Colossians 4:5

5. In Colossians 4:5-6 St Paul turns to the thought of their own part in spreading the knowledge of Christ (a) by life (Colossians 4:5), (b) by word (Colossians 4:6).

ἐν σοφίᾳ (Colossians 1:9; Colossians 3:16, notes) περιπατεῖτε (Colossians 1:10, note). Practical Christian wisdom must mark their whole attitude towards outsiders.

πρὸς with περιπατεῖν, 1 Thessalonians 4:12†, which has in this figurative sense lost all idea of motion. πρὸς here marks the attitude towards τοὺς ἕξω.

τοὺς ἔξω. Though οἱ ἔξωθεν = foreigners in classical Greek (see references in Lidd. and Scott) this phrase was probably taken over by St Paul from Judaism. For the Jews distinguished sharply (1) between cities within the holy land and those outside it. The latter belong to חוּצָה לָאָרֶץ, “that which is outside the land”; cf. Acts 26:11; (2) between persons who enjoyed the privileges of Judaism and those who were outside it. These latter were הַחִיצוֹנִים. So of Jewish heretics, Meg. Mishna, IV. 8 (= Talm. Bab. Meg. 24b)—cf. also Swete on Mark 4:11—and of non-canonical books, Sanh. Mishna, XI. (X.) 1.

Similarly οἱ ἐκτός in Ecclus. Prol. l. 4. For οἱ ἔξω see Mark 4:11; 1 Corinthians 5:12-13; 1 Thessalonians 4:12. Cf. 1 Timothy 3:7.

τὸν καιρὸν. Not “time” generally (χρόνος), nor probably “opportunity” (see next note), but “the present time,” as in 1 Corinthians 7:29; Romans 13:11. That this was intended in || Ephesians 5:16 seems clearly shown by the additional words there, ὅτι αἱ ἡμέραι πονηραί εἰσιν.

ἐξαγοραζόμενοι. Occurring in N.T. only twice in Gal. besides our present passage and || Ephesians 5:16. (1) In Gal. it clearly = redeem, buy out from another power into (as the connotation is) freedom (Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5). So here, as in Eph., the thought probably is “buying back (at the expense of personal watchfulness and self-denial) the present time, which is now being used for evil and godless purposes (cf. πονηραί, Eph., with 1 John 5:19), to its legitimate freedom in Christ.”

(2) The other possible rendering is “buying up the opportunity.” Compare Ramsay (Hastings, D.B. v. p. 151), “He sums up in three Greek words his counsel to the Colossians and the Asians generally, when he urged them to ‘make their market to the full of the opportunity which their situation offered them.’  ” And this suits the context of Col. but not of Eph. But the sense given to the verb, though valid in Polyb. III. 42. 2, ἐξηγόρασε παρʼ αὐτῶν τά τε μονόξυλα πλοῖα πάντα κ.τ.λ. (vide Lightfoot), is not that of Gal.

It occurs only once in LXX., Daniel 2:8, ἐπʼ ἀληθείας οἶδα (ἐγὼ, Theod.) ὅτι καιρὸν ὑμεῖς ἐξαγοράζετε, in the sense apparently of buying out time (generally, i.e. gaining time) at the cost of their questions.

On the phrase see further J. A. R. on Ephesians 5:16.