Redeeming the Time

By David Martinez

I have been doing apologetics for over 33 years. I am a revert to Catholicism. Growing up, I went to Catholic school, and the priests and nuns who taught me were modernists. I had a lot of questions to which they were not able to give answers. As a result, I spent many years searching for truth in several different denominations. In the end, it brought me back to the one, true faith, which is Catholicism. I came back approximately seven years ago. My expertise in apologetics includes theology and defending the truth as taught in the Catholic Church through Scripture, the Magisterium and Tradition. When I was in college studying theology and apologetics, I was known for my passion for the truth and the lost. I came back to the Catholic faith by studying the early Church Fathers and praying the rosary for three months prior to my reversion. I was the apologist on staff at my FSSP parish for over two years. 

My passion is to help Catholics better understand their faith and go deeper in Scripture, the Magisterium and Tradition.  I also strive to help non-Catholics better understand the true teachings of the Church, and to understant that those teachings are found in Scripture. I am currently writing articles that can be found on my Patreon page, writing books, and speaking at conferences. The following is one of my recent articles:

Colossians 4:5 “Walk with wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time.”

Ephesians 5:16 “But as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

            In this article and upcoming articles, I will be dealing with the theme of redeeming the time.  I will show you the meaning of the words “redeeming” and “time” in the Greek language and how it relates to us today.  This article was inspired by a movie that I saw with my wife.  I am a sentimental kind of guy and like watching clean, romantic movies with my wife.  This movie was about a woman who wanted to find what she considered to be the right kind of guy.  This woman was stuck in a cycle where she had to continually live the same day over and over again.  Everybody that she considered the “right” kind of guys was not the “right” kind of guy.  So, through this process she found out that what she thought she wanted was not actually what she wanted after all.  To prepare herself to be the right person for this gentleman, each day she saw something in her life that she needed to change.  In the end, for her to be the right person for this gentleman, the person that really needed to change was her.  She goes from being a prideful, living for the world and her success, woman, who is looking for superficial traits in a future husband to a humble, down to earth woman, who finds joy in seeing other people’s joy and giving them joy.  This process was not her choice and she reluctantly went through it, but in the end,  she was grateful for it and how it changed her. 

Some of you may wonder how this movie relates to this article and most of all how does it relate to us as Catholics today.  It is so easy in the day that we live in, to live our life out without real meaning and purpose, to go through the motions without looking to see the opportunities that are before us.  First of all, for us to be changed and transformed into the image Christ destined us to be. To do this, we are going to have to allow God to use the circumstances of life: good, bad, and indifferent, to open up our eyes to the things that matter most in the life to come and in this life.  Romans 12:1-2 “I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.”  We must wake up every day before our feet hit the floor and ask God to somehow use us today to glorify Him and make an impact in another’s life.  As you make this decision to allow God to do something new and great in and through you, be assured that you will have opposition from the enemy, his demons,  the world and even at times those that are the closest to you.  Mark 4:19 “And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word, and it is made fruitless.”  God is not telling us in this verse that we are not to be concerned at all for the things that take place in our lives, including our family, jobs, church, etc. but what He is saying to us, is do not let these things hinder you from having a fruitful relationship with Christ and His Church.

I love to study the Saints of old, in scripture and out of scripture.  For example, one of the saints that has been a great inspiration to me is St. Augustine who at one time lived a life of immorality and debauchery, and yet God got ahold of him, redeemed him and transformed him and therefore he was able to redeem the time in his life.  Not only was St. Augustine a Saint in the Church, but he was a Doctor of the Doctors and also, he is considered a moral theologian of the Church.  Think about the life that he lived and how God redeemed him and used him to inspire us to live an upright and moral life.  What God has done for this saint and others, He can also do for you.  Each of us have different gifts and giftings and abilities that are given to us by God.  So, I am not saying to you that you will be exactly like this saint or that saint, but you will live a life that is fulfilling and brings glory to God.  In the Catechism,  it says “He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.”  If we would follow what the Catechism tells us above, we would truly redeem the time.  Our number one goal as Catholics is to be Saints, what else really matters in this life or the life to come.  As we seek God to live a saintly life, He helps us to be godly Catholics, godly mates, godly parents, godly employees, godly business owners, etc. Everything we are or ever will be stems from our relationship with God and our willingness to allow Him to lead and guide us through the teachings of the Church, the Bible, the lives of the Saints and our individual studies that we do, by reading godly books so that we would better understand Christ and His Church.  Through this we are able to be an example to those within the Church and without and present the faith in a way that is persuasive, passionate, and convicting. 

Let us look at the word “time” in the Greek in scriptures I quoted above, Colossians 4:5 and Ephesians 5:16.  This Greek word is used 87 times in the Bible in the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint.  The word is “Kairos” which is better translated as the word opportunity.  This means that God can help you by His grace and the graces we receive from His Church to recoup, regain, recover and receive lost time and opportunities.  For your own personal study, I will give you some places where this Greek word is used in other scriptures: Matt 8:29, Matt 16:3, Matt 24:45, 1 Cor 4:5, Gal 6:9, Eph. 6:18, Heb 9:9-10, 1 Peter 1:5, 1 Peter 4:17, there are many more, but this will give you further study on this word, as I stated above there are 87 times where it is used. 

Redeeming is from the Greek word “exagoridzo.”  It is the old Greek word used to depict someone purchasing a slave out of the slave market.  The word “exagoridzo” is a compound word “ex” and “agoridzo”.  The word “ex” is a preposition that means out, and “agoridzo” is the Greek word most notably used to describe the slave market, a disgusting and sick place where human beings were bought, sold, and traded as if they were animals.  The market was officially called the “agoral”, and from this, we get the Greek word “agoridzo.”  This word is used four times in the entire scripture: three times in the New Testament and one time in the Septuagint.

In upcoming articles, I will be showing you how an understanding of these verses and their meanings in the Greek language will help you to redeem the time so that you may live a life that is please and upright for Christ and His Church and be an example to those around you. 

I covet your prayers for me and my family and the apostolate ministry that God has called us to write articles and seize the other opportunities for us to walk through.  We are needing people to stand with us that we might be able to do what we need to do and also that I might be able to take care of my family.  Please pray that God will move upon people’s hearts to help us in our apostolate.  We know that God is faithful, and He will bring all these things to pass and we are trusting in Him each and every day.  We have cast this upon the Lord in prayer and we continue to do it daily in our rosary.  If you would like to read previous articles please go to www.2corinthians515.com.