The Scriptures command many things that require time. The question is, "Are you giving God time or are you robbing Him?" Do you give Him your time, thus giving Him your self, or do you steal and rob from God and from others?

We live in an age when, it seems, most of us are ignorant of the importance of "redeeming the time." I sincerely wish that something could be said or done to cause Christians to awake to this need. Jobs and social lives are ruling us, and we have no time for living life. Families suffer, husbands and wives are frustrated, children are neglected, the church suffers, and souls are lost. Many of us have so many extra-curricular interests that we have little or no time left to do the things commanded by God.

We must, "Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil." (Ephesians 5: 15-16) As we note the word redeeming, we find that it is composed of two words--ex and agorazo--thus, ex-agorazo. Young's Analytical Concordance defines the term as, "to acquire out of the forum." Thayer defines it as "to redeem; to buy up." He says the meaning in Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5 seems to be "to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good." (Lexicon, p. 220.)

In the parable of the great supper, all who were invited began to make excuses (Luke 14:15ff). One asked to be excused on the basis that he needed to see a new piece of ground; another needed to test a yoke of oxen; and a third had married a wife. It seems that all these people were bothered by the same problem. Each, in his own way, was saying, "I do not have time to attend the supper for I have something else to do." It may be that none of them wanted to attend the feast, and each simply allowed his schedule to become so filled that he would not have time. Or, possibly some would have enjoyed going to the feast, but did not know how to manage the use of their time in a way that would enable them to do everything they needed or wanted to do.

People have not changed much, if any, over the past 2000 years. Excuses still sound much the same. One of the most common excuses we hear today is, "I don't have time ... I need more time." Do we hear ourselves? I suspect that most of the time, a person offers this excuse because he has no desire to do the thing under consideration.

It takes time to be a good husband or wife. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it." (Ephesians 5:25) And, "Dwell with (your wives) according to knowledge." (1 Peter 3:7) The expression, "in like manner" implies that marriage is a reciprocal relationship. It takes time to be a good companion. When husbands and wives do not take time for each other, someone is being robbed. Bitterness, resentment, loneliness, and sometimes even adultery, result because we did not take the time necessary to be good companions.

It takes time to be a good parent. Parents are responsible for their children's spiritual education.

• Ephesians 6:4 exhorts us to bring up our children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
  
  
• "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6)
  
  
• In 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul wrote to Timothy, who had been taught by his grandmother and mother, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
  
  
• God, through Moses, told the Jews, "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
  
  

No parent should deny his child the treasure of Bible knowledge. Are we fulfilling this obligation to teach them about our God and how to serve him? Time is swiftly passing. If we fail, there is no second chance.

It takes time to worship. After Israel's return from captivity, they erected an altar and sacrificed on it burnt offerings to the Lord (Ezra 3:26). They also gathered materials with which to build the temple; and in the second year, the work began (Ezra 4:1-24). Soon their enthusiasm cooled; the work ceased; and God's house lay waste. Their hearts were not sufficiently motivated to cause them to arise and build. Interestingly enough, neither danger nor difficulty prevented them from building luxurious houses for themselves. But regarding God's house, they said, "It is not the time (for us) to come, the time for Jehovah's house to be built." (Haggai 1:2) The prophet Haggai reproved them and asked, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?" He said, "consider your ways." (Haggai 1:4,5,7) To worship God acceptably is to practice more than a "form of godliness" (2 Timothy 3:5). We must not offer vain worship (cf. Matthew 15:9). Acceptable worship is offered in spirit (with the proper attitude) and in truth (according to the revealed truth) that we might draw closer to the God of heaven.

It takes time to visit the needy. "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction..." (James 1:27). In fact, whether or not one visits the sick or the imprisoned, may well mean the difference between eternal life and eternal punishment. Romans 12:13 teaches that we are to communicate "to the necessities of the saints" and be "given to hospitality."

It takes time to teach the lost. God requires us to love lost souls. If we love the souls of the lost, we will work to teach them the truth. "Say not ye, 'There are yet four months, and (then) cometh the harvest?' Behold, I say unto you,' Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest'" (John 4:35) In 2 Corinthians 6:2, we read, "Now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." We often cite these words when we plead with sinners to obey the gospel. Brethren, if now is the accepted time to obey the gospel, then now is also the accepted time to teach the gospel. We have not finished the task; and we have no guarantee of tomorrow. If we're not careful, time to develop the characteristics of holiness will be gone. "It takes time to be holy!"

Procrastination entices us to wait; it tells us that tomorrow the work will be easier or more effective. At first, we may intend to wait for just a matter of days... then weeks and months... until finally, we lose interest and just give up. An old proverb says, "Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today." The book of Ecclesiastes expressed it this way, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do (it) with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where you are going." (Ecclesiastes 9:10) He who waits to attend to his soul's salvation, and the souls of others, may at last join the ancient Jews and cry, "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved." (Jeremiah 8:20)