This is the first of my sermons on stewardship.
The 2011 movie In Time narrates a futuristic world where
time is the new currency. At the age of 25, the physical body stops aging, but
the catch is that when you reach your 25th birthday, you only have
one more year to live. You are implanted with a machine on your arm that tells
you how much time you still have. You can earn time by working. You can donate
time to your love ones. But you also buy everything, and pay everything, including
riding the bus, with time. When your time runs out, you die.
The movie gives one realization: time is a precious commodity. We
live in a world that values time and extra time. Time is precious. Many of the
technological advances today are meant to give us extra time. Communication gadgets allow us to send and
receive messages in less time. Transportation improvements enable us to go to
our destination in less time. Culinary merchandises allow us to cook instantly
or with less time. Fast foods are there so that we can eat and go,
using less time.
With these technological advances and conveniences the world
affords today, we should have more leisure time than any period in history, but
the opposite is really the case. We are becoming more and more impatient and
are more and more convinced that we need more time. We feel as if there is so
much to do with very little time. We are always running out of time. Sometimes
we even think that God is quite unfair that He only gave us 24 hours a day.
The Bible does not offer a lot of passages that deal with time,
but where it does, it always gives a feeling of urgency. The general
realization is that our existence on earth is so short:
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.Everyone is but a
breath, even those who seem secure” (Ps 39:4-5)
Maybe because people realize that time is so short that they want
to live their lives while enjoying it to the fullest. Of course there is
nothing wrong with enjoying the little time we have on earth. In fact the
writer of Ecclesiastes encourages us to do this: “I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is
nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad” (Ecc 8:15). Taken to the extreme, this can mean doing
precisely what the Greeks thought, summarized by Paul: “Eat and drink for
tomorrow we die” (1 Cor 15:32).
While enjoying life is novel, considering the shortness of life
on earth, we are admonished to live it in the best way possible.: “Teach us to consider
our mortality, so that we might live wisely” (Ps 90:12). Because
our days are numbered, we must, in the words of Horace, always “seize
the day.” The Christian motif is to live
carefully. As Paul wrote: “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but
as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are
evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of
the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery;
but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among
yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving
thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:15-20).
It is this passage that we are going to look at today, and in
particular, we are going to discuss what it means to “make the
most of the time” (5:16).
Redemption of Time
Paul tells us that we must be careful to live our lives and make
most of the time (5:16a). What does this mean? The different English
translations reveal that Paul’s words
are hard to interpret:
NRSV translate the Greek to “making most of the time”
NIV translates it as “making the most of
every opportunity”
KJV translates it as “redeeming the time”
This is because the two Greek words can be confusing: exagorazomenoi
ton kairon. The word exagorazomenoi literally means buying back or
redeeming something from its captivity (an example will be ransoming a child
from kidnappers or redeeming an item from a pawnshop). This implies that time
is in bondage to something, or is corrupted, which is why it needs to be
redeemed. It seems that Paul is telling his readers that their task is to
take back godly time from its current misuse. Paul is very clear: “the days are evil” (5:16b). Elsewhere, he says that there are powers of this dark world and principalities that are
at work (6:12-13). The same evil powers are “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is
now at work in those who are disobedient” (2:2). Our role is to
snatch the time that evil is stealing from us, and redeem them for better use.
It is easy for us to understand what it means for time to be
corrupted or misused. A survey conducted in the USA reveals something important
about how people spend their God-given 24 hours. The biggest activities of the day are eating, working,
household chores, travelling, tv and movies, socializing, and sleeping. The three biggest chunks are work, tv and movies, and
sleeping.
If we look at our lives today, how
are we spending our time? Are there areas that have fallen to sin, and which
must be redeemed?
Grabbing the Opportunity
In Greek, the word used for “time” is kairos. This word refers to an
appointed time or moment. Kairos does
not refer to linear time but is the God-given moment for Him to accomplish His
will. This means that literally, the translation would be: We must live in
such a way that we are redeeming or buying back God’s appointed moment to accomplish His will. Our
task is to make the most of the opportunity God has given us. This is why NRSV
translates the Greek to “making most of the time”
and NIV translates it as “making the most of every
opportunity.” God has appointed somethings
to happen at specific times. It can very specific, like at 11:00AM on a Sunday
you should be at church; but it can also be general, like you should finish
your college schooling for 6 years.
