25 Bible Verses about Waste
Most Relevant Verses
Not many days after that, the younger son got together all he had and went away to a distant country, and there he squandered all his property by living in dissipation. After he had spent it all, a severe famine struck that country, and he began to suffer want. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, and he sent him to his fields to feed hogs.read more.
And often he craved to fill himself with the carob-pods which the hogs were eating, and nobody gave him a bite.
Now He was saying to the disciples: "Once there was a rich man who had a household manager, and he was accused to his master of squandering the latter's property.
Come now, you rich people, weep aloud and howl over the miseries that are sure to overtake you. Your wealth has rotted, your clothes are moth-eaten, your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will testify against you and devour your flesh like fire. You have stored up these things for the last days.read more.
See, the wages that you have kept back from the laborers who reaped your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. Here on earth you have lived in luxury and self-indulgence; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the upright man; he offers no resistance.
For the time that is past is enough for you to have accomplished what the heathen like to do, leading lives that are steeped in sensuality, lustful desires, drunkenness, carousing, revelry, dissipation, and idolatry that leads to lawlessness, They are astonished that you are not still rushing hand in hand with them into the same excesses of profligate living, and they abuse you for it; but they will have to give account for it to Him who is ready to judge living and dead.
When they had plenty, He said to His disciples, "Pick up the pieces that are left, that nothing be wasted." So they picked them up and filled twelve baskets with the pieces that were left from the five barley loaves, which were more than the eaters wanted.
Jesus said to them, "Only a little while longer you will have the light. Keep on living by it while you have the light, so that darkness may not overtake you, for whoever walks about in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." On saying this Jesus went away and hid Himself.
but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again? You are observing days, months, seasons, years. I am beginning to fear that I have bestowed my labors on you for nothing.
For if we go willfully sinning after we have received full knowledge of the truth, there is no sacrifice left to be offered for our sins, but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and that fiery indignation which is going to devour God's enemies. Anyone who breaks the law of Moses pays the death penalty without any show of pity, on the evidence of two or three witnesses only.read more.
How much severer punishment do you suppose that one deserves who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and counts as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and has insulted the Spirit that grants God's unmerited favor?
For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command committed to their trust.
"For it is just like a man who was going on a long journey from his homeland, who called to him his slaves and turned his property over to them. He gave one five thousand dollars, another two thousand, another one thousand, to each in accordance with his ability. Then he started on his long journey. The man who had received the five thousand dollars at once went out and invested it, 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 off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came back and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five thousand dollars came up and brought him five thousand more, saying, 'You turned over to me five thousand dollars; here are five thousand more I made.' His master said to him 'Well done, my good and faithful slave, you have been faithful in the use of a small amount; I will put you in charge of a larger one. Come, share your master's joy!' Then the man who had received the two thousand came up and said, 'Master, you turned over to me two thousand dollars; here are two thousand more I made.' His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful slave, you have been faithful in the use of a small amount; I will put you in charge of a larger one. Come, share your master's joy!' Then the man who had received the one thousand came up and said, 'Master, I knew you were a hard man, who reaped where you had not sown, who gathered where you had not threshed. So I was afraid, and went off and buried your thousand dollars in the ground. Here is your money.' His master answered him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reaped where I had not sown and gathered where I had not threshed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, so that when I came back I could have collected my principal with interest. So take the thousand dollars away from him and give it to him who has ten thousand. For the man who has will have more given to him, even till it overflows, but from the man who has nothing even what he has will be taken away. And throw the good-for-nothing slave out into the darkness on the outside, where he will weep and grind his teeth.'
So He said: "Once upon a time a man of noble birth went off to a distant country to get for himself a kingdom and then return. He called in ten of his slaves and gave them twenty dollars apiece and told them to do business with his money while he was gone. But his citizens continued to hate him, and sent a delegation after him to say, 'We do not want this man to become king over us.'read more.
Then after he had gotten the appointment as king, he returned and ordered those slaves to whom he had given his money to be called in, that he might find out what business they had done. Now the first one came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars, sir, has made two hundred more.' So he said to him, 'Well done, my good slave! Because you have proven dependable in a very small business, be governor of ten cities!' The second one came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars, sir, has made a hundred!' So he said to him too, 'Be governor of five cities? But another one came in and said, 'Here is your twenty dollars, sir, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief. For I lived in constant dread of you, because you are a stern man, you pick up what you did not put down, you reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'On the ground of what you say I will sentence you, you wicked slave! You knew that I was a stern man, that I picked up what I did not put down, and reaped what I did not sow. So why did you not put my money into the bank? In that case, when I came back I could have gotten interest on my principal.' So he said to the bystanders, 'Take the twenty dollars away from him and give it to the man who has the two hundred.' And they said, 'Sir, he has two hundred already.' 'I tell you, the man who gets will have more given to him, but the man who does not get will have even what he has taken away from him! But bring those enemies of mine here who did not want me to become king over them and slay them in my presence!'"
We must continue to do the works of Him who sent me while it is daylight. Night is coming when no one can do any work.
So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us practice doing good to everybody, but especially to the members of the family of faith.
Practice living prudently in your relations with outsiders, making the most of your opportunities.
"You must never give the things that are sacred to dogs, and you must never throw your pearls before hogs, for fear they might trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.
An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.
some immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
Then Judas, who had betrayed Him, as he felt condemned, in remorse brought back the thirty pieces to the high priests and elders, and said, "I did wrong in turning an innocent man over to death." But they said, "What is that to us? You must see to that yourself." Then he tossed the money into the temple and left, and went off and hanged himself.
When Jesus came back to Bethany, to the home of Simon the leper, a woman with an alabaster bottle of very costly perfume came up to Him while He was at table and poured it upon His head. When the disciples saw it, they were very indignant, and said, "Why such waste?read more.
Surely it could have been sold for a large sum and the money given to the poor." But Jesus, because He understood them, said to them, "Why do you embarrass the woman? She has done a good deed to me, for you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. For in putting this perfume on my body she has done it to prepare me for my burial. I solemnly say to you, all over the world wherever this good news is proclaimed, the good deed that she has done will be told, in memory of her."
While He was in Bethany, He was a guest in the home of Simon the leper, and as He was sitting at table, a woman came in with an alabaster bottle of pure nard perfume, very costly; she broke the bottle and poured the perfume on His head. But some of the guests were indignantly saying to themselves, "Why was such a waste of the perfume made? It might have been sold for more than sixty dollars, and the money have been given to the poor." So they kept on grumbling at her.read more.
But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you embarrass her? She has done a good deed to me. For you always have the poor among you, and whenever you please you can do them good, but you will not always have me. She has done all she could; she has beforehand perfumed my body for my burial. I solemnly say to you, all over the world wherever this good news is proclaimed, the deed that she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Now six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom He had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner there in honor of Jesus, and Martha was waiting on them, but Lazarus was one of the guests with Jesus. Then Mary took a pound of expensive perfume, made of the purest oil, and poured it on Jesus' feet, and wiped them 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?" He said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and as the carrier of the purse for the Twelve he was in the habit of taking what was put into it. Then 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 give up; instead, although my outer nature is wasting away, my inner nature is constantly renewed from day to day.
