The Biblical Call to Stewardship of Time

Brothers, what is your priority? There are many things that may vie for your attention, but what are the things you must get to? There is no singular answer to that question if dealing with the specifics. Life circumstances such as being single or married, or having children or not will set the demands and priorities of your time. Personality and preference will change areas of interest. Even location will change available activities. However, in a general sense there are identifiable priorities; a central responsibility that applies to all men. It is the concept of stewardship. Today I want to think about the stewardship of time.

For the sake of this article, the following working definition of stewardship will be used: “The responsible management, care, and use of resources entrusted to one’s care for the benefit of the one to whom they ultimately belong.” In this case the definition will be applied to time.

Time is a limited commodity. The Lord has only given so much of it, and even set its exact amount for each person. Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” So how should a Christian interact with that truth? Stewarding time to the glory of God involves avoiding two ditches. The first is overworking, and the second is overplaying because both forget that time is to be used for the benefit of the Lord who gives it.

Labor

Time is not only for production. Productivity is a biblical virtue. For example, the apostle Paul worked very hard. When among the Thessalonians “we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:9). Biographies of great men in church history describe tremendous work ethics. John Wesley and George Whitfield accomplished so much because they worked incredibly hard. For a contemporary example, Yahoo Finance reported that during the launch of Tesla’s Model 3, Elon Musk was working an astounding 120 hours per week. Though the intensity of these men may be somewhat admirable, this kind of dedication is not commendable for most people. A case could even be made that it is not biblical, or at least not wise because time is not only given for work.

• Worship. The Lord has woven into His creation the idea of Sabbath. In the Fourth Commandment, the Lord says that man is to labor six days and rest one (Exodus 20:9-10). Life is not only about the project. Weekly worship is woven into creation as an essential use of man’s time.

• Rest. The festivals prescribed by the Lord in the Old Testament, like the Feast of Booths, give examples of prolonged week-long breaks from labor (Leviticus 23:33). The Sabbath and Jubilee Years show that, as important as work is, even the land needs its rest one year in seven.

• Relationships. Some of the relational expectations placed on Christians in the Bible mean men must stop working and attend to other things. For example, the husband is to cherish his wife (Ephesians 5:29), fathers are to bring up their children (Ephesians 6:4), and Christians are called to serve each other in the Church (1 Peter 4:10). These require us to put down our work and pick up our family relationships.

The drive to work is to be stewarded with proper balance. A blind drive to work indicates that one part of God’s call to Christians is out of balance or may be an idol.

Recreation

In the West there is also a fair amount of overplaying. Overindulgence of recreation, especially the excessive escape to the digital world, is a symptom of a life lived to please self. 

Demandsage reports: “The average US screen time has reached 7 hours and 3 minutes.” That is on average. That is each day. Extrapolate that over a year and it adds up to 2,573 hours spent on a screen. That is about enough time for one man to build a 1,500 square foot house from scratch. To be fair, not all the time spent on screens is squandered. But even if half of it is, that leaves 1,286 hours unaccounted for per year. That is the equivalent of 161 8-hour work days. Compare that to the 52-104 hours Christians spend on corporate worship in a year (6½-13 work days) and it’s pretty clear there is an imbalance. So, what are some common traps men fall into that result in poor stewardship by overplaying?

• Social media. Social media is not necessarily evil, but looking at my own feeds, some men spend far too much time in it. The digital world is not real. This statement is not scientifically proven or backed by a poll. It is just common sense. On social media, people write things they would never say in person. They present themselves in the ideal without reflecting real life. Yet one report found that men spent about 2.3 hours per day on social media. That adds up to 16.1 hours per week or about eight times as long as they spend in corporate worship. Imagine if that time was given to your wife, children, or church family instead.

• Video games. Arguments can be made that video games provide a beneficial social component in which fathers build relationships with their children. Fair enough. However, for a dedicated gamer, what is the point? The ability to master the patterns built into the coding of any video game has no other applications. No real skills are being built. It is simply hours of time invested in an imaginary world.

• YouTube Shorts. It does not have to be YouTube. There are other sources too. YouTube just happens to be the one that hits me the most. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok (for which I am way too old) all present the same challenge. The videos can be genuinely interesting, funny, and entertaining. It is over in thirty seconds and up pops the next one. Before long, your screen time average ticks up and your attention span to study anything truly meaningful ticks down.

When time is given to social media, video games, and YouTube Shorts, it eliminates the possibility of its use in other areas. Spiritual growth and discipline require the commitment of time. Scripture reading and prayer require time. Working out God’s salvation in fear and trembling requires study, practice, and attention. To neglect or minimize time for spiritual improvement means the potential leaders of the church will be less theologically robust and less spiritually mature.

Balance

The answer is to consider time from the perspective of it being God-given. God does give time for man to enjoy the good things of this life. The Christian need not be averse to recreations and enjoyment. Life is not all work. Neither should he leave off the hard labor that comes. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and that is relevant for considering the stewardship of our time as well.

Geoff Gleason has served as pastor of Cliffwood Presbyterian Church in Augusta, GA for the past 14 years. He and his wife Lisa have 11 children and 6 grandchildren. Geoff obtained his MDiv at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS and his ThM at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary.