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Posts tagged with: Ephesians

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Time Management in Ephesians: Concluding Thoughts

For me personally, this devotional study of Ephesians 5:15-16 has challenged me to think again about my own priorities in life. I admit to being someone who easily takes on more than I should. My intentions are honorable. But I am not always wise when I say “yes” to opportunities offered to me. I have heard once again the exhortation of Ephesians 5:15-16. I am examining my own life carefully so that I might redeem the time God has given me, living wisely and well for his kingdom purposes. I hope you have joined me in this exercise of God-guided time management.

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A “Gandalfian” Perspective on Time

We must accept the gift of time that is given to us.
But we have a choice about how to use this time. We can choose to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called (Ephesians 4:1). We can choose, by God’s grace, to be careful how we life, to live wisely, and to redeem the time given to us (5:15-16). As we look at our lives and the world in which we live, “all we have to decide is what to do with the time given us.” Will we live according to the fallen ways of this world? Or will we set time free from the clutches of evil, using it for God’s purposes?

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Redeeming Time

But according to Ephesians the days can be rescued from evil and turned to good. That’s the sense of verse 16. In our translation it reads, “making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” The Greek could be rendered more literally, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” In ancient Greek, the verb translated as “redeeming” (exagorazo) had a literal meaning of “buying.” This verb shows up in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Then, in Galatians 4:5 it says that Christ was born under the law “to redeem those under the law.” Looking at Ephesians 5:16, we might say that we are to redeem the time by setting it free, by ransoming it from the clutches of evil.

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Do We Live in Evil Days?

The notion of evil days does not condemn the literal calendar. Ephesians 5:16 is not saying the hours of our lives are somehow actually wicked. Rather, the expression “the days are evil” puts in a nutshell the truth that these days are filled with evil. We are reminded of the description of life apart from Christ in Ephesians 2:1-2, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” The days in which we live are evil because they are permeated with sin and because they are dominated by the powers of darkness.

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Examine Your Life Carefully and Wisely

Wisdom will help you to see accurately how you’re living. Wisdom is not mere knowledge. Rather, it is deeper understanding, knowledge permeated by good judgment, knowledge shaped by experience. Wisdom is the ability to see what’s right, what’s important, what’s beneficial, what’s best.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . with Scripture

But, sometimes we can turn the study of the Bible into more of an intellectual exercise than an occasion for deep personal reflection and growth. Now let me be clear. I’m not being critical of folks who do theology based on Scripture. In fact, in much of my life I am one of those folks. But because I often think about the theological implications of a biblical passage, I can easily miss the ways in which a passage might address my life. Even more to the point, I can miss what God wants to say to me about my life through a portion of his Word. Perhaps you can relate.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . through Relationships

To be sure, a crucial part of self-examination comes when we are alone, with our quieted hearts ready to hear from the Spirit of God. But God also speaks to us through others. And in deep relationships not only are we able to see ourselves more clearly, but also we are able to help others examine their lives carefully.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . through Art

Today, I’d like to suggest another way to be encouraged in the life-examination process. I’m talking about art. I believe that art in its various forms can help us pay closer attention to how we’re living. Of course art serves many other purposes than this—ranging from self-expression to inspiring joy, social critique, and much more. But art can also help us see how we’re living from a fresh perspective.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . on a Retreat

When I say “Go on a retreat” I’m thinking of a time away that offers a good bit of freedom, a time that is structured to help you step back from your life and prayerfully examine carefully how you’re living. Your retreat might be something you do alone, though it’s sometimes hard to truly retreat without others to encourage you. You might choose to join some kind of organized retreat or to get away with a few friends who will share the experience with you.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . Each Day

What matters most, however, isn’t the adoption of one particular form of daily, prayerful self-examination. Rather, in a way that fits our unique personality and situation, we can learn to pause each day so that, with God’s help, we might examine our lives carefully.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . Without Your Technology

Today I want to get very practical by suggesting one way you can stop so as to examine your life. Here it is: Put down your tech! Now, I realize this is a bit ironic since it’s likely you are reading this devotion with the help of technology. So I don’t mean you have to drop your smartphone or shut your laptop right this moment. But I do mean that if you want to stop the busyness and craziness of life long enough to examine carefully how you’re living, you’ll need to become unplugged from tech for a while at some point.

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Examine Your Life Carefully . . . by Stopping

We also need to stop moving, to stop hurrying on to the next thing so we can take time to think about how we’re living. I’m not suggesting we have to overthink everything. But I do believe we need to pause regularly so we might examine carefully how we’re living in the present moment and where we’re headed in the next moment.

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Time Management: Examine Your Life Carefully

Ephesians 5:15 begins, “Be very careful, then, how you live.” A more literal translation of the original Greek might read, “Examine carefully how you are living.” Sounds quite a bit like Socrates, doesn’t it? This verse doesn’t tell us to live carefully so much as it exhorts us to pay close attention to how we’re living. It wants us to examine our lives so that we might live more intentionally and more fully.

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Time Management: A New Perspective

You might be surprised to learn that Ephesians has some wisdom about what we would call time management. (Ephesians would talk about time redemption, actually, but we’ll get to this later.) You can find this wisdom in chapter 5, verses 15-16: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Most literally, where the NIV speaks of “making the most of every opportunity,” the Greek original says we’re to be “redeeming the time” (exagorazomenoi ton kairon). That’s a first-century Christian version of time management.
Or to put it more bluntly, this is God’s version of time management.

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Remembering Your Place in the Story

Have you ever been reading along in a compelling novel—and then for a few days or weeks your attention was directed elsewhere? By the time you finally got back to your book, you had to sit back and remember the story you had been reading, perhaps even reviewing some sections to refresh your memory. You knew that if you were going to enjoy the richness of the narrative, you had to have its broad sweep in mind.

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