Ephesians 5:16 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Redeeming the time. — Or rather, the opportunity, whenever it arises. The meaning of this phrase (used also in Colossians 4:5) is clearly illustrated by its use (although in a bad sense) in Daniel 2:8, “I know that you would gain the time” — i.e., catch the opportunity to escape from difficulty. To “redeem” is “to buy up for oneself” — not having essentially the idea of ransom or redemption, which attaches to the use of the word in Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5, only from the nature of the context. As applied to opportunity, it carries with it the idea, first of making sacrifice for it, then quickness in seizing it, and sagacity in using it to the utmost, whether by silence or by speech, by facing or avoiding danger, by yielding to a crisis (see Romans 12:11) or conquering it. The reason given that “the days are evil” must be taken in the widest sense, of all that induces temptation to swerve out of the “strictness” of the right way. The general lesson is that which is drawn by our Lord in the parable of the Unjust Steward — to apply the wisdom of the buyers and sellers of the world to the work of “the children of light.”