generates the
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  imperative for us to be buying up these opportunities.
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  Because He bought us, He owns us, and that includes our time.
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  So we're not redeeming time to earn favor.
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  No, we do it because Favor has already found us.
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  We're his stewards. Precision, redeeming time.
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  These are acts of grateful stewardship, acknowledging his
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  ownership, not trying to pay him back.
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  OK, so our time isn't just ours to waste, it's his to be
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  stewarded. But what kind of time are we
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  supposed to be buying up? You mentioned Kairos, it's not
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  just clock time. Right, there are two main Greek
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  words for time. Kronos is just sequential time,
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  seconds, minutes, hours ticking by quantitative.
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  Like chronology? Exactly.
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  But Paul uses Kairos. Kairos is qualitative time.
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  It's the opportune moment, the fitting season, the specific
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  window where a particular act of obedience or witness or love is
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  uniquely called for. So Kairos is like the right time
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  for something specific, a God appointed window.
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  That's a good way to think of it.
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  These providential windows pop up and we need to recognize them
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  and act before, as the sources say, waste and wickedness claim
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  them. If you miss the Kairos, that
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  specific opportunity is gone. Can you give some examples?
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  What does Kairos look like day-to-day?
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  Well, it's often relational or situational.
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  Your neighbor is going through a crisis?
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  That's Kairos. For practical help and maybe
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  gentle gospel witness. Your child asks a hard question
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  about God out of the blue. That's Kairos for discipleship.
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  Or maybe just realizing you have a 30 minute quiet slot in your
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  schedule. Yes, and recognizing that is the
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  Kairos for focused prayer for your church or your family
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  instead of just letting it evaporate into scrolling or
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  distraction. Redeeming it means seizing that
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  specific window for that specific godly purpose.
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  OK. So we're buying up these
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  valuable fleeting moments. What's the currency?
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  What does it cost us? It always cost something.
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  Buying high res requires, as the sources put it, the discipline
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  of subtraction. Because time is finite, choosing
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  to seize one opportunity means choosing not to do something
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  else. And we're not just talking about
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  subtracting sin, which is always required.
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  It's often about subtracting good things or neutral things.
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  Often, yes. It's about saying no to lesser
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  goods or even neutral amusements that become time thieves, the
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  things that crowd out communion with God or acts of love and
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  service. Like staying up late watching
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  something entertaining. It might feel harmless, but.
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  But if it means you're too wiped out the next morning for
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  meaningful prayer, or too foggy to really engage in worship on
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  Sunday, then that neutral amusement actually stole a more
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  valuable Kairos. The cost of securing the Kairos
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  for preparation or worship was subtracting that late night
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  diversion. That discipline of subtraction
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  sounds really hard, especially today, with endless distractions
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  practically begging for our attention.
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  That means putting actual limits on things.
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  It has to it might mean capping screen time, say 30 minutes on
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  weekdays, or might be having specific media free times.
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  And it often means replacing a time wasting habit not just with
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  nothing, but with a positive counter habit like reading a
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  Psalm or praying instead of late night scrolling.
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  So it's strategic removal, cutting out the patterns that
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  make us drift or become dull. It's like spiritual surgery
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  sometimes necessary area to maintain that alert precision.
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  And this whole strategy, this urgency, it's grounded in the
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  reason Paul gives at the end of verse 16, because the days are
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  evil. That sounds pretty stark.
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  It is stark, but it's meant to be realistic, not pessimistic.
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  Paul isn't saying everything is hopelessly awful.
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  He's grounding our urgency in moral realism.
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  We need to recognize that evil is real.
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  It permeates the environment, the cultural weather.
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  So time isn't neutral ground. No time is contested ground.
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  Evil forces are actively working to waste our moments, distract
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  our hearts, numb our consciences.
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  We're in a spiritual conflict zone.
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  And knowing that the days are evil, knowing we're in contested
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  territory, that mandates this vigilance, this strategic
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  holiness. Absolutely calculated obedience.
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  Seizing moments for God, for evil or apathy, squanders them,
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  and this awareness guards against two opposite errors we
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  can fall into. OK, what are those?
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  The first sounds like maybe just doing nothing passivity.
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  Yeah, that's quietism, spiritual inertia.
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  It's that sort of let go and let God passivity that
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  misunderstands grace. It assumes the Spirit works
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  automatically without our effort.
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  But the Bible commands us to strive, to walk, to redeem.
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  It requires spirit enabled industry.
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  We work hard because the Spirit enables us.
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  OK, so not passivity. What's the other ditch?
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  The opposite extreme hustle culture or maybe productivity.
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  Idolatry. Mistaking frantic, often anxiety
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  driven busyness for true holiness.
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  Trying to justify ourselves by how much we get done.
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  Instead of spirit LED precision, right?
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  Wise urgency isn't panicked hyperactivity.
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  Our sources call it Sabbath schooled vigilance.
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  We work strategically for six days, yes, but that work is
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  framed and refreshed by rest, worship and recalibration on the
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  7th day. You mentioned the Sabbath, the
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  Lord's Day. That seems really crucial here
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  as a guardrail. It's essential.
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  The Lord's Day is the weekly instrument of calibration.
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  It's God's built in guardrail against burnout and against
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  losing our way. Properly observing it, stopping
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  regular work, focusing on corporate worship.
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  Deliberate rest recalibrates our hearts.
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  It restores sanity so the other six days can be stewarded well,
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  not just frittered away in distraction or frenzy.
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  Neglecting the Lord's Day makes stewarding the rest of the week
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  much harder then. Inevitably.
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  And one more guardrail related to the days are evil.
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  We shouldn't misunderstand. Holiness is isolation.
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  Certainly not. That's the error of monastic
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  withdrawal, mistaking separation from sin for separation from
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  sinners. Paul expects us to walk wisely
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  within these evil days. Colossians 4.5 to 6 makes this
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  explicit walk in wisdom toward outsiders, redeeming the time.
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  So redeeming the time actually involves engaging with
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  unbelievers. Yes, wise walking requires
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  proximity with purity. It means intentionally looking
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  for and planning for opportunities.
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  Kairos moments to show mercy, share hope, have gracious
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  conversations with outsiders. If we just hide in a Christian
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  bubble, we forfeit countless opportunities God gives us for
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  witness and love. We have to be out there, but
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  alert and holy. OK, this is incredibly
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  practical. We've moved from identity in
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  Christ all the way down to strategy.
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  How do we actually do this? How do we sustain this precision
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  day in, day out? Let's talk about practical
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  achievement, starting with the Daily Foundation.
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  Right. The sources strongly suggest
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  what they call the daily first things rule, making it a non
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  negotiable habit. Specifically, before you engage
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  any screen, phone, computer, TV, whatever, read at least one
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  chapter of scripture and pray for, say, 5 minutes minimum.
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  Why that specific rule before the screen?
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  Because the screen is usually the doorway to the world's
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  agenda, isn't it? The pings, the emails, the news,
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  the noise, it immediately pulls our attention and affections
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  outward. By going to the word first, we
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  establish a word governed evaluation for the day before
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  reacting to external pressures. So it protects that early
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  morning Kairos from being hijacked.
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  It sets the trajectory. Exactly.
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  It forces us to calibrate first by revelation, not reaction.
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  OK, that's the individual start. What about in the home?
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  How does this wisdom look in family life?
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  It looks like turning routines into liturgies of love.
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  Wisdom gets built through simple, repeatable patterns that
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  sanctify the ordinary. Things like brief, regular
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  family worship, maybe just 10 minutes five nights a week with
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  a Psalm, prayer, blessing. Simple but consistent.
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  Yes, or making mealtimes intentional moments for
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  Thanksgiving. And maybe reading a proverb
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  marking bedtimes not just as a rush, but with a moment for
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  confession, maybe speaking a blessing over your kids.
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  These things redeem the daily Kronos by intentionally
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  injecting Kairos into the predictable rhythm.
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  They sound simple, but doing them consistently takes real
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  intentionality. It absolutely requires
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  precision, and that precision, that careful walk, it's not
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  meant to be a solo mission. Our sources are clear.
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  Lone Christians are easy prey. Accountability is vital.
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  So how does that work practically?
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  Most people keep spiritual goals pretty private.
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  We need to flip that. We should actually formalize a
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  plan. Maybe call it your Wise urgency
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  plan or your Kairos plan. Then, and this is key, invite
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  someone else in. Ask a pastor, an elder, a mature
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  believer you trust for plain spoken counsel.
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  And schedule check insurance. Yes, schedule regular check
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  insurance to talk about how it's going, where you're struggling,
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  where you failed. That external perspective is
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  invaluable for seeing blind spots, especially those sneaky
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  time thieves. That gives the outside check.
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  What about internal checks? How do we monitor and adjust
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  ourselves? There's a suggested weekly
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  rhythm for that, often tied to the Lord's Day evening, a weekly
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  examine. It involves a few steps.
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  First, honestly confess failures in time, Stewardship.
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  But do it resting in Christ's forgiveness, not beating
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  yourself up. OK, confession grounded in
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  grace. Second, specifically, note one
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  way you did manage to buy up Kairos that week.
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  Celebrate the small victory. Third, note one specific way
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  Kairos was clearly wasted or lost.
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  Be honest. Confess Note success.
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  Note failure and 4th. Plan one concrete, specific
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  adjustment for the next week based on what you just reviewed.
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  So that weekly examine is how you actually implement that 2
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  for one subtraction policy we talked about earlier, like
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  cutting out two time wasters for every new discipline.
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  Exactly. If your review shows that
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  mindless scrolling on Friday night wrecked your Saturday
• 19:31
  focus, the adjustment might be delete the app or put the phone
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  away at 8:00 PM. That subtraction frees up the
• 19:37
  chiros you need. It's a cycle.
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  Evaluate, confess, adjust All grounded in grace.
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  We have covered a lot of ground from our identity in Christ, the
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  need for discernment, the power of the Spirit, all the way to
• 19:49
  scheduling, subtraction, and accountability.
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  Let's try and tie it back together.
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  What's the core message here? Fundamentally, wise urgency
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  flows from Christ's redemption. He bought us, so our time is
• 20:00
  His. That ownership demands
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  precision, careful, accurate walking.
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  And that precision expresses itself by actively buying up
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  those opportune moments. The Kairos.
• 20:10
  For God's purposes, worship, witness, love.
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  All while recognizing the reality that the days are evil.
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  Yes, that moral realism keeps us vigilant, and the whole thing is
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  powered only by the Holy Spirit working through His Word and His
• 20:21
  Church. And as we saw, this whole epic
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  really pivots on how we understand and use our time,
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  especially the Lord's Day. Our sources called it the weekly
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  hinge on which Cairo swings. So maybe a final thought for
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  you, our listener, to take away this week is this.
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  Don't just think about what you do on Sunday during those hours
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  of worship and rest. Think also about how your
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  choices, your subtractions, your preparations during the other
• 20:47
  six days are intentionally aimed at guarding and getting ready
• 20:51
  for that crucial day of rest and recalibration.
• 20:54
  Are the six days serving the 7th?
• 20:56
  That's a challenging thought. May God indeed establish the
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  work of your hands as you seek to walk with this kind of wise,
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  urgent precision this week. Amen to that.