What does the Bible say about wasting food?

"Let nothing be lost," is the Master's own word to us — a word which should ever he kept in remembrance. "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused." We should carefully guard against all reckless waste of ought that can be made available for human use. Those who occupy the place of domestic servants should give their special attention to this matter. It is painful, at times, to witness the sinful waste of human food. Many a thing is flung out as offal which might supply a welcome meal for a needy family. If a Christian servant should read these lines, we would earnestly entreat him or her to weigh this subject in the divine presence, and never to practise or sanction the waste of the smallest atom that is capable of being turned to account for human use. We may depend upon it that to waste any creature of God is displeasing in His sight. Let us remember that His eye is upon us; and may it be our earnest desire to be agreeable to Him in all our ways.

Nor is this all. Not merely is selfishness rebuked, but the heart is most blessedly instructed. Nature might say, “What need is there of the five loaves and two fishes at all? Surely, the One who can feed such a multitude with the loaves and fishes, can as easily feed them without such an instrumentality.” Nature might argue thus, but Jesus teaches us that we are not to despise God's creatures. We are to use what we have with God's blessing. This is a fine moral lesson for the heart. “What hast thou in the house?” is the question. It is just that and nothing else that God will use. It is easy to be liberal with what we have not, but the thing is to bring out what we have and with God's blessing, apply it to the present need.

So also in the gathering up of the fragments. The foolish here might say, “What need of gathering up those scattered crumbs? Surely the One who has wrought such a miracle can have no need of fragments.” Yes, but we are not to waste God's creatures. If in the using of the loaves and fishes we are taught not to despise any creature of God, in the gathering up of the fragments we are taught not to waste it. Let human need be liberally met, but let not a single crumb be wasted. How divinely perfect! How unlike us! Sometimes we are stingy, at other times extravagant. Jesus was never either the one or the other. “Give ye them to eat.” But, “Let nothing be lost.” Perfect grace! Perfect wisdom! May we adore it and learn from it! May we rejoice in the assurance that the blessed One who manifested all this wisdom and grace is our life. Christ is our life, and it is the manifestation of this life that constitutes practical Christianity. It is not living by rules and regulations, but simply having Christ dwelling in the heart by faith — Christ the source of perfect sympathy and perfect grace. Back

The Lord Jesus Christ was the only perfect man that ever trod this earth. He was all perfect — perfect in thought, perfect in word, perfect in action. In Him every moral quality met in divine and, therefore, perfect proportion. No one feature preponderated. In Him were exquisitely blended a majesty which overawed, and a gentleness which gave perfect ease in His presence. The Scribes and the Pharisees met His withering rebuke; while the poor Samaritan, and "the woman that was a sinner," found themselves unaccountably, yet irresistibly, attracted to Him. No one feature displaced another, for all was in fair and comely proportion. This may be traced in every scene of His perfect life. He could say, in reference to five thousand hungry people, "Give ye them to eat;" and, when they were filled, He could say, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." The benevolence and the economy are both perfect and neither interferes with the other. Each shines in its own proper sphere. He could not send unsatisfied hungry away; neither could He suffer a single fragment of God's creatures to be wasted. He would meet, with a full and liberal hand, the need of the human family, and, when that was done, He would carefully treasure up every atom. The self-same hand that was widely open to every form of human need was firmly closed against all prodigality. There was nothing niggardly nor yet extravagant in the character of the perfect, the heavenly Man.

Now was to begin the distribution: "Jesus therefore took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would" (John 6:11). From the other accounts we learn, that the Lord made use of the Twelve as intermediaries. They received the food, and handed it on to those before them. There is dispensational teaching in that. On it having entered elsewhere, we need say nothing about it here; for John, who in common with Matthew was a dispenser to the multitude, makes no mention of it. His great theme being the Lord as a Divine Person, there was no need to notice the service of the Apostles on this occasion. Two things, however, all record. The one was the giving of thanks, as John expresses it, before the people were fed. God was to be acknowledged as the Giver of every good gift, and as the One who provides for the wants of His creatures. What He was in that respect He is still. The other fact was the gathering up the fragments, that nothing should be lost. From John we learn, that this was by the Lord's express direction (6:12). He who wielded almighty power sanctioned no waste, and here sets before His people an example of frugality. The people first satisfied, the twelve baskets of fragments attesting that, the disciples gathered up in them enough for their own next meal.

He knew when to cast away, and when to keep. "Let her alone," He said of the woman who had been upbraided for breaking the box of spikenard on Him; "she hath wrought a good work on me." But after feeding the multitudes He would say, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."

