The writer turns once more to warnings and advice. The readers must be careful about their conduct (again the verb “to walk,” as in verse 8). Since they are people living in the light of Christ, they must behave like wise people, not like ignorant people; that is, they must apply their Christian wisdom to the practical matters of conduct that face them.

Be careful how you live may be more appropriately rendered in some languages as “pay close attention to how you behave.” Such a shift in wording may be required since live might suggest standard of living. Similarly, the admonition Don’t live like ignorant people may be best rendered as “Don’t act like ignorant people.” The phrase ignorant people may be rendered as “people who do not know any better.”

Verse 16 in Greek follows without a break from verse 15, with the use of a participial phrase “buying up the time.” This expression is found exactly the same in Colossians 4.5. The verb means literally “to buy out, redeem,” but here and in the Colossians passage it means make good use of. Most commentators and translators give the same meaning that appears in Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version, but Barth takes it to mean “Redeem the time” (so Robinson), and Jerusalem Bible translates “This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it.” But this seems most unlikely. The readers are being told to seize and use every opportunity to carry on their Christian witness, because these are evil days, a comment which reflects the Christian thinking of that time, that the period in which they lived was under the control of the Devil (see 2.2). It may be that there is the further implication that there was not too much time left before the end of the age.

In some languages it is necessary to specify what is involved in every opportunity. Accordingly, it may be necessary to translate make good use of every opportunity you have as “every time you can do something good you should” or “you should use every chance to do good.”

The statement these are evil days seems perfectly evident in meaning, and yet a literal translation might mean nothing more than “this is a period of bad weather.” It may be necessary, therefore, to translate these are evil days as “these are days when people are evil” or “in these times people are evil.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .