Kairos

Ancient Greeks distinguished between two kinds of time: chronos (sequential, measurable time) and kairos (the opportune moment, the appointed time). When Jesus began his ministry, declaring "The time (kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15), he wasn't announcing a date on the calendar but the arrival of God's decisive moment. Kairos is qualitative time—time pregnant with possibility, the critical juncture where eternity intersects history.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus operates by kairos rather than chronos. When his brothers urge him to go publicly to Judea, he responds, "My time (kairos) has not yet come" (John 7:6). He moves according to divine appointment, not human scheduling. At Cana, he tells Mary, "my hour (hora, related concept) has not yet come" (John 2:4), yet eventually relents—suggesting even within divine sovereignty, kairos has flexibility, responsiveness. God's appointed time isn't a fatalistic mechanism but a living encounter.

Paul uses kairos to describe the urgency of salvation: "Behold, now is the favorable time (kairos); behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). The gospel creates kairos moments—opportunities that can be accepted or refused, pregnant possibilities that don't remain open indefinitely. He similarly warns believers about "making the best use of the time (kairos), because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16). We live in chronos, but we're called to discern and seize kairos—to recognize when God is particularly present and active.

Jesus taught kairos discernment through parables and warnings. "You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time (kairos)?" (Luke 12:56). The crowds could read weather patterns but missed the arriving kingdom. Religious leaders knew scriptures but couldn't recognize their fulfillment standing before them. Kairos requires spiritual alertness, the ability to perceive what God is doing now.

Here's the psychological insight: research on decision-making shows humans consistently overestimate future opportunities while undervaluing present ones—a bias called "temporal discounting." We assume chances will recur, that doors stay open indefinitely. But kairos theology insists otherwise: some moments arrive once. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because "you did not know the time (kairos) of your visitation" (Luke 19:44). The city missed its moment. The New Testament pulses with kairos urgency because it understands what modern psychology confirms—that today's opportunity may be tomorrow's "too late."