Making the best use of the time (Ephesians 5:16)

Today is a day for making resolutions. Perhaps we plan to eat less, so we will commence by having a big meal. Maybe we would like to read a certain book, and we start eagerly; then a few months later we suddenly recall that we have only read chapter 1. Or we might want to have a special holiday, and begin to save for it, but because other interesting activities crop up, we find it more and more difficult to save for the holiday. The point I am trying to make is that resolutions require dedication and realism.

Resolutions are not just for one day in the year. They are life choices that affect every day. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to engage in a constant activity and explains why they should. We may have assumed that the reason for the resolution could be that God desires us to it, or that it would be good for the church. Instead, he says we should do it because the days are evil.

Why are we in this time?

The obvious answer to that question is that God planned it. Of course, if we leave that as a one liner we will not work out some of the implications. We live in 2020 because of the sovereign will of God which includes his wisdom, his love, his provision of what will be needed and many other things. It is possible that we would prefer to be in another time when spiritual things were more obvious. Yet we must remind ourselves that God planned for us to be here at this time.

What is evil about our time?

Every age has its outlooks. Lots of different words are used to describe them. One of the common terms used today is progressive and it gets attached to all kinds of things. It is a positive word and carries the danger that people automatically assume that it is describing something good. Another word that is used often is innovative and it too normally has positive connotations. A third word is tolerant, and it also has positive connections.

We can limit ourselves to those three words. If they are used for biblical requirements, then we are on the road of divine blessing. But if they are used for introducing and developing things that God forbids, then we are on the road to disaster. And it is not really a comfort if most people are on it. All that means is that most people are going to reach disaster.

One mark of our time is that it is godless. People live as if there were no god. They do this not only in the sense that he is the Judge at the end of the day. They also do it by forgetting that he is the provider of all that they have as far as life in this world is concerned. He continues to provide them with many temporal blessings. Indeed, he actually supplies more of such blessings than ever before because even from a numerical point of view he is providing for more and more people. To be godless does not mean that God has disappeared. Instead it means that he is ignored, and that is not only a means of denying ourselves, it is also a dangerous strategy because he will respond in anger.

Another mark of our time is that society is dominated by pleasure. In itself, pleasure is not wrong. We can get great pleasure from watching a sunset. We can get pleasure from helping an old person cross the road. The point I am trying to highlight is that our society is dominated by selfish pleasure. We can see this focus in most adverts that come our way. The Bible does say that the pleasures of sin are only for a season. It also says that there are pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand. One set of pleasures will come to an end, the other set will continue and continue. What we need is new desires in order to enjoy the right pleasures.

I want us to think briefly about the word that is translated evil. It could be used in different ways, some of which may surprise us. For example, it could be used of a field that did not produce crops. The idea is that it was persistent bad soil which could not be changed. This idea of persistence is what marks our society – people are engaged in persistent bad habits that make them harder and harder in a spiritual sense. This would mean that people we know are more entrenched today in their lifestyle than they were a year ago or five years ago.

Making the best use

One of the problems that employers have is finding out which of their employees is wasting time at work. They have no way of knowing whether or not an employee is doing his best. That cannot be said of the heavenly Employer. Matthew Henry reminds us that ‘our time is a talent given us by God for some good end, and it is misspent and lost when it is not employed according to his design.’

The word that is translated by this phrase is a term that means ‘redeem’. It comes from the slave market because it describes how a person could purchase a slave and make him or her useful in another house or place of work. Perhaps the idea is that time can be used for the wrong purpose but Christians are to take ownership of their own area of time. The practice of redemption also meant paying a price of some kind, which is a reminder that taking ownership may be costly in one way or another.

This word reminds us that although the days are evil they can be turned into days of good. They can become days of serving the Lord rather than serving the various things that are the pursuits of a society without God. Believers are living in the same period as everyone else, but they are to live differently. 

So how can we live differently? Although the challenge is big, because we are being told by Paul to be countercultural, the basics for doing so are straightforward. We are being asked to use the means of grace throughout the length of our period of time. If we use them as they should be used, we will be equipped to use time in a wise way.

Here we have a challenge to our priorities at any given time. Every day, Paul is saying, we should always choose the best options. It is easy for us to imagine how we could choose the best option at some stage in the future, but his challenge is that we should make the right choices today as well as tomorrow.

Jonathan Edwards is known for many things, but one of them is his collection of personal Resolutions. The seventieth of his resolutions was this: ‘Resolved: Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.’ So let us suggest how we can use time.

Six uses

Today is a time to pray as never before. Recently I read this quotation from Andrew Bonar describing church life in his day: ‘We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered among us. The closet has been too little frequented and delighted in. We have allowed business, study or active labour to interfere with our closet-hours. And the feverish atmosphere in which both the church and the nation are enveloped has found its way into our prayer closets.’ If that was life in the nineteenth century, what would he say about today? Regarding prayer, Spurgeon observed that ‘It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart; if you have the heart to pray, you will find the time.’

Today is a time to praise as never before. Why should we engage in praise? Because the King that God appointed is still reigning even although the world is much more rebellious today that it has ever been. The proof that Jesus is reigning is the growth of his kingdom. His Father said to him, and we can see it as both an instruction and a promise, ‘Rule in the middle of your enemies.’

Today is a time to use the Bible as never before. The Bible is an ancient book, but it is never out of touch. It describes people who live in every age. The Bible also contains information about God’s plan of salvation, and that information is not found anywhere else. It also contains God’s promises and it has the commandments that he wants us to obey. In addition to being a lamp for our feet, the Bible contains food for our souls in abundance.

Today is a time to attend church as never before. One of the matters that is often discussed today is the decline in church attendance. Many reasons are given for this, and many suggestions made as to how to reverse it. The easiest one is that God says that no one should avoid assembling together with other Christians. It is also a means of encouraging one another.

Today is a time to speak about Jesus as never before. After all, he is the only One who can keep us safe in a spiritual sense. He told his disciples when he was here that without him they could not do anything. No topic encourages other Christians as saying what Jesus means. He is the Lover of our souls, he is Shepherd who is leading us home. He is our Friend and Companion through life. We should share what we have enjoyed about him.

Today is a time to be disciples as never before. The darker the day, the brighter will light shine. Christians are the light of the world as well as the salt of the earth. When we live devoted lives, we show to others the way of life. There will be people in our city who have never met a Christian or seen one. But when they do, they should wonder who we are.

New Year's Day, 2020