25th September, 2003

ANDREW MERRY

The time when Doug Stringer stopped to pick me up as I hitched through Houston, Texas was a kairos in my life. That was the time when God really got my attention and challenged me to serve Him. Each of us have had points in our lives that have been pivotal and significant and these times are referred to in the Greek as kairos.

Kairos means time but unlike chronos, which refers to the passing of time, kairos brings us the concept of a critical situation, one that demands a decision. Positively, kairos implies opportunity; negatively, danger.

Paul used kairos 30 times in his writings and it is used 85 times in the New Testament alone. It is a particularly popular word in Christian literature because it is linked with the coming of Jesus, the dawning of a unique kairos, one by which all other time is qualified.

The Bible speaks of well-timed (kairos) temptations (Luke 4:13, 8:13) and strategically-timed (kairos) persecution (Acts 12:1, 19:23). It also tells us to be alert and ready to intercede at specific times of need – “pray at all times (kairos) in the Spirit”, which doesn’t mean you have to pray all the time but at strategic times in spiritual warfare.

In making a stand to follow Jesus, people are confronted with the reality of Christ in a moment or period of their life (kairos) and then are called to live out that to which they have been called.

The fullness of divine glory will dawn only with kairos eschatos, the final bringing together of all things under Christ, a time that we look forward to without knowing the precise date.

Andrew Merry is the pastor of the Ocean Grove Baptist Church

References: Brown. C. (Editor) Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 1992, The Paternoster Press
Sheets D. Intercessory Prayer, 1996, Regal