Is Time Wasting a Sin?

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Time is a scarce resource. We don’t have it to spend just as we wish to, and any misuse or misallocation cannot be recovered.

If you lose money, you may recoup it back by thrift and tact. If you lose a spouse, you may get another. If you lose a job, you may get another. However, if you lose time, it’s gone. No more chance of getting it back.

A loss of time is akin to life in sin and disobedience. This is why like life, time is another thing which the Bible asks us to redeem:

"See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16, NKJV)

Every time within our disposal has been allocated to some useful labour. This is why we can’t recover lost time by reallocation since all the remaining time is occupied. If we have wasted it, it can only be redeemed. God has made this possible at Calvary. Christ not only paid the wages of sin that we had earned or ever will. He also bought us another chance to choose afresh.

Human beings were created for a specific purpose. In a world without sin, humanity was to be proved worthy of obedience by being monitored during the probationary period. The worst happened, and the human family have had all these pains to deal with. The fall has made it even more difficult for created beings to be accomplished and fully prepared to relate with God. 

The time granted to us is fully occupied with specific goals. Some people will have 100 years to do it. Others, like Methuselah, had 969 years, and we also have a definite time to do it—our life lifespan.

To all of us, thus goes the assignment:

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13, KJV).

This, we must do with our entire life and strength. We don’t have a sabbatical on this. From the time we get the ability to make decisions and understand the will of God, we have an assignment to do. The assignment of maintaining a life of obedience, perfect and perpetual. We are not excused even for a day to do our own will, which because of the fall of Adam, is biased towards sin. 

What is ‘Time wasting’?

To waste time is to spend time doing an activity other than the one allotted. The activity may be right, healthy, and acceptable to society, but because it is not done in its time, it amounts to time-wasting.

On the positive side, reading a good book when the time should find you in bed is time-wasting. Adding twenty minutes to your lunch break is time-wasting. Watching a movie when you are supposed to be on the pitch playing some sport is time-wasting. Attending a Bible study when you are supposed to be in the choir or vice versa is time-wasting. Snoozing the alarm and earning five more minutes in bed is a serious time-wasting. Many of us are guilty of it.

Once again, time-wasting refers to employing time in an activity that was not allocated. How often do you waste time? Grow up! 

Is Time Wasting sinful?

Most Bible students are familiar with two definitions of sin:

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4, KJV )

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17, KJV)

Sin is the transgression of the law or betraying our conscience as far as right-doing is concerned.

If you know what you’re supposed to do and don’t do it, that amounts to sin. Someone else may be safe and be excused because of their lack of information. But with information at our disposal, we have a moral responsibility to do right.

What about wasting time? Could it be the third definition? 

The consequences of time-wasting are not easily seen or realized by many until the time is over.  Most people realize too late how costly their simple carelessness was.  Most people will understand this more fully when the sands of time are run. No more time to available to be something better yet they are not ready to meet the Great I AM.

We have enough examples even today.

A student spends their academic calendar on activities outside the academic scope only to be confronted with exams. In most cases, such students are not ready. It is worse when you are sure to do better when given another chance.

A young man spends time with the damsel of their dreams without saying anything to invite decision and interest. Such men are usually awakened by another introduction, “Bestie, meet my fiance!” Time is over. They know well that they have not used it well. They could be sure of a gladsome yes had they shot their shot. Nevertheless, time is gone, and they can’t help but write another chapter of Lamentations.

The cry of everyone who has wasted their time is summarised in the message of Prophet Jeremiah:

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:20, KJV)

Your entire life is to be used to learn how to relate with God.

At the end of the age, the Bible presents two groups of people. The first group is ripe for eternal life, and the other is ripe for eternal damnation. While the former rejoices when Christ descends with the Clouds, the latter cannot. The unready ones asks rocks to fall on them or crocodiles to eat them. But no rock wants to fall on sinners anymore, and all crocodiles are vegans.  Whereas those who have used their time well sing redemption songs, the time-wasters are mourning and writing their own epitaphs. 

With this in mind, I want to make a bold statement:

“Time wasting is sinful, and many will realize it when it is too late that the lesson learned can’t bring any virtue to self.”

You only have one probation granted. In it, all that can be done to make you ready to meet your God must and should be done. There is no greater heartbreak 💔 than realizing that you have wasted the privilege of doing better because of carelessness. 

In your entire lifetime, there is no minute, hour, or day which has been granted for sinning. Anytime you commit sin, the time has been misused, and privileges abused. 

Day by day, commit yourself to using your time in activities that make you better.

A lot of activities have been done that God did not grant us time to do. A lot of adultery has been committed, yet there is no time in our lives slotted for adultery. Many backbiting and fault-finding have been done, yet God did not grant us time for that. Many corrupt deals have been planned, yet no time is available for that in our short probationary period. Where do we get the time to do all that? We really don’t have time for that💯

None need to err, none need to lose the golden moments of time in their short life history through seeking to weigh the imperfections of professed Christians. Not one of us has time to do this.

That I Know Him. p. 179

There is something you have done and you may be planning to do, which God did not grant you time for. Reconsider how you use your time!

“For all knowledge that we might have gained but did not, there will be an eternal loss, even if we do not lose our souls.”

—Special Testimonies to Our Ministers., P. 5

As Darrel Sawyer sings it, let’s gather up the fragments of time, that nothing be lost.