Ephesians 5:16

redeeming the time Lit., buying out (from other ownership) the opportunity. So Colossians 4:5. The same phrase occurs (Aramaic and Greek) Daniel 2:8; "I knew of a certainty that ye would buy the time"; where the meaning plainly is, "that ye would get your desired opportunity, at the expense ofa subterfuge." Here similarly the meaning is, "getting each successive opportunity of -walking and pleasing God" at the expense ofsteady watchfulness." In Colossians 4:5 the special thought is of opportunities in intercourse with "them that are without." So, perhaps, here also, in regard of Ephesians 5:12-14. Cp. Galatians 6:10; where render "as we have opportunity."

because the days are evil As if to say, "Make this sustained effort of getting opportunity; for it will be needed. The -days" of human life in a fallen world do not lend themselvesto it. Circumstances, in themselves, are adverse, for sin attaches to them."

The Apostle very probably had in view the special difficulties of the then present time, but his words have a permanent bearing on each following period with its new phases of difficulty, all related as they are to the permanent underlying difficulty, sin.