Use the gift of time

use the gift of our timeOn September 20, the Jews celebrated the New Year, a festival of multiple meanings. It celebrates the beginning of the annual cycle, commemorates the creation of Adam and Eve, and also commemorates the creation of the universe, which includes the beginning of time. While reading about the topic of time, I remembered that time also has multiple meanings. One is that time is an asset shared by billionaires and beggars alike. We all have 86.400 seconds a day. But since we can't store it (you can't overrun or withdraw time), the question arises: "How do we use the time that is available to us?"

The value of time

Aware of the value of time, Paul exhorted Christians to "purchase the time" (Eph. 5,16). Before we take a closer look at the meaning of this verse, I would like to share with you a poem that describes the great value of time:

To experience the value of time

To find out the value of a year, ask a student who failed their final exam.
To find out the value of a month, ask a mother who gave birth to a child too soon.
To find out the value of a week, ask the publisher of a weekly newspaper.
To learn the value of an hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to see each other.
To find out the value of a minute, ask someone who has missed his train, bus or flight.
To find out the value of a second, ask someone who has survived an accident.
To learn the value of a millisecond, ask someone who won a silver medal at the Olympics. Time is not waiting for anyone.
Collect every moment that stays with you, because it is valuable.
Share it with a special person and he will become even more valuable.

(Author unknown)

How is time bought out?

This poem brings it to a point in relation to time that Paul makes very similar in Ephesians 5. There are two words in the New Testament that are translated from Greek as buying out. One is agorazo, which refers to buying things in a normal marketplace (agora). The other is exagorazo, which refers to buying things outside of it. Paul uses the word exagorazo in Eph. 5,15-16 and exhorts us: “Be careful how you live; do not act unwisely, but strive to be wise. Take every opportunity to do good in this troubled time” [New Life, SMC, 2011]. The Luther translation of 1912 says "buy out the time." It seems as if Paul wants to urge us to buy out the time outside of the normal market activities.

We are not very familiar with the word “buy out”. In business it is understood as "buy empty" or in the sense of "compensate". If a person could not pay their debts, they could make an agreement to hire themselves out as servants to the person they owed until the debt was paid off. Their ministry could also be terminated early if someone paid the debt in their place. When a debtor was bought out of service in this manner, the process was known as "redeeming or ransoming."

Valuables can also be raised - as we know it today from pawnshops. On the one hand, Paul tells us to use or buy time. On the other hand, we see through the context of Paul's instruction that we should be followers of Jesus. Paul tells us to understand that we should focus on the one who has bought the time for us. His argument is not to waste time on other things that keep us from concentrating on Jesus and participating in the work to which he has invited us.

Below is the commentary on Ephesians 5,16 from Volume 1 of “Wuest's Word Studies in the Greek New Testament:

"Buy out" comes from the Greek word exagorazo (ἐξαγοραζω), meaning "to buy out". In the middle part used here, it means "to buy out for oneself or for one's own benefit." Figuratively speaking, it means "seize every opportunity for wise and holy use of doing good," so that zeal and doing good as The means of payment through which we acquire time" (Thayer). "Time" is not chronos (χρονος), i.e. "time as such", but kairos (καιρος), "the time to be regarded as a strategic, epochal, timely and favorable period of time". One should not strive to make the best use of time as such, but to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

Since time cannot normally be thought of as a commodity that can literally be bought out, we take Paul's statement metaphorically, which essentially says that we should make the best use of the situation we find ourselves in. When we do that, our time will have more purpose and greater meaning, and it will also "pay off."

Time is a gift from God

As part of God's creation, time is a gift to us. Some have more of it and some have less. Due to medical advances, good genetics, and God's blessings, many of us will live to be over 90 and some even over 100. We recently heard of a man in Indonesia who died at the age of 146! It doesn't matter how much time God gives us, because Jesus is Lord of Time. Through the Incarnation, the Eternal Son of God came from eternity into time. Therefore, Jesus experiences created time differently than we do. Our created time is limited in duration, while God's time outside of creation is unlimited. God's time is not divided into sections, as it is with us, into past, present and future. God's time is also of a completely different quality - a type of time that we cannot fully understand. What we can (and should) do is live in our time with the sure confidence that we will meet our Creator and Redeemer in His time, eternity.

Do not misuse or waste time

When we speak metaphorically of time and say things like "don't waste time," we mean in a way that we might lose the correct use of our precious time. This happens when we allow someone or something to take up our time for things that are of no value to us. This is expressed figuratively, the meaning of what Paul wants to say to us: "Buy the time". He now admonishes us not to misuse or waste our time in ways that result in our failure to contribute to what is valuable to God as well as to us Christians.

In this context, since it is about the "purchase of time," we must remember that our time was first redeemed and redeemed through God's forgiveness through His Son. Then we continue to buy time by using our time properly to contribute to a growing relationship with God and with each other. This buying out of time is God's gift to us. When Paul us in Ephesians 5,15 exhorting us to “look carefully at how we live our lives, not as unwise but as wise,” he instructs us to seize the opportunities that the time offers us to glorify God.

Our Mission “Between Times”

God has given us time to walk in his light, to partake in the ministry of the Holy Spirit with Jesus, to advance the mission. To do this we are given the "time between times" of Christ's first and second advents. Our mission at this time is to assist others in seeking and knowing God and helping them to live lives of faith and love and the sure confidence that in the end God is all of creation fully sold out, which includes time. My prayer is that in GCI we will redeem the time God has given us by faithfully living and preaching the gospel of God's reconciliation in Christ.

In gratitude for God's gifts of time and eternity,

Joseph Tkach

President
GRACE COMMUNION INTERNATIONAL


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