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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.
I will offer some biblical principles for redeeming the time. They will help give us a way to sort through all the things that we do in a given day, week, month, and year. The goal is that we go over every item that we have on our schedules, and assess each one individually according to these principles. The goal would be that we are redeeming the time for God, ultimately putting every bit of the time that we spend on this earth into its proper subjection to our Lord and Master.
“The point is that we do not have our own work to do. Rather, we all have only His work that He has commissioned for us to do. Remember, we were bought for a price. Our life is not our own, but is fully commissioned for the service of God, in whatever station God has allotted for us. So, we can be mechanics, janitors, house-wives, or ministers, and all be fully-engaged in the work of God in our common, regular life.”
