Scripture contains a surprising number and variety of references, direct and allusive, to time. Many are concerned with historical dates, and among other purposes, serve to root biblical revelation in known historical data. This historical rootage is a major feature of Judeo-Christian faith, and one that sets it apart sharply from other religious systems of mankind.
Alongside the specifically historical references to time in Scripture are other uses of the term and its related elements. Holy Writ takes for granted that each human being is not only surrounded by temporal elements, but also shaped by the considerations that belong to temporal sequences.
In a deeper sense, time is God’s gift to each of us. Long ago Augustine said that time was probably created at the same point in the divine career that the visible universe was called into being. Time is, to use an overworn term, part of mankind’s “existential predicament.”
The involvements of time in man’s placement are more numerous than we realize at first thought. Time relates man to the rhythms of his environment. Time is intimately involved in his daily work, his leisure, and his use of opportunities. It shapes his attitudes toward things about him and toward the contingencies of his physical life. And time is also vital to man’s stewardship.
Men and women need constant reminders—constant prodding—at the point of the vital importance of time in their moment-by-moment existence. It was with this in mind that the psalmist prayed, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Many of the activities and routines of our existence threaten to obscure or blur our view of the significance of time. Too frequently the issue is forced into the background of our awareness, where it has little or no effect upon the quality of our living. It is ironic, perhaps, that even Christians have needed the prodding of the sometimes offbeat existentialists who call attention to the major significance of time in today’s living. These have given expressions to what Christians ought to have been recognizing all along.
As noted, the involvements of time in the larger ranges of human life are many. Recent writers, for example, have called attention to the relation between the use of time and the gaining and exploitation of material things. The Swedish scholar and statesman, Staffen Burenstam Linder, calls attention in his volume, The Harried Leisure Class, to the manner in which the use of time in our industrialized age leads to an increase in production of goods, with a concomitant increase of emphasis upon the amassing and consumption of material commodities. A corollary is that a merely quantitative view of time leads to a crassly materialistic view of life.
Again, such a view of time makes work a mere means to an end, rather than an opportunity to glorify God in the pursuit of a calling. This leads many to view their occupation as something to be used solely for personal gain. Vocation (i.e., calling) is reduced to mere type of employment. Too infrequently today does one hear, “My vocation is …” Failure to relate work to life results too often in a loss of the deeper meaning and significance of time. When the clock becomes our master, the tyranny of goods lurks in the shadows.
The question of the use of leisure, or non-vocationally related time, is too large to discuss here. It is, however, increasingly obvious that such leisure grows less meaningful in a goods-oriented culture, and in turn makes possession of things the hallmark of “the good life.” Such a distortion of the stewardship of time warps one’s outlook upon the whole of existence.
Those with leisure time on their hands constantly face one of two temptations: either to fill up such time with additional work (demanding in turn a greater consumption of goods), or to busy themselves with nothingness. The first option absorbs consumption time; the second distorts the biblical provision for rest and recreation that can glorify God in giving tone to the body, ideally the temple of the Holy Spirit.
A decade ago, John R. Silber, president of Boston University, delivered his inaugural address titled “The Pollution of Time.” In this masterly message, Silber pointed out the contemporary peril of corrupting time by demanding all sorts of immediate elements—instant food, instant success, instant prosperity—and in religion, even instant ecstasy. What is involved in the demand for an “instant culture” is really the “destruction of the meaningful order of time.” The net result is that meaning becomes lost in the demand for the instantaneous and the immediately relevant.
One feels that there must be some guidelines within Scripture for the attitude of believers toward time and its use. Perhaps the following may suggest some such guidelines.
God clearly takes time seriously. That by the divine forecouncils the eternal Son came into our common life and dwelt in time suggests his high evaluation of time.
Again, the Book of the Revelation indicates clearly that God is the Lord of time. It follows that all finite time is meaningful. Believers are urged to “redeem the time,” to buy up the opportunities time affords. Or again, our Lord enjoins his own to “also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour [i.e., time] when you do not expect Him” (Matt. 24:44, NKJB). Clearly, the futuristic aspect of Scripture in general, and of the words of our Lord in particular, suggest the high significance God places upon man’s time.
Parables, such as those of the talents and of the pounds, likewise point to the major significance of time, and demand the most careful attention to the employment of time, abilities, and opportunities. And that the element of time ought to enter meaningfully into all aspects of life is made clear by the famous passage by the author of Ecclesiastes. He notes that there is “a time to every purpose under heaven” (3:1).
Too many in our day apparently fail to perceive real meaning in life. One might feel that such persons have failed to order their lives in a manner suitable to their temporal natures. To say it another way, these have not assimilated the elements of a well-structured intellectual and spiritual outlook. More important, they have not seen the way in which vital elements—especially time and material factors—interlock in the life situation. Such a lack can lead to a feverish and sterile pursuit of possessions.
Such people are but conspicuous examples of problems and temptations that beset us all. This is especially true given the temporal situation in which we find ourselves in today’s world. Men and women of every placement urgently need to take to heart the words of our Lord: “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
HAROLD B. KUHN1Dr. Kuhn is professor of philosophy of religion, Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky.
