Those asleep and the dead are in darkness, and therefore those involved in spiritual darkness are ad- dressed as sleeping. The light which comes from Christ has power to reach even the dead—as our Lord, in the use of another figure, says, ‘The hour is coming, and now is, that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live,” John 5, 25. This does not mean that the dead must be revived be- fore they hear the voice of the Son of God, but his voice causes them to hear and live. So the passage before us does not mean that those asleep must arise from the dead and come to Christ for light; but that the light which Christ sheds around him, has power to awake the sleeping dead. Thus the passage is a con- firmation of what is said in the preceding verse, viz., that every thing made manifest by the light, is light.
V.15. If this verse be considered as connected in- ferentially by odv with the preceding, then the associa- tion of ideas is: ‘If believers are bound to dispel the darkness from the hearts and lives of others, how eare- ful should they be not to be dark themselves, i. e. they should walk as wise men.’ This however seems forced. The exhortation contained in this and the following verse is most naturally connected with that contained in verses 10 and 11. Believers as children of light are required to have no fellowship with the works of dark- ness, but rather to reprove them; see therefore, 1. e. take heed therefore, πῶς ἀκριβῶς περιπατεῖτε, that ye walk circumspectly. Πῶς, however, does not mean that, though often used where ὅτε or ἵνα might be
CHAP. v. vs. 15. 16. 299
employed. It here as elsewhere means how, i what manner. “See in what manner ye render your deport- ment accurate.” ᾿Ακριβῶς περιπατεῖν is to walk strict- ly by rule, so as not to deviate by a hair’s breadth. Not as unwise, but as wise. Paul often uses the word σοφία for divine truth. The σοφοί are those who pos- sess this truth, which he had before called light, and the ἄσοφοι are those who have it not. So that wese and wnwise are here equivalent to the enlightened and those in darkness. His exhortation, therefore, is that believers should carefully deport themselves not as the heathen and unrenewed, who have not the divine light of which he had been speaking, but as those who are enlightened from above and are therefore wise.
V.16. ᾿Εξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρόν, redeeming the téme. This is one manifestation of wisdom, one method in which their Christian character as the children of light should be exhibited. The words have been vari- ously explained :—1. Making use of, availing your- - selves of the occasion for doing good, not allowing it to pass unimproved. 2. Buying back the time, redeem- ing it, as it were, from Satan or from the world. 3. Making the most of time, i. e. using it to the best advantage, 4. Adapting yourselves to the occasion, &e. The decision between these different views depends partly on the sense to be given to ἐξαγοραζόμενοι, and partly on the question whether καιρός is to be taken in its proper sense, opportunity, appropriate time; or in the general sense of χρόνος, time. The words ἀγο- patew and ἐξαγοράζειν, have in common the idea of