25 Bible Verses about Waste

No long time afterwards the younger son got all together and travelled to a distant country, where he wasted his money in debauchery and excess. At last, when he had spent everything, there came a terrible famine throughout that country, and he began to feel the pinch of want. So he went and hired himself to one of the inhabitants of that country, who sent him on to his farm to tend swine;read more.
and he longed to make a hearty meal of the pods the swine were eating, but no one gave him any.

He said also to His disciples: "There was a rich man who had a steward, about whom a report was brought to him, that he was wasting his property.

Come, you rich men, weep aloud and howl for your sorrows which will soon be upon you. Your treasures have rotted, and your piles of clothing are moth-eaten; your gold and your silver have become covered with rust, and the rust on them will give evidence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded up wealth in these last days.read more.
I tell you that the pay of the labourers who have gathered in your crops--pay which you are keeping back--is calling out against you; and the outcries of those who have been your reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of the armies of Heaven. Here on earth you have lived self-indulgent and profligate lives. You have stupefied yourselves with gross feeding; but a day of slaughter has come. You have condemned--you have murdered-- the righteous man: he offers no resistance.

For you have given time enough in the past to the doing of the things which the Gentiles delight in-- pursuing, as you did, a course of habitual licence, debauchery, hard drinking, noisy revelry, drunkenness and unholy image-worship. At this they are astonished--that you do not run into the same excess of profligacy as they do; and they speak abusively of you. But they will have to give account to Him who stands ready to pronounce judgement on the living and the dead.

When all were fully satisfied, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the broken portions that remain over, so that nothing be lost." Accordingly they gathered them up; and with the fragments of the five barley loaves--the broken portions that remained over after they had done eating--they filled twelve baskets.

"Yet a little while," He replied, "the light is among you. Be faithful to the light that you have, for fear darkness should overtake you; for a man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. In the degree that you have light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light." Jesus said this, and went away and hid Himself from them.

And you also we, as God's fellow workers, entreat not to be found to have received His grace to no purpose.

Now, however, having come to know God--or rather to be known by Him--how is it you are again turning back to weak and worthless rudimentary notions to which you are once more willing to be enslaved? You scrupulously observe days and months, special seasons, and years. I am alarmed about you, and am afraid that I have perhaps bestowed labour upon you to no purpose.

For if we wilfully persist in sin after having received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains in reserve any other sacrifice for sins. There remains nothing but a certain awful expectation of judgement, and the fury of a fire which before long will devour the enemies of the truth. Any one who bids defiance to the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.read more.
How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

For it would have been better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandments in which they were instructed.

"Why, it is like a man who, when going on his travels, called his bondservants and entrusted his property to their care. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one--to each according to his individual capacity; and then started from home. Without delay the one who had received the five talents went and employed them in business, and gained five more.read more.
In the same way he who had the two gained two more. But the man who had received the one went and dug a hole and buried his master's money. "After a long lapse of time the master of those servants returned, and had a reckoning with them. The one who had received the five talents came and brought five more, and said, "'Sir, it was five talents that you entrusted to me: see, I have gained five more.' "'You have done well, good and trustworthy servant,' replied his master; 'you have been trustworthy in the management of a little, I will put you in charge of much: share your master's joy.' "The second, who had received the two talents, came and said, "'Sir, it was two talents you entrusted to me: see, I have gained two more.' "'Good and trustworthy servant, you have done well,' his master replied; 'you have been trustworthy in the management of a little, I will put you in charge of much: share your master's joy.' "But, next, the man who had the one talent in his keeping came and said, "'Sir, I knew you to be a severe man, reaping where you had not sown and garnering what you had not winnowed. So being afraid I went and buried your talent in the ground: there you have what belongs to you.' "'You wicked and slothful servant,' replied his master, 'did you know that I reap where I have not sown, and garner what I have not winnowed? Your duty then was to deposit my money in some bank, and so when I came I should have got back my property with interest. So take away the talent from him, and give it to the man who has the ten.' (For to every one who has, more shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him who has nothing, even what he has shall be taken away.) But as for this worthless servant, put him out into the darkness outside: *there* will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.'

