24 Bible Verses about Waste

Not many days later, the younger son gathered up all he had, and went away to a distant country, and there he squandered his property by fast living. After he had spent it all, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. And he went and hired himself out to a resident of the country, and he sent him into his fields to tend pigs.read more.
And he was ready to fill himself with the pods the pigs were eating, and no one would give him anything.

And he said to his disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and it was reported to him that this man was squandering his property.

Come now, you rich people! weep aloud and howl over the miseries that are going to overtake you! Your wealth has rotted, your clothes are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are rusted, and their rust will testify against you and eat into your very flesh, for you have stored up fire for the last days.read more.
Why, the wages you have withheld from the laborers who have reaped your harvests cry aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived luxuriously and voluptuously here on earth; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the upright. Will he make no resistance?

You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry. They are amazed that you no longer join them in plunging into the flood of dissipation, and they abuse you for it; but they will have to answer for it to him who is ready to judge living and dead.

When they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, "Pick up the pieces that are left, so that nothing may be wasted." So they picked them up, and they filled twelve baskets with pieces of the five barley loaves that were left after the people had eaten.

Jesus said to them, "You will have the light only a little while longer. Go on while you still have the light, so that darkness may not overtake you, for those who go about in the dark do not know where they are going. While you have the light believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." With these words Jesus went away, and disappeared from them.

As God's fellow-worker, I appeal to you, too, not to accept the favor of God and then waste it.

but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again? You are observing days, months, seasons, and years! I begin to be afraid that perhaps the labor I spent on you was wasted.

For if we choose to go on sinning after we have so fully learned the truth, there is no sacrifice left to be offered for our sins, but only the dreadful prospect of judgment and that blazing indignation which is to devour God's enemies. Anyone who breaks the Law of Moses is put to death without any show of pity, on the evidence of only two or three witnesses.read more.
How much worse a punishment do you think will anyone deserve who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and treats as worthless the blood of the agreement by which he has been purified, and outrages God's spirit of mercy?

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than after knowing it to have turned their backs upon the sacred command with which they had been intrusted.

"For it is just like a man who was going on a journey, and called in his slaves, and put his property in their hands. He gave one five thousand dollars, and another two thousand, and another one thousand; to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The man who had received the five thousand dollars immediately went into business with the money, and made five thousand more.read more.
In the same way the man who had received the two thousand made two thousand more. But the man who had received the one thousand went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Long afterward, their master came back and settled accounts with them. And the man who had received the five thousand dollars came up bringing him five thousand more, and said, 'Sir, you put five thousand dollars in my hands; here I have made five thousand more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, my excellent, faithful slave! you have been faithful about a small amount; I will put a large one into your hands. Come, share your master's enjoyment!' And the man who had received the two thousand came up and said, 'Sir, you put two thousand dollars into my hands; here I have made two thousand more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, my excellent, faithful slave! you have been faithful about a small amount; I will put a large one into your hands. Come! share your master's enjoyment.' And the man who had received the one thousand came up and said, 'Sir, I knew you were a hard man, who reaped where you had not sown, and gathered where you had not threshed, and I was frightened, and I went and hid your thousand dollars in the ground. Here is your money!' His master answered, 'You wicked, idle slave! You knew that I reaped where I had not sown and gathered where I had not threshed? Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and then when I came back I would have gotten my property with interest. So take the thousand dollars away from him, and give it to the man who has the ten thousand, for the man who has will have more given him, and will be plentifully supplied, and from the man who has nothing even what he has will be taken away. And put the good-for-nothing slave out into the darkness outside, to weep and grind his teeth there.'

So he said, "A nobleman once went to a distant country to secure his appointment to a kingdom and then return. And he called in ten of his slaves and gave them each twenty dollars and told them to trade with it while he was gone. But his countrymen hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, 'We do not want this man made king over us.'read more.
And when he had secured the appointment and returned, he ordered the slaves to whom he had given the money to be called in, so that he could find out how much they had made. The first one came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made two hundred, sir!' And he said to him, 'Well done, my excellent slave! You have proved trustworthy about a very small amount, you shall be governor of ten towns.' The second came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made a hundred, sir!' And he said to him, 'And you shall be governor of five towns!' And the other one came in and said, 'Here is your twenty dollars, sir. I have kept it put away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, for you are a stern man. You pick up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will convict you, you wretched slave! You knew, did you, that I was a stern man, and that I pick up what I did not lay down, and harvest what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank, so that when I came back I could have gotten it with interest?' And he said to the bystanders, 'Take the twenty dollars away from him, and give it to the man who has the two hundred!' They said to him, 'He has two hundred, sir!'??26 'I tell you, the man who has will have more given him, and from the man who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away! But bring those enemies of mine here who did not want me made king over them, and slaughter them in my presence!' "

and make the most of your opportunity, for these are evil times.

We must carry on the work of him who has sent me while the daylight lasts. Night is coming, when no one can do any work.

So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.

Use wisdom in dealing with outsiders, making the most of your opportunities.

"Do not give what is sacred to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.

A material man will not accept what the Spirit of God offers. It seems mere folly to him, and he cannot understand it, because it takes spiritual insight to see its true value.

Then Judas who had betrayed him, when he saw that he had been condemned, in his remorse brought back the thirty silver pieces to the high priests and elders, and said, "I did wrong when I handed an innocent man over to death!" They said, "What is that to us? You see to it yourself." And he threw down the silver and left the Temple and went off and hung himself.

When Jesus got back to Bethany, to the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive perfume and poured it upon his head, while he was at table. When his disciples saw it, they said indignantly, "What was the use of wasting it like that?read more.
It might have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor." But Jesus observed this and said to them, "Why do you bother the woman? It is a fine thing that she has done to me. For you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this perfume on me she has done something to prepare me for burial. I tell you, wherever this good news is preached all over the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Jesus was in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper, and as he was at table, a woman came in, with an alabaster flask of pure nard perfume, very expensive; she broke the flask and poured the perfume on his head. But there were some who said indignantly to themselves, "What was the use of wasting the perfume like that? It might have been sold for more than sixty dollars, and the money have been given to the poor."read more.
And they grumbled at her. But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you bother her? It is a fine thing that she has done to me. For you always have the poor among you, and whenever you please you can do for them, but you will not always have me. She has done all she could; she has perfumed my body in preparation for my burial. I tell you, wherever the good news is preached all over the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, was living. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha waited on them, while Lazarus was at the table with him. And Mary took a pound of choice perfume, very costly, and poured it on Jesus' feet, and then wiped his feet with her hair, and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.read more.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was going to betray him, said, "Why was this perfume not sold for sixty dollars, and the money given to the poor?" But he did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and when he had charge of the purse he used to take what was put in it. Jesus said, "Let her alone; let her keep it for the day of my funeral, for you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

So I never lose heart. Though my outer nature is wasting away, my inner is being renewed every day.