What is time?

Listen to this article

Love, look at the two of us,
Strangers in many ways.
We’ve got a lifetime to share,
So much to say,
And as we go from day to day,
I’ll feel you close to me.
But time alone will tell.

Let’s take a lifetime to say,
I knew you well,
For only time will tell us so,
And love may grow,
For all we know.

— For All We Know, music by Fred Karlin and lyrics by Robb Wilson (Robb Royer) and Arthur James (Jimmy Griffin)

Time is obvious and everywhere. It just is.

But it’s also one of the deepest mysteries of all time. Saint Augustine famously said: ‘What then is time? Provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know.’

Nowadays, when someone asks the question, what is time, it’s usually answered by a quantum physicist who goes into theories of spacetime, time crystals, black holes and such. But this article will not go in that direction.[1]

Then why ask about time?

First, because it’s always been fascinating to me. But second and more importantly, because most don’t realize how far we’ve strayed from seeing time rightly, and consequently how that warped view hinders our walk with God and our ability to care for people.[2]

So in this article I will try to describe a biblical view of time and show how God has constructed it to create a flourishing community, full of worship.

The day

. . . God called the light Day . . . the evening and the morning were the first day. — Genesis 1:5

Let’s start with the most fundamental concept of time: the day. The day is the primary ‘unit’ of time, not the hour, minute or second. That’s because those precise divisions are all ‘products’ of the clock, which did not exist until around 1275 AD. Yes, other time keeping devices existed before that — the water clock, sundial, hourglass, etc — but these did not produce precise time divisions.

The words from Genesis above define the day: the light which was created on the first day. God called the light Day and the dark he called Night. So it is this coupling of light and dark that constitute the day.

We now define a day as a twenty-four hour period, or scientifically as an average of 86,400 seconds. I say ‘average’ because the length of a day does vary slightly from day to day, but we take it for granted that the length of a day is remarkably stable. Over the course of a year, a day varies only slightly — 10–20 seconds depending on the time of year. But on average, year to year, variations on the length of day are in the order of single-digit milliseconds, that is, thousandths of a second! What precision!

This division of the day into fine durations obviously has many applications, but there is nothing special about the number 24. The ancient Egyptians were the ones who originally divided the day into twenty-four segments based on several factors. It’s a long history, but the divisions could have been based on something else and so could have ended up with a 10 or 36 or 23 hour day. But 24 seems to have worked well.

But the division of the day that is obvious to all is the division between day and night, sun and moon, light and dark. And this division is not abrupt but gradual and continuous.

It may be obvious but there’s another stable, gradual and continuous twenty-four hour cycle that is everywhere in the world. This cycle is independent of the day cycle but synchronizes automatically to it. Give up?

It’s the circadian rhythm.

Circadian rhythm

The circadian rhythm — circa (about) and dian (day) is also a twenty-four-hour cycle found, not only in humans, but in almost all animals, insects, fungi, and bacteria. And even if we were to be plunged into continual darkness, our circadian ‘clock’ would continue to run normally. The entire creation pulses with the twenty-four-hour day.

This ‘clock’ regulates and triggers a large number of metabolic bodily processes at regular time frames. Here are a few of those processes:

body temperature	reaction time
blood pressure	muscle strength
melatonin	alertness
testosterone	sleep
bowel movements	coordination

Without this built-in twenty-four-hour clock, our life would become chaotic and our lifespan would be dramatically shortened.

So since the circadian rhythm is apparently designed to synchronize precisely with the day cycle, this gives us a glimpse into the mind of God and the purpose of time. Whatever it is, time is meant to provide the foundation for the flourishing of life in all its forms.

The day is also the microcosm of life:

Day	Life
morning	birth
awakening	youth/learning
noon	strength/work
evening	fellowship
bed	last days, fatigue, old age
night	sleep, death

The most obvious correspondence is that in the light of the day, we are awake; and in the dark of night, we sleep. This is not a lucky coincidence, or an accident of nature. It is masterful design.

The clock

One universally-accepted definition of time is simply, ‘what clocks measure,’ which sounds like a joke, but then you realize that those who say it are quite serious. Clocks have now become synonymous with time. What time is it? I ask. Seven-thirty, she answers. We cannot imagine time without the clock, but the clock is not time, and the clock cannot ‘measure’ time because time cannot be measured except in units of days and nights, moon phases and seasons.

The philosopher and historian Lewis Mumford wrote:

The clock dissociated time from human events and helped create the belief in an independent world of mathematically measurable sequences . . . Abstract time became the new medium of existence.[3]

The clock’s ‘product’ is hours, minutes and seconds. It numbers the ‘sequences’ of fine slices of time’s continuum.

When time is abstracted into hours, minutes and seconds, time becomes uniform, commodified and standardized so as to be used. So life becomes and is reduced to the use of time’s standardized commodities. One minute (or one hour) is treated like any other. The problem is that hours, minutes and seconds are not real; they are artificial constructs, and they will ultimately lead to an artificially constructed life.[4]

Let’s look briefly at the history of clocks, or time-keeping devices. The desire to measure time dates far back into antiquity. The first ‘clocks’ if you can call them that, were passive devices such as the sundial or the clepsydra (water clock) or hourglass. These crude devices provided only rough estimations of the day’s time and were prone to error. But eventually, through refinement and invention, the first clock was born somewhere around 1275 AD. These clocks mechanically produced relatively precise divisions of the day into hours and minutes.

Fast forward to today where the official SI standard of time is the second, which is measured by so-called atomic clocks, and defined as:

second – the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods [cycles] of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the unperturbed ground state of the 133Cs [Cesium] atom.[5]

This is the current level of fanaticism that desires to precisely ‘measure time’ in finer and finer increments.

What drives the continual pursuit for finer and finer increments of time, for more and more precise measurements of those increments? One driver: urbanization. The move to the cities forced more interaction in a denser population. It increased the transactional nature of human encounters. The movement and need for synchronization — meetings, train schedules, 24/7 systems, just-in-time industries, etc. But the finer the increments, the less human activity can take place within them. The only kind of interaction that can take place is a transaction:

a sale
a bid
a call
an order
a tip
an estimate
a signal
a job

But time is continuous. It is a whole, a continuous whole, unbreakable. It is obviously cyclical, but it never pauses, never interrupts, never attenuates, never slows.

Our time divisions of hours, minutes, seconds, tenths, hundredths, thousandths of a second . . . are obviously artificial and do not exist in reality. They end up forming a contrived overlay of our lives/existence that we mistake for time, but which interrupts and blinds us to the moments, encounters, the ‘kairoses’ of our lives.

Chronos and kairos

There are primarily two words for time in the Greek New Testament:

chronos – time (in general), especially viewed in sequence (a “succession of moments”); time in duration in the physical-space world, sovereignly apportioned by God to each person.

kairos – time as opportunity. derived from kara (“head”) referring to things “coming to a head” to take full-advantage of. the suitable time, the right moment

Chronos relates to visible, definitive reality: events, words, meetings, eating, etc

Kairos relates to invisible, subjective reality: feelings, thoughts, impressions, assumptions, secrets, worries, fears, beliefs, cares, etc.

Time encompasses both chronos and kairos.

The distinction is quantity (chronos) versus quality (kairos) — the specific event versus the meaning or quality of the event; the year versus the significance of the year. Both are necessary and impossible to fully separate. Both are constant, but one is more difficult to see than the other.

For example, let’s take three events: all having chronos and kairos embedded in them, but only one having kairos being obvious:

Event 1: the birth of a baby. Obviously this event is highly significant; it will affect the mother for years to come. It is memorable; it is emotional; it is impossible to ignore its significance. So much import happens within a relatively short duration. This event is kairos heavy. But chronos was also present — the actual details of the event — when it happened, where it happened, who was there, the baby’s sex, weight, length and name (we love the details). But chronos here is easily ignored in favor of kairos.

Event 2: a husband and wife having dinner on a Tuesday night. On the surface this event does not appear to have much weight, either actual or potential. This couple eats dinner together on practically every Tuesday night. They sit in mutual and cordial silence during most of the meal because they do not see its real or potential significance. They see it as just another perfunctory Tuesday night dinner. They’re barely present to each other, thinking of other things, hoping to get done quickly so as not to miss their favorite TV show. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? Because the event (chronos) appears to be like every other, they underestimate the significance and end up unintentionally (not maliciously), practically ignoring each other. And because they do not see its significance or potential significance or meaning, it will not have any significance or meaning. And yet to does IF they will simply open their eyes to it —

if the man will notice and sincerely appreciate the well-cooked meal his wife prepared.
if the woman will notice the strained and worried expression on her husband’s face and simply ask: ‘is anything bothering you?’
if they moved their meal out of the kitchen and onto the patio to enjoy the autumn sun.
and countless other ways. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. The main thing is to notice the other person and sincerely care in some small way — to linger, to touch her hand, smile, tell a joke, offer to clean up, etc, etc.