So He said to them, "A man of noble family travelled to a distant country to obtain the rank of king, and to return. And he called ten of his servants and gave each of them a pound, instructing them to trade with the money during his absence. "Now his countrymen hated him, and sent a deputation after him to say, 'We are not willing that he should become our king.'read more.
And upon his return, after he had obtained the sovereignty, he ordered those servants to whom he had given the money to be summoned before him, that he might learn their success in trading. "So the first came and said, "'Sir, your pound has produced ten pounds more.' "'Well done, good servant,' he replied; 'because you have been faithful in a very small matter, be in authority over ten towns.' "The second came, and said, "'Your pound, Sir, has produced five pounds.' "So he said to this one also, "'And you, be the governor of five towns.' "The next came. "'Sir,' he said, 'here is your pound, which I have kept wrapt up in a cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man: you take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.' "'By your own words,' he replied, 'I will judge you, you bad servant. You knew me to be a severe man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow: why then did you not put my money into a bank, that when I came I might have received it back with interest? "And he said to those who stood by, "'Take the pound from him and give it to him who has the ten pounds.' ("They said to him, "`Sir, he already has ten pounds.') "'I tell you that to every one who has anything, more shall be given; and from him who has not anything, even what he has shall be taken away. But as for those enemies of mine who were unwilling that I should become their king, bring them here, and cut them to pieces in my presence.'"

Buy up your opportunities, for these are evil times.

We must do the works of Him who sent me while there is daylight. Night is coming on, when no one can work.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us labour for the good of all, and especially of those who belong to the household of the faith.

Behave wisely in relation to the outside world, buying up your opportunities.

"Give not that which is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls to the swine; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and then turn and attack you.

The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged.

lest there be a fornicator, or an ungodly person like Esau, who, in return for a single meal, parted with the birthright which belonged to him.

Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He was condemned, smitten with remorse he brought back the thirty shekels to the High Priests and Elders and said, "I have sinned, in betraying to death one who is innocent." "What does that matter to us?" they replied; it is your business." Flinging the shekels into the Sanctuary he left the place, and went and hanged himself.

Now when Jesus was come to Bethany and was at the house of Simon the Leper, a woman came to Him with a jar of very costly, sweet-scented ointment, which she poured over His head as He reclined at table. "Why such waste?" indignantly exclaimed the disciples;read more.
"for this might have been sold for a considerable sum, and the money given to the poor." But Jesus heard it, and said to them, "Why are you vexing her? For she has done a most gracious act towards me. The poor you always have with you, but me you have not always. In pouring this ointment over me, her object was to prepare me for burial. In solemn truth I tell you that wherever in the whole world this Good News shall be proclaimed, this deed of hers shall be spoken of in memory of her."

Now when He was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leper, while He was at table, there came a woman with a jar of pure, sweet-scented ointment very costly: she broke the jar and poured the ointment over His head. But there were some who said indignantly among themselves, "Why has the ointment been thus wasted? For that ointment might have been sold for fifteen pounds or more, and the money have been given to the poor." And they were exceedingly angry with her.read more.
But Jesus said, "Leave her alone: why are you troubling her? She has done a most gracious act towards me. For you always have the poor among you, and whenever you choose you can do acts of kindness to them; but me you have not always. What she could she did: she has perfumed my body in preparation for my burial. And I solemnly tell you that wherever in the whole world the Good News shall be proclaimed, this which she has done shall also be told in remembrance of her."

Jesus, however, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was whom He had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner there in honour of Jesus, at which Martha waited at table, but Lazarus was one of the guests who were with Him. Availing herself of the opportunity, Mary took a pound weight of pure spikenard, very costly, and poured it over His feet, and wiped His feet with her hair, so that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.read more.
Then said Judas (the Iscariot, one of the Twelve--the one who afterwards betrayed Jesus) "Why was not that perfume sold for 300 shillings and the money given to the poor?" The reason he said this was not that he cared for the poor, but that he was a thief, and that being in charge of the money-box, he used to steal what was put into it. But Jesus interposed. "Do not blame her," He said, "allow her to have kept it for the time of my preparation for burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you have not me always."

Therefore we are not cowards. Nay, even though our outward man is wasting away, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.