In 4:5 and 6 Paul says, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” To redeem the time is to seize every favorable opportunity to minister life. This is to be wise in our walk. In this evil age, every day is an evil day, full of pernicious things which destroy, spoil, and waste our time. Therefore, we must walk wisely that we may redeem the time, seizing every available opportunity.
To walk in wisdom is to grasp each opportunity to redeem our time. This redeeming of the time is related to the way we speak to others. Often I must confess to the Lord my foolishness in talking to people. By talking to them in a certain way, I wasted time. I did not use wisdom enough to minister life and thereby to avoid friction. Instead, I wasted time by engaging in conversation in which there was no ministry of life. We need to pray that the Lord will grant us wisdom in our contact with others. If we walk in wisdom in speaking to others, we shall redeem our time. We all have missed opportunities to minister life because we spent the time in foolish talk.
The best way to redeem our time is to pray perseveringly, to be watchful, and to walk in wisdom. If we do these things, we shall grasp all the favorable opportunities to minister life. If we do not persevere in prayer and if we are not watchful, we shall fail to grasp opportunities to minister life. Whenever we contact others without the exercise of wisdom, we waste time. On some occasions we may waste a half hour in conversation where nothing of life is ministered. We all must learn to pray, to watch, and to seek the Lord for His wisdom so that we may redeem our time.
In verse 6 Paul says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” In Ephesians 4:29 Paul refers to words that give grace to those who hear. Grace is Christ as our enjoyment and supply. Our speech should convey this grace to others. The word that builds up others always ministers such grace to the hearers. For our speech to be with grace means that Christ is expressed through our words. This means that our words should be the expression and utterance of Christ. Every word must be the expression of Christ as grace.
Our speech should also be seasoned with salt. Salt makes things agreeable and pleasant to the taste. Speech seasoned with salt keeps us at peace with one another (Mark 9:50). If our words are with grace and are salted, they will cause things to be agreeable, and they will also arouse the proper taste in others.
In 4:2-6 Paul covers five important matters: praying, watching, walking in wisdom, redeeming the time, and speech that is with grace and seasoned with salt. It is difficult to determine whether the main point in these verses is prayer or redeeming the time. But no matter which one we take as the focal point, it is a certainty that the proper Christian life requires that we redeem the time. All those on earth today are wasting time and missing valuable opportunities. But we need to redeem every moment and grasp every opportunity. In order to live such a life, we need to be filled with Christ and saturated with Him. We need to be one with Christ and allow His peace to arbitrate in us and His word to fill us. Then we shall express Him by praying, by watching, and by walking in wisdom. If we are such persons, we shall be those who redeem the time and seize every available opportunity to minister life. Furthermore, our words will not be a cause of trouble. On the contrary, through the thorough dealing of the Lord, whatever proceeds out of our mouth will be a word of grace seasoned with salt. Such a word will make things agreeable and pleasant to the taste. May we all learn these things and practice them.