If you show me how you spend your time, I can show you what you love.

That’s because the way we use our time is an indicator of what we love.

It has been said that time is more valuable than money. You can borrow money from a friend if you find yourself a little short at the end of the month. There are at least some avenues to pursue if you find yourself needing a few extra dollars. But you cannot borrow time. There are 24 hours in every day, 168 hours in every week. In that regard, time is priceless.

Time and money are similar in at least one regard: both of them can be “spent.” But even though you can spend time, you cannot store it. Once you have used it, you can never get it back. No amount of money or fame can buy you more time.

I think that’s why we’re told in the Scriptures to make the most of our time — or, in my grandmother’s Bible, to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16).

Time is one of our most precious commodities. And one of the best uses of our time is to spend it by loving others well.

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When a faith community gathers for worship, they are collectively affirming this idea. Worship is a way of prioritizing our time to express love for God. Throughout the Bible, you see God’s people regularly engaged in the rituals of worship and communion as a way of spending time with God and with one another.

The word “holiday” is just a mash-up of the words “holy days.” In the Old Testament, the Jewish people had many such “holy days” set aside for worshipping and honoring God. Days like Passover and Pentecost and the Day of Atonement were annual dates on the Hebrew calendar, days made holy (set apart) for worship and sacrifice.

God also gave the Israelites a weekly time called the Sabbath. Exodus 20:8, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. The Sabbath was a way of sacralizing time, which is just a fancy way of saying that the Israelites were to make that time “holy” by devoting it to God. They were to set aside the time from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday as sacred time. All work was to cease and the people were to rest and reflect on the God who rested at the conclusion of His creative work and reflected enough to call His work “good.”

The Sabbath was to be sacred and set apart as a way of honoring God, who is sacred and set apart.

And these Old Testament “holy days” set the stage for the worship of the early church we find in the New Testament. We find numerous examples of the early church gathering on the first day of the week. Although these brothers and sisters surely met together at other times through the week, this time was “set apart.” This tradition goes all the way back to Resurrection Sunday when the disciples were gathered together on the first day of the week (John 20:19).

In his record of the early church, Luke tells of being with Paul and the other believers in Troas. He notes that these early disciples were gathered together to break bread on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). And in one of his letters to the saints in Corinth, Paul admonishes them, On the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper… (1 Corinthians 16:2).

Gathering together for worship and communion and fellowship is so important. It is a way of prioritizing our relationship with God and also prioritizing our time with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And this Christian practice goes all the way back to the Resurrection itself.

It’s not a stretch to say that we gather with the believing, confessing community because we believe in the importance of quality time.

Time with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, praising the name of our Savior whose blood makes us family.

And time with our Creator God, the One who saves us and sustains us, the One who redeemed us from the pit.

When we worship, we are giving God the love language of quality time.