The Days Are Evil

(#1045, Imperial, 1964; CE Executive Committee, 1966)

Read Eph. 5:11-21.

That we are living in evil days cannot be denied.  But what is our attitude toward the days in which we are living?  Indifference? Are you "dulling the senses" by alcohol or living for pleasure?  Are you afraid?  Our text indicates that evil days are days of opportunity and responsibility.

The evil days.

If you lived in Paul's day and walked the streets of Ephesus and talked to men, the thought of evil days would have been foreign or revolutionary.  They would have laughed at us for they were prosperous days.  But Paul wasn't writing to the men of the city; he was writing to the "faithful in Christ Jesus."  they were people that saw not merely what is seen but the vast unseen spiritual world.  The days are evil when men are living without a relationship to Christ.  Our days seem to be even more evil that all of the past.

Evil days are days of opportunity.

We are to "redeem the time."  this is no time to sit down.  Time, as a gift from God, represents opportunity.  "Every godless man is an opportunity for a Godly man."  They are opportunities to present Christ.  But the opportunity must be purchased.  There is an element of sacrifice involved, something to give up.

The method of redeeming the time.

ƒ      v11: reprove the works of darkness.  These are unfruitful so we are to have no fellowship (partnership) with them.

ƒ      v15: walk circumspectly (carefully, with wisdom).

ƒ      v17: understand the will of the Lord.  God's will must have a definite bearing on how we spend our time.

ƒ      v18: be filled with the Spirit.  All of the above (buying the time, reproving the works of darkness, walking circumspectly, understanding the will of the Lord) depends on being filled with the Spirit.  There is no power to walk without the Spirit.

Now is the time to be saved.  Time is wasting until we come to know Christ.