We need to remember that everything that the Bible calls us to do, Christ has done perfectly before us. The Bible teaches that He was tempted like we are, and yet is perfectly without sin. This qualifies Him as One who understands perfectly the weakness of the human condition. He knows the difficulties of genuine obedience, and the allure of the world. It is vital that we look to Christ as our standard and model, and not treat His obedience as if it is somehow beyond human. No, Christ is fully man (and fully divine). He has true humanity, and He sets the bar. So, as we pursue redeeming the time, we ought to always look to Christ as our example and as our standard.

So, we need to bear in mind the sorts of influences that we are not only opening ourselves up to, but others as well. Our hearts’ will, desires, and decisions should gravitate towards God, and not be entertained and gravitate towards evil. I hope that this examination has helped to open your eyes to what so many hearts are pursuing, which is open rebellion to God and His will, desires, and decisions. Redeeming the time means cutting out all that does not honour Him, and this includes entertainments like these. We need to be careful of what we consume and are entertained by, since we will need to give an account to God one day for all of it—for how we used our lives and directed our hearts, which are owned by Him.

Taste and see that the Lord is good! All this “entertainment” is just refined sugar. Our culture is to entrenched in sugary foods that we’ve lost our taste for real food. In the same way, we keep trying to satisfy ourselves and our hunger with all these “sugar” entertainments that lead only to high spikes and deep lows, and the destruction of our bodies. However, it is only when we remove these “refined sugars” wholesale that we begin to get back our taste for what is real. Only then can we get a true taste for the wonderful sweetness of honey, fruit, and whole food. We can taste honey and fruit all we want, but if we hadn’t removed our refined sugars, then they won’t taste as wonderful and sweet. So, trust this process. It may feel like you will lose all your energy and not be able to keep going with all the stresses of life without your sugar, but once you take it away, you will begin to see how wonderful focusing on God is, and you will begin to get a bad taste in your mouth when you try going back to the sugar.

Anything that does not have God as its primary aim and trajectory, leading us to serve Him whole-heartedly, necessarily leads our hearts astray when being “entertained” by them. This is because, the aim of entertainment is to captivate the heart in its stories, morals, and values…In effect, our entertainments become sessions of worship; worshipping whatever we are being entertained by—giving our hearts over to whatever we are entertained by.

Forgiveness is cancelling the debt. When someone sins against us, then they owe us a debt. We cannot forgive another unless they first ask for forgiveness of the debt. This is why it is important to go to those whose sins we cannot overlook or cover over with love. Ultimately, between believers, the cancelled debt is put onto the cross and forgiven.

“The sooner we realize that idle conversation is sinful, the better. What does the Bible teach on this? The Bible teaches, 2 Timothy 2:16 says, “But avoid worthless, empty talk, since that will lead to more and more ungodliness” (2 Tim. 2:16), “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29), “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent” (Prov. 10:19), and “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37)…”

“While may seek to relate to us on purely godless grounds, we are to redeem our relationships with unbelievers by making them glorifying and honourable to God. In other words, we are to, as much as we are able, have true faithfulness on display before a dead and dying world. We are not to relate to unbelievers in the same way that they relate to each other, but set a godly precedent of love for them, as we remain faithful to our love and obedience to God…In a way, our relationship to others is to be an extension of our relationship with God. That is not to say that relating with others is relating to God, but that how we relate to others is based on furthering and promoting our relationship with God…”

“God is everywhere. He is always with us. And His reputation is to determine the character of our reputation: we are to seek to live in His Name, meaning that His reputation is to be valued above all. He is to be the One Whom we are to emulate in the greatest way, so that we shine His reputation accurately to others as His true representatives (2 Cor. 5:20).”

“The very goal for redeeming the time is having God be what we think of when we get up and when we lie down, when we are out in the way, and when we sit (Deut. 6:7-9). There is good reason why the Bible has, in the parable of the soils, those who hear the Word, but who are then choked-out by the cares and worries of the world! This battle is as a battle against death. If it characterizes our lives, then we are likely ones being choked out by these weeds. For believers, we must fight against submitting to the cares of the world—as if we are to be ruled by the worries and anxieties and business of this age—and work in all that we can to trust in Christ and in God’s provision…”

When we realize that our time and life is not our own, but God’s, and therefore that all of our time needs to be submitted to Him, we naturally ought to concern ourselves with not wasting that time. We are always “on the clock,” so to speak. God does desire that we rest and relax as we have need. However, the spans of our sanctified lives are His, and therefore we will have to one day give an account for how we spent it.