<p>5:16 <i>Redeeming the time, because the days are evil</i>- They should hurry up and make the changes Paul and their status in Christ require of them. In contexts regarding the evil of our surrounding world, Paul teaches us to 'redeem the time' (also Col. 4:5). This is a word classically used of the market place, in the sense of 'buying up' while the opportunity is there. But it is used of how the Lord has redeemed us (Gal. 3:13; 4:5). His redemption of us elicits a conscious redemption by us of our time, in His service. Yet the context demands that this pressing need to buy up time be understood in the light of the evil world around us. Is it not that Paul is saying 'Buy up all the opportunities to gain back time from this world', in the same spirit as he told slaves &quot;If thou mayest be made free, use it rather&quot; (1 Cor. 7:21)? This means we shouldn't glorify the use of time for the necessary things of the world. If we <i>must</i> spend our time in the things of the world, as the NT slaves simply had to, then God will accept this as done in His service. But we shouldn't use this gracious concession to do all we can in the life of the world, justifying it by saying it is done 'unto the Lord'. This concession, in its context, only applies to those who by force of circumstances really must spend their time in the things of the world (Eph. 6:5-7; 1 Cor. 10:31). We must &quot;break up our fallow ground&quot; (Heb. 'plough the unploughed'), analyse ourselves from outside ourselves, and use our time and our &ldquo;all things&rdquo; to the utmost of their potential (Jer. 4:3; Hos. 10:12). We were created &quot;unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them&quot; (Eph. 2:10); we were redeemed that we might be zealous of good works (Tit. 2:14)- not that we might drift through life playing with our hobbies and with the fascinations of our careers.</p><p>&quot;Because the days are evil&quot; may be a reference to the day of evil coming upon the world in AD70, which Paul expected to be the second coming of the Lord Jesus. His idea would then be that because the Lord's coming draws near, we should therefore use our time the more wisely. Col. 4:5 parallels this passage by asking us to redeem our time in the context of walking wisely towards outsiders, and perhaps the idea is that we should use our time in witnessing to them the more intensely as we see time running out for this world.</p>