What Does the Bible Say About Wasting Time?

Ephesians 5:16-17 ESV / 129 helpful votes

Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV / 25 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Proverbs 6:9-11 ESV / 24 helpful votes

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Peter 4:3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Proverbs 26:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.

Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

James 1:1-27 ESV / 5 helpful votes

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ...

Ephesians 4:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Hebrews 5:14 ESV / 1 helpful vote

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV / 1 helpful vote

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Colossians 1:1-29 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ...

Deuteronomy 4:19 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

Bible Verses about Wasting Time