This was observing the Divine rule, "There is a time to keep, and a time to cast away." If the prodigal service of the heart or hand in worship be no waste, the very crumbs of human food are sacred, and must not be cast away. He who vindicated the spending of 300 pence on one of these occasions, on the other would not let the fragments of three loaves be left on the ground. In His eyes, such fragments were sacred. They were the food of life, the herb of the field, which God had given to man for his life. And life is a sacred thing. God is the God of the living. "To you it shall be for meat," God has said of it, and therefore Jesus would hallow it. "The tree of the field is man's life," the law had said, and accordingly had thus prescribed to them that were under the law — "When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down to employ them in the siege: only the trees that thou knowest are not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down" (Deut. 20). It would have been waste, it would have been profanity, to have thus abused the food of life, which was God's gift. And Jesus in like purity, in the perfectness of God's living ordinance, would not let the fragments lie on the ground. "Gather up the fragments that remain," He said, "that nothing be lost."

The Lord who exhibited such plentitude in the provisions He spread before the multitude gave special directions for the care of such overplus as would be found when all needs were met. It is from John only of the four Evangelists that we learn of Jesus saying to His disciples, "Gather up the broken pieces which remain over, that nothing be lost" (John 6:12). That nothing be lost! The Lord would not have us lose His gifts by waste or neglect because we have more than sufficient for the moment. When God gave seven years of plenty in Egypt, it was the spirit of divine wisdom in Joseph that devised efficient measures to gather up the superabundance, and store it for the days of famine. Nothing was to be lost! When the people of Israel reached the land of Canaan, the Lord promised, in view of the rest of the sabbatic year, that He would command His blessing during the sixth year, so that the land might bring forth fruit sufficient for three years (Lev. 25:21). But of what value would this abundance be to the nation, if the bounteous harvest was not carefully garnered? Again, we observe that in spite of profusion nothing was to be lost. In short, the lesson is one of general application. It is not pleasing to God that we should neglect or squander His bounties. To waste is to despise, to lose, His gifts. Economy is not contrary to, but consistent with true liberality, and thrift with benevolence and benefaction. That person who lays by in store as God has prospered him, is the person who is thereby prepared to bestow his gifts bountifully when occasion arises (1 Cor. 16:2).

The superabundant broken pieces were those which the Lord had broken off for distribution, and of these each apostle had a basketful over and above what was required by the people. The whole scene is eloquent of the rich goodness of God, provided by the Servant of Jehovah, and administered by the twelve apostles. It recalls the words of Paul written to the Corinthian believers: "God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having all sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work… being enriched in everything unto all liberality which works out through us thanksgiving to God" (2 Cor. 9:8-11).

We inserted the word, diligence, as well as, capacity, because of verses 19 and 20. The manna was given according to capacity and was to be assimilated up to capacity, so that none was left until the next morning. There were some who did not use diligence to eat all they gathered and, leaving it till the next day, it bred worms and stank. Thus it became worse than useless. We all know the proverb, "The slothful man roasts not that which he took in hunting" (Prov. 12:27) but here we have the case of the slothful man who did not eat all the manna he gathered, with a very unpleasing result. We may make an application of this, if we say that what we gather of Christ from the Scriptures is for our immediate food and enjoyment, and not something to be put aside for display to others. If we treat it thus it will only stink when we display it.

Who could fail to enjoy such open-hearted bounty? So we find Ruth profits by it: "She did eat, and was sufficed and left (thereof)." There is an ascent marked here: she ate, but she might only have eaten what would have stayed the pangs of hunger for a little. She was sufficed: all her hunger was satisfied and she wanted no more. This would have suggested the sufficiency to meet her individual case, but beyond her need, there was a sufficiency for the needs of others; she left. We are reminded again of the multitude fed by our Lord, of whom it is said, "They did all eat and were filled and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full" (Matt. 14:20). This is the way of grace; there is always an abundance beyond our need, no matter how great that may be.

Another trait of the slothful man is here pointed out. He may be active in the pursuit of his pleasure, but his sloth prevents his turning what he may have gained to any good account. He roasts not what he took in hunting, and has to sponge on others, whereas the precious substance of men is diligence. This is what avails in the long run, where the means and the opportunities may be ever so small.

We are told that the sluggard roasts not that which he took in hunting. He may be very zealous in scouring the fields for game, and when it is caught his interest is gone, and his hunger unsatisfied. It is not likely that a hunter would impress us as being a sluggard: it requires considerable energy to go afield and spend the day in search of game. And yet Scripture describes such a man, if he fail to make use of that which has cost him so much, as a sluggard. He gets no food, and like Esau, he returns from his hunting faint with hunger, ready to sell his birthright for any mess of pottage that offers itself.