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Redeeming the Time
Today's passage focusing on what the life of an "imitator of God" looks like. When you walk in love, Paul writes, this is what it looks like. There are a number of important thoughts along those lines in this passage: stay away from sexual immorality, covetousness, filthy/foolish talk and joking. Don't be who you once were! You are changed and now walk in the light, not the darkness! This section really comes to a head in vv. 15-20, which calls us to walk not as unwise people, but as wise - "making the best use of the time" (ESV). I want to take a minute on that phrase there. The ESV translates it that way here to make the idea a little easier to understand, but the word behind it is used in two other places in the NT (Galatians 3:13 and 4:5) and is translated as "redeem" there. The ESV chose here to use a different phrase I think because "redeem" isn't a common word in our English vocabulary.
Let's explore that word "redeem". Somewhat ironically I think, the best preservation and use of this word that we have in modern English is in arcades/carnivals. You know what I'm talking about: you've spent $20 at Chuck e Cheese and gotten hundreds of little prize tickets. You run to the prize area, salivating at the thought of all the goodness that will be yours with your hundreds of tickets. We say in English that you're going to "redeem" your prize. You "buy" your prize with your tickets. This is the definition of redeem, which has it's roots in the marketplace. Suitable translations consist of " buy up, buy off, redeem, liberate, deliver". I think the most suitable way of thinking of it here is the sense of "buy up". Making the most of your time is actually a really good translation of the purpose of the statement, but "buying up" gives us a more vivid word picture.
Let's all imagine for a moment that time actually IS money. That rather than a seemingly unlimited amount of time that costs nothing, every hour and minute of our lives costs money. Would you live the same way that you do now? I doubt it. What God is telling us here is that this is how we should view our time: that it is expensive and fleeting. Buy up all the time you can. Purchase it and treat it like it's worth something. Make the most of it because it is valuable. How do you do that? By living the way that chapter 5 has told us already. If time is valuable, why waste it coveting what your neighbor has and telling dirty jokes? It seems ridiculous to spend your time that way if you're living like time is valuable. Don't be foolish - seek the will of God (v.18). Don't be controlled by alcohol, be controlled by the Holy Spirit. When you get drunk, you surrender control of your mind to something other than yourself, which is incredibly dangerous possibly in physical ways but definitely in spiritual ones. Surrender control to the Holy Spirit, giving thanks in all things and loving in the name of Jesus. All in all, a lot of very practical ways to "redeem the time".
We don't have time to cover the last part here - it IS incredibly important as a picture of what marriage is designed to be, but as the majority of you readers aren't married, we'll skip it for now. If you have any questions, be sure to let me know! We'll cover some of it in the "household codes" of Colossians when we get there.
Redeeming the Time
Today's passage focusing on what the life of an "imitator of God" looks like. When you walk in love, Paul writes, this is what it looks like. There are a number of important thoughts along those lines in this passage: stay away from sexual immorality, covetousness, filthy/foolish talk and joking. Don't be who you once were! You are changed and now walk in the light, not the darkness! This section really comes to a head in vv. 15-20, which calls us to walk not as unwise people, but as wise - "making the best use of the time" (ESV). I want to take a minute on that phrase there. The ESV translates it that way here to make the idea a little easier to understand, but the word behind it is used in two other places in the NT (Galatians 3:13 and 4:5) and is translated as "redeem" there. The ESV chose here to use a different phrase I think because "redeem" isn't a common word in our English vocabulary.
Let's explore that word "redeem". Somewhat ironically I think, the best preservation and use of this word that we have in modern English is in arcades/carnivals. You know what I'm talking about: you've spent $20 at Chuck e Cheese and gotten hundreds of little prize tickets. You run to the prize area, salivating at the thought of all the goodness that will be yours with your hundreds of tickets. We say in English that you're going to "redeem" your prize. You "buy" your prize with your tickets. This is the definition of redeem, which has it's roots in the marketplace. Suitable translations consist of " buy up, buy off, redeem, liberate, deliver". I think the most suitable way of thinking of it here is the sense of "buy up". Making the most of your time is actually a really good translation of the purpose of the statement, but "buying up" gives us a more vivid word picture.
Let's all imagine for a moment that time actually IS money. That rather than a seemingly unlimited amount of time that costs nothing, every hour and minute of our lives costs money. Would you live the same way that you do now? I doubt it. What God is telling us here is that this is how we should view our time: that it is expensive and fleeting. Buy up all the time you can. Purchase it and treat it like it's worth something. Make the most of it because it is valuable. How do you do that? By living the way that chapter 5 has told us already. If time is valuable, why waste it coveting what your neighbor has and telling dirty jokes? It seems ridiculous to spend your time that way if you're living like time is valuable. Don't be foolish - seek the will of God (v.18). Don't be controlled by alcohol, be controlled by the Holy Spirit. When you get drunk, you surrender control of your mind to something other than yourself, which is incredibly dangerous possibly in physical ways but definitely in spiritual ones. Surrender control to the Holy Spirit, giving thanks in all things and loving in the name of Jesus. All in all, a lot of very practical ways to "redeem the time".
We don't have time to cover the last part here - it IS incredibly important as a picture of what marriage is designed to be, but as the majority of you readers aren't married, we'll skip it for now. If you have any questions, be sure to let me know! We'll cover some of it in the "household codes" of Colossians when we get there.
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