The problem is that these God-given opportunities are not really
appreciated or even grabbed. This is probably why Paul said that these
opportunities must be redeemed. God wants His people to do something right now,
but we are not doing them. Worse, we are not only not doing what God appointed
us to do, but we are doing the exact opposite. It is like a parent telling a
child that he should work on his homework. The child not only does not do his
homework, but plays videogames instead.
So how do we make use of the
opportunities God has given us? We can get an idea by looking at Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians:
1. “Take
no part in the unfruitful works of darkness”
(5:6, 11). Participating in the unfruitful
works of darkness is a waste of time. While it
is true that the world is filled with darkness, the evil times does not
excuse the people of God from using every opportunity to accomplish their given
tasks. Although we are affected by the mood of the world, it must not
necessarily control our life.
2. “Do not be foolish” (5:17a). The Greek word aphron is used either to refer
to a petrified, inert person or someone who acts frantically without prior
thinking. Francis Chan narrates a story about a pastor who was driving and who
happened to pass by a parked car. A big guy is harassing the old man in the driving
seat of the parked car. So the pastor stopped his car and tried to mediate. He
felt convicted that this was the right thing to do. The pastor was trying to
pacify the big guy, but when the big guy began to forcefully pull the old
driver from the car, he gathered all his strength and gave the big guy an
uppercut.
Have you ever been in a situation when you are convicted to do
something but you did not do it, then later you blame yourself for not doing
it? What would you do if you were in the situation of the pastor? Foolishness (aphron)
is the inability to act when something is needed. We must make most of the
opportunities given to us.
But
secondly, aphron can also mean acting
frantically without prior thinking. This too is foolishness. This is also a
waste of time. You try to do everything, or you commit yourself to something
without thinking the consequences. It is making decisions rashly. It is acting
based on explosive emotions or impulse. It is the inability to step back and
think before doing something. Acting rashly is also the reason why Paul
prohibits Christians from getting drunk (5:18a), because people who are drunk
have low inhibitions. They can act rashly without thinking properly. They know
what they are doing, except that they don’t care about it
much.
Sometimes, when we just do
whatever we want to do without thinking over things, we end up being very busy,
using all the time we have in your life, but we may be accomplishing nothing
which God really wants us to do.
Paul said: “So do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is” (5:17). The only way
for us to act properly every day is when we understand and know what the will
of the Lord is. We must we be wise (5:15b) in finding what is pleasing
to the Lord (5:10; Rom 16:19; James 3:13). We must know God’s purpose for our lives every
time we wake up. We must continually be sensitive and discerning about what
divine opportunities are in front of us. This can
only happen when we are filled with the Spirit (5:18c), for the Spirit is the
Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 16:13), who convicts the world about sin,
righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).
Conclusions
Out of nowhere and no justifiable reason at all, a certain man
was chosen to be the recipient of a generous donation. For the rest of his
life, he would be receiving US$86,400.00 per day, and the only condition was
that he would need to spend all of it every day too. If we think that the man
is fortunate, then we should also feel blessed, because all human beings are
receiving the gift of 86,400 seconds each day until we die. The only condition
is for us to use all of it for the glory of God, whether we are eating,
drinking, or even sleeping (1 Cor 10:31).
God has given us such a great gift: opportunities to glorify Him
by “singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”
and “making melody”
(5:19) and to “give thanks to God the Father”
(5:20). Our lives are characterized by opportunities to serve God, the
Almighty. In fact, Paul says that time is entrusted to Christians so that we
may do good works (Gal 6:10; Eph 2:10; cf Rom 12:11). He also says that “now
is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). We are also
informed by biblical writers that we are given time so that we might reach out
to other people (Mark 13:10; Rev 6:11; 2 Pet 3:9; Eph 6:18-19).
These are exciting times indeed. These are the days of salvation.
These are the days when sins are forgiven. These are the days when the Spirit
of God is active in the world. These are the days of people being born again.
These are the days of the harvest.
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