Albert Barnes Commentary Ephesians 5:16

"redeeming the time, because the days are evil." — Ephesians 5:16 (ASV)

Redeeming the time. The word translated here as redeeming means to purchase; to buy up from the possession or power of anyone, and then to redeem or set free—as from service or bondage (see the notes on Galatians 3:13).

In this context, it means to rescue or recover our time from waste and to use it for great and important purposes. Because the days are evil means that the times in which you live are evil. There are many allurements and temptations that would lead you away from the proper use of time and draw you into sin.

Such temptations might lead people to places of sinful indulgence and revelry, where their time would be wasted, or worse than wasted. Since these temptations abounded, they should therefore be especially on their guard against a sinful and unprofitable waste of time. This exhortation can be addressed to everyone and is applicable to all periods.

The meaning is that we should be eager to use our time for some useful purpose, because there are, in an evil world, so many temptations to waste it. Time is given to us for most valuable purposes. There are enough things to be done to occupy all of it, and no one needs to have time hang heavy on their hands.

Anyone who has a soul to be saved from eternal death need not have one idle moment. Anyone who has a heaven to win has enough to do to occupy all their time. We are given just enough time to accomplish all the purposes God designs, and God has not given us more than enough. They redeem their time who employ it:

1. in gaining useful knowledge;
2. in doing good to others;
3. in using it for the purpose of an honest livelihood for themselves and their 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 reclaiming 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 necessary to spread religion around the world and to save humankind.

We should still endeavor to redeem our time for the same reasons 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 places of revelry and dissipation?
5. in wild and visionary plans—temptations to which abound in all lands, and preeminently in our own;
6. and in luxurious indulgence—in dressing, and eating, and drinking.