Doesn’t it seem like the older you get the faster time goes? When you are young, you want time to pass quickly, but the older you get the more you want it to slow down. I plan to celebrate my 54th birthday for the next ten years. Obviously, I am joking. It is impossible to control time, but the Bible does tell us how we can control our response to it.

Paul says, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise” (v. 15). The phrase “be very careful” means that, as followers of Jesus, we should pay close attention to how we live. Paul is warning the Ephesian church about potential danger, a warning that also occurred earlier in the chapter. In verse 14, Paul quotes from Isaiah 26:16, urging the believers in Ephesus: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.” Anyone who doesn’t listen to this warning is unwise!

The King James translates verse 16 as “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” In the Greek, we notice that Paul did not use the word chronos for time. Chronos is the ordinary term for time as humans measure it, in hours, minutes, and seconds. Instead, Paul uses the word kairos which refers to God’s appointed time. He reminds us that God is in control of every moment of our lives, and they will be fulfilled according to His will.

What, then, is our response? Paul speaks to the believers with a mindset of urgency. We are to use our time wisely by taking advantage of each God-given opportunity that occurs in our lives. This is how we make the most of time. These opportunities will soon pass because “the days are evil.” In other words, time is running out!

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It is amazing to see the moon shine brightly during the night. But we also know it is not the moon itself that generates light; it is reflecting the light from the sun. In the same way, as believers, we are called to reflect the light of the Lord in our dark world.

The apostle Paul uses the contrast between light and darkness to show a difference between believers and unbelievers. The believers in Ephesus were in danger of compromise due to their close relationship with those who were disobedient. Paul warns them: “God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them” (vv. 6–7).

We are not the source of our own light, it comes from the Lord. While in our unbelieving state we were identified by darkness, now we reflect God’s light. This should affect the way we walk and talk and live. Paul says that children of light should live in a manner that is markedly different from the world. He cautions that “there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people” (v. 3). The characteristics of God, “goodness, righteousness and truth” (v. 9), are the opposite of the characteristics of darkness. Paul strongly cautions in verse 11, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Christ’s light shines through us so that those who are living in darkness will be illuminated. He urges in verse 14, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Jesus used this same imagery in Matthew 5:18 when He told His followers to “let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

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How many times have you heard someone say to another person, I love you? Most of us have heard or said the word love so many times that it no longer has the impact it once had. Unfortunately, due to hurts and disappointments, our expectations of love can be lowered.

Do we fully understand what it means to be loved by God? In Ephesians 5, Paul says that we are “dearly loved” children of God (v. 1)! The fact that Christ loved us and “gave himself up for us” is so impactful that Paul prayed for the Ephesians to understand it fully. In chapter 3:17–19, he asks that they be “rooted and established in love” so they “may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

In chapter 5, Paul challenges the church at Ephesus to “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (v. 2). This statement raises the standard of love back to its rightful place: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). It is Christ’s example of sacrifice that we must follow as God’s dearly loved children (v. 1).

Jesus called us to this same standard of love in the Gospel of John 13:34: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another.” As recipients of this sacrificial love, we are called to love others. This is no ordinary love. This love requires sacrificial obedience that sets us apart as children of God: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

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