No Time to Waste Time

by Rachael Curtis

“Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness.
Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on
things they must do in the darkness where no one will see.” Ephesians 5:11-12 (MSG) These
verses speak to my title “No Time to Waste Time” but let’s define some key terms before we get
into it. We are going to be defining useless work, busywork, and barren pursuits of darkness.
The following definitions are from Oxford Dictionary unless stated otherwise: Useless Work: not useful; not doing or achieving what is needed or wanted , Busywork: work that keeps a person
busy but has little value in itself, and lastly barren pursuits of darkness or as the King
James Version says, unfruitful works of darkness. Now that we’ve got all of those definitions, let’s
break everything down even further, starting with useless work.

Useless work is defined as which is not useful and not doing or achieving what is needed or
wanted. You might be asking yourself, what does that mean? Well, I’m glad you asked because
I’m going to explain it to you. For example, I do ballet so a useless work relating to ballet would
be if a ballet dancer was doing hip hop moves in a ballet studio instead of practicing the given
ballet moves. Another way to describe useless works would be works or things that are fruitless
or aren’t of any profit. The Bible says in Titus 3:9 (LEB) “But avoid foolish controversies and
genealogies and contentions and quarrels about the law, for they are useless and fruitless.” In
order to use your time wisely, you need to avoid all works that are foolish and don’t help you
achieve what you need to achieve.

Busywork is work that keeps a person busy but has little value in itself. So in other words
busywork is a waste of time, right? But what does the Bible say about time? Well, Colossians
4:5 (ESV) says“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.” The Bible
also says in Ephesians 5:15-17(ESV) “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as
wise, 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.” So if you don’t know the will of the Lord you’re being
foolish and wasting your time. There’s no time to waste time. James 4:14(ESV) says “Yet you do
not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little
time and then vanishes.” In summation, you want to seek the Lord and find out what His will is
for your life so that you can make the most of the time given to you.

Now, what are barren pursuits of darkness? Well, as stated before the King James Version
says unfruitful works of darkness but in simpler terms, we’ll just say works of the flesh. So what
does the Bible say about works of the flesh? Well, Romans 8:7 says “For the mind that is set on
the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” That verse is
pretty much saying that if your mind isn’t set or focused on God you won’t submit to His law. So
if you keep your mindset on Him, submit to His law, and seek His will for your life you’ll be
making the best of your time instead of wasting it.

Don’t waste your time on things that aren’t going to profit you or help you fulfill the purpose that
God has given you. Like it says in Ephesians 5:11-12 (MSG) “Don’t waste your time on useless
work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they
are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where
no one will see.” We touched on useless works, busywork, and the barren pursuits of darkness.
All of those terms were defined and further explained to bring clarity to the scripture.
In closing, time management and using our time wisely is very important consistently seeking
the Lord for guidance on how to be a good steward of your time will lead you in the right
direction and help you be a good steward of your time. Bottom line, we don’t have time to waste
time.