Event 3: a man being crucified. this was a common occurrence in first-century Roman-occupied Palestine. Many people were either oblivious or ignored this event because it was so common. It was also brutal and disgusting. Of the thousands that the Romans crucified, only a handful of names survive. Yet one name does survive — Jesus of Nazareth. That person was crucified, which on the surface at the time may not have appeared to be significant, yet it actually turned out to be the most significant event in history.

Chronos and kairos — the event and its significance — are inseparable and always present. But in our western world chronos so often dominates and smothers any visibility to kairos. Chronos and kairos exist together in a single continuum, meaning we all go about our day as normal: waking, sleeping, eating, working, playing, talking, caring, sharing, etc, but at the same time, while all that’s going on, there are souls going through an endless array of experiences, emotions, crises large and small, most of them hidden from us. But imagine if they were visible to you. Imagine that you could be like Jesus, who, with every encounter, saw into the depths of each person by the Spirit of God.

The moment of kairos is an encounter with someone who needs something. It is seeing with the eye of faith, seeing the real need underneath all of the baggage. It is seeing and being ready to discern, to speak, to do, to confront, to question, to care.

But it’s not just large and small discrete events or moments that inherently contain both chronos and kairos. Practices and works also carry both sides of the nature of time. Here are a few to chew on:

Chronos (work) —corresponds to earth	Kairos (rest) —corresponds to heaven
planting a garden	enjoying the fruits of the garden
building a house	being sheltered from the storm
pregnancy	birth of the baby, holding the baby
digging a well	drinking water from the well
learning to read	enjoying reading
work of the day	rest of the day
building a fire	enjoying the warmth of the fire
cooking a meal	eating the meal
sewing a dress	wearing the dress
studying a subject	understanding, mastering the subject
exercise	fitness
raw data	insights from the data
knowledge	wisdom
point-of-view	perspective
picking flowers	smelling the roses

Cause and effect

The clock imposes a fine artificial grid/mesh onto our lives that interrupts the chronos/kairos continuum. It subliminally causes us to think our experiences have to fit into this grid, but as it becomes more fine and, the human moments (kairoses) also become less frequent until they may disappear from our view altogether.

But you could say there is a divine way that time carries hard divisions or transitions, the twists and turns on a long road. Among other things it’s called ‘cause and effect.’

God gave us a will and he put Adam and Eve in the garden to make a choice. But before he did that he set up the world — both the earth and the heavens — with inexorable laws of nature, each with a proportional consequence for breaking those laws. For example, if you jump off a high cliff, you will most likely never do it again.

Yes, there are many physical laws, but there are also spiritual laws that are just as immovable. For example, if you shout angrily at your wife, she will likely become afraid of you; if you have sex with your neighbor’s wife, and your wife finds out, she will likely feel betrayed and you will lose her trust; but on the other hand, if you speak tenderly to her and care for her true needs, she will likely love and respect you for it. If you steal your neighbor’s laptop and he later sees it in your car, he may confront you or even press charges against you. And so on.

What does this have to do with time?

Time is continuous, unbroken, but it’s connected across time by our choices, by the causes we put into motion and their effects, by the unchangeable consequences of our choices and our actions. Over time this unbroken, unbreakable series of small and large choices becomes our story, our history, our timeline. And because time moves in only one direction, no alteration to that timeline is possible. For good or evil it becomes the story of our life and our unchangeable legacy. One day God himself will tell the story of our lives as it’s never been told before.

Cause and effect is ‘in effect’ not only for our own personal choices, but others’ choices affect us too. Our parents’ choices, our neighbors’ choices, and others, be they government, corporate, you name it — our acts and choices cause ripples that we cannot control.

And over time, given enough time, our story produces other stories — our children’s and their children’s stories. And we join the long line, or should I say the ‘family tree of trees,’ — the generations before us and the generations to come.

This is the structure of time.

The Sabbath

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. — Mark 2:27

With the Sabbath[6] God formed the weekly rhythm of our lives. Jesus said:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” — Exodus 20:8–11

The Sabbath was to be a weekly reminder and opportunity to worship; it was an opportunity to trust in God for his provision; it was an opportunity and reminder of the bigger picture and purpose of their lives. It was an opportunity to be reminded and renewed in their grand perspective.

Without the Sabbath, we may descend into one or more traps:

restlessness
compulsiveness
performance-orientation

The Sabbath is not only the end of the week, it also points to THE end, our purpose; otherwise, life becomes an endless cycle of meaningless toil. It was to shine a light on the big questions: why? so what? for what?[7]

The Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath command is one, are all about giving due honor and respect to God and people. But if not reminded we tend to see God and people as objects to be used for our benefit. The sabbath command sits at the heart of the commandments to act as a built-in remedy, a preventive to slow or stop this inevitable trend to use, exploit and disrespect. The Sabbath command sits in between the third commandment — don’t take the name of the Lord in vain, and the fifth — honor your father and mother. The Sabbath was meant to prevent us from using God (third commandment) and using people (fifth commandment).

