There are two enormous problems with this interpretation. First the ancients, including those who lived in Ephesus in the first century, didn’t think of time the way we do, as an asset to be squandered or spent wisely. That is entirely a modern, and more precisely western, conception of time. I would add, it seems to me that the obsession with busyness and the confusion of frenetic activity with productivity is a uniquely American vice.

If you have been around Christian circles for any length of time you have no doubt been admonished at some point “you have to redeem the time” meaning that you need to quit loafing and get busy.  The days are evil, in other words, time is short and life is fleeting, so get to work.  You may have read this, you may have heard this from the pulpit, you may have had someone tell you this in private, you may even have said it to yourself (or someone else).  But I’m sorry to say, if you think Ephesians 5:16 is about industriousness and time management, You’re Using It Wrong!

There are two enormous problems with this interpretation. First the ancients, including those who lived in Ephesus in the first century, didn’t think of time the way we do, as an asset to be squandered or spent wisely. That is entirely a modern, and more precisely western, conception of time. I would add, it seems to me that the obsession with busyness and the confusion of frenetic activity with productivity is a uniquely American vice. One of my favorite fiction authors once quipped (and I am quoting from memory, and he may have been quoting someone else) “in Italy the days march on, in England the clocks run, and in America time flies.” I think the point he was making is clear, how we approach time is colored by our culture, and Americans are obsessed with not wasting any of it.

More importantly the kind to time that ticks by on our clocks is not even mentioned in Ephesians 5:16. There are two Greek words commonly translated as time in the New Testament. One is chronos which BDAG, the definitive lexicon of Koine Greek, defines as “an indefinite period of time during which some activity or event takes place.” At the risk of being accused of committing the root fallacy, this is where the term “chronograph” the technical term for a stopwatch comes from. If Paul was talking about wasting the seconds and minutes and hours that make up a day, this is the word he would use. The other word for time is Kairos which BDAG defines as “a point of time or period of time.” Think harvest time, or dinner time or bed time. Kairos is the word used by Paul (writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) in Ephesians 5:16.

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