In the pivotal chapters of Exodus 20 through 31, the Lord gives Moses the Law, instructions for building the tabernacle, the consecration of the priesthood, the naming and blessing of the artisans who would build the tabernacle and its furnishings. And then, at the very end of this passage, God reiterates the sabbath command. He solemnly charges the people of Israel:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ — Exodus 31:12–17

The Sabbath Day was to be a continual, weekly reminder of the Lord. It was to be a sign, something that would visibly set the children of Israel apart. ‘It is holy to you.’ It was a sign, not so much of what they did, but what they did not do: work. No commerce/trade was conducted — no trade, no selling, no sweat, no noise, no busyness; but singing, praying, hearing the Word, caring for one another, etc. A totally different day. A day full of kairos! Significant, memorable, life-giving moments. It produced a kairos day in the midst of chronos. The sabbath was a command to the children of Israel intended to build and support a cohesive, caring community, to keep the community true to the Lord, to maintain its holiness, its distinction, its witness in the world as a people who worshipped the living God.

The fact that the injunction to keep the sabbath was the final word, and under penalty of death for its violation, is a tribute to its massive importance. Keeping the sabbath was designed to have the greatest cultural impact, bar none.

The perpetual structuring of time, one day in seven, conditioned, kept, and taught the people, reminding them to worship God: ‘I am the Lord!’

The honest truth is, without a constant reminder we will go astray. We will forget what life is all about. We will end up using God. And given enough time, we may end up killing, stealing, lying, committing adultery, and coveting what belongs to our neighbor.

At the risk of oversimplifying here’s my definition of time:

time – the divinely-ordered cause and effect continuum that builds the foundation for the possibility of community worship and generations of human flourishing. Time is the temporal space for us to grow to know and love our neighbor and our God. We need whole lifetimes to grow into and to express this love.

Jesus, the one who integrates time

No one else, only Jesus himself, gives us such a comprehensive view of what it looks like to integrate time. By integrating time I mean what it looks like to build a whole life, full of seeing the kairos in the midst of chronos, hearing the voice of God in the midst of everyday encounters.

Jesus was the walking embodiment of time’s integration. Here are a few examples:

Feeding the five thousand, see Matthew 14:13–21. Jesus was looking for a quiet retreat — ‘a deserted place by himself,’ but the multitudes followed him out of the cities. They were hungry and desperate. ‘And he was moved with compassion for them.’ His disciples were also looking for a respite. They reasoned to Jesus which made perfect logical sense:

This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.’

But Jesus violated the chronos circumstances and ushered in kairos — the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.

The woman at the well, see John chapter 4. Jesus turned the common need of weariness and thirst, into an encounter that produced eternal fruit. It took seeing the woman, a Samaritan, as a soul of infinite worth; to have a conversation; to see into the woman’s soul; to be unconcerned with appearances; to have the awareness not to be distracted by the woman’s red herring.

Read the Gospel of Mark and notice that the life of Jesus is so much about his unique encounters with individuals of all stripes. The gospel is not only about the death and resurrection of Jesus; it’s also about the life of Jesus, the Son of Man.

Simon and Andrew
man with an unclean spirit
Peter’s mother-in-law
a leper
a paralytic
Levi
man with a withered hand
the demon-possessed man of Gerasa
Jairus’ daughter
the woman with the issue of blood
the rich young ruler
blind Bartimaeus

. . . and so on.

In all these encounters Jesus sees the moment in a different light. Whereas we may not see the opportunity, the hidden glory to be revealed there, Jesus does see it. In all of life there is something else going on in the Spirit in the midst of everyday time. May Jesus give us his eyes to see.

[1] I seriously doubt these concepts and theories because they’re based on theories of space that I have largely rejected. See my article: LIE: Heaven is not connected to earth.

[3] Mumford, Lewis, Technics and Civilization, pgs 14–18.

[4] From my article: LIE: I can’t get involved because I don’t have enough time, resources or energy, Part 1.

[5] https://www.bipm.org/en/si-base-units/second captured on 29 July 2024.

[6] Regarding the practice of observing the Sabbath day, Paul’s exhortation is sound: “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.” — Romans 14:5–6.

[7] See my article: LIE: The meaning of life is an unfathomable mystery.