And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
When they had received the agreed penny, the first-hired workers complained against the householder because those hired later received the same amount. They had received exactly what was promised and suffered no wrong, yet seeing the one-hour and eleventh-hour workers paid a full day's wage they expected more for themselves and thought the late workers should have less. Their murmuring exposes a hireling, grasping spirit that serves for pay, bargains with God for a fixed sum for a fixed work, and treats His favor as earned. God's reward rests not on time worked or visible results but on His own generous purpose and mercy, so His goodness to others is no injustice to those who receive what was promised and no one can claim salvation as a right. He values and rewards service according to the faith, love, gratitude and trust in which it is done, not according to length of labor or amount accomplished.
The Story Told
The verse pictures the workers hired first murmuring against the householder after each had received the same penny, because he gave equal pay to those hired later. Their complaint rose when they compared their long labor through the day with the short labor of the late-hired, one-hour and eleventh-hour workers, and they expected more for themselves once they saw the others receive a full day's pay. They regarded that equal payment as unfair and resented the householder's generosity and liberality toward the others, feeling that their longer service entitled them to more. Yet selfishness kept them from recognizing his liberality, and his dealing with the workers stands for God's dealing with the human family.
They had bargained for a stated sum in advance, a penny for the day, and they received exactly what was promised and what they had agreed to. The householder had done them no wrong, for God's goodness in giving to others is no wrong to those who receive what was promised. Still they thought the late-hired should receive less and they themselves should receive more, and that eager, grasping spirit showed them unworthy of greater wages or the highest place. By contrast the last workers trusted the householder to do what was right without asking about wages, trusting his promise, and they were rewarded according to the generosity of his purpose.
Seeing the late-hired receive a full day's pay, the first workers expected a greater reward for their longer labor and measured by human standards of time worked and visible results. Their complaint reflects a hireling spirit, comparing themselves with others and thinking they had earned a reward in proportion to their work. The parable sets against this God's generous reward, given according to His own purpose and mercy rather than the amount of labor or human merit, for He deals with His servants by the principles of His kingdom and not by human standards of earned compensation. So the equal reward for late workers who confess the truth and become Christ's workers shows that they share the reward of those who served throughout the day.
The first approached service as hirelings, valuing their own work and demanding a stated reward, while the eleventh-hour workers asked nothing about payment, trusted the householder, and received his generosity with gratitude, indeed receiving more than they had earned and answering with gratitude and trust in His gracious, generous dealings. God does not reward His servants simply according to the amount of labor or its visible results, but according to the spirit in which they work. The penny is the reward given to the laborer, not to the one who loiters in the marketplace, thus distinguishing those who work from those who do not. The goodman of the house is God, who sets His laborers in all parts of His vineyard and Himself teaches, leads, guides, rules, counsels and guards every worker and every sanitarium established, being the confidence and power of its managers. The responsible men at Battle Creek already carry all they can carry and more than they should attempt, so that if half their burdens were lifted and planted in other places the light would be much more far-reaching; no institution is to be bound or attached with human cords to Battle Creek as its great center and power or asked to subscribe to human contracts, for human devising for management is wrong in principle and does not represent God and His mercy and love, and high and influential and lowly ones each have a part to act and can work in perfect harmony without central human control by looking to God and not to men.
The Murmurers' Spirit
The murmuring exposes an eager, grasping, mercenary, hireling spirit that treats divine favor and reward as earned by work rather than given by free grace. Those in this spirit enter service for pay and stay in it for what they will receive, seeking to make terms with God to do a stated amount of work for a stated sum, as the first-hired did. They are those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate, while self-sacrificing, faithful workers are attended by angels and self-seeking bargainers end last at the close of the day. Entering the divine plan instead requires denying self, taking up the cross daily, and following in obedient, instructed, guided service.
They valued wages more than the privilege of serving and approached service as a bargain for a fixed reward, in contrast to workers who accept the householder's promise in faith and trust. They valued their own labor above that of those who came later, worked for the reward they expected, and sought to make service conditional on an agreed payment. They measured service by human standards of time worked and visible results, measuring every hour with exactness and setting the highest estimate on their own services. Whole-hearted workers do the opposite: they labor to the utmost without overvaluing themselves, compare their efforts with the Saviour's work, account themselves unprofitable servants, swell with no pride and self-importance, study not how little they can do to reach the lowest standard, and seek Christ's fullness so they may do much for Him.
Their complaint reflects a faultfinding, self-exalting, self-congratulatory spirit marked by selfishness and an unpurified heart, without faith that works by love and purifies the soul. They claimed that long service entitled them to greater honor, reward, place, and recognition, valuing reward above the privilege of serving Christ. Such self-exaltation and unchristlike reliance on work as earning salvation makes those who might have been first last. This does not excuse those who hear the truth and refuse to obey it, or who deliberately refuse the first call and later repent.
They resented the householder's generosity and liberality toward others and treated His goodness as a reason to grumble, though He had done them no wrong in giving what was promised. They begrudged another's reward from jealousy, envy, rivalry, discontent, and a sense of superiority and entitlement because of longer service. No one can claim salvation as a right, for the reward is given by grace and the first and the last share in it. Jealous focus on one's own interests rather than the good of the whole vineyard leads to murmuring against the householder through envy and selfish ambition.
Instead of recognizing liberality with gratitude and trust, they distrusted goodness, compared their reward with others, and showed a heart focused on finding fault that sees generosity as a grievance. A purified heart recognizes the same generosity as liberality, while the first workers received only what they had agreed to and the last trusted the householder to do what was right without setting terms. God does not reward simply according to amount of labor or its visible results but according to the spirit in which the work is done. The same complaint is joined to reluctance to serve when service offers no worldly gain, whereas obedience and unselfish love matter more than rich offerings, and the work requires using abilities and bearing burdens.
How God Rewards
The parable sets human reckoning by hours worked and visible results against a generosity that pays by a different rule, for the householder gives not according to amount of labor or human merit but according to his own purpose and mercy. The first-hired had fixed a stated wage in advance and then expected more when the late-hired received a full day's pay, yet his dealings picture how God deals with people and with the human family on the principles of His own kingdom rather than on human opinions, examples, or standards of earned compensation. The later workers asked no terms but trusted him to do what was right, and receiving more than they had earned they answered with gratitude, which is the trust the parable calls for toward gracious and generous dealing.
God measures service by the spirit brought to the work rather than by time spent, quantity accomplished, capacity, or learning. The first workers valued wages above the privilege of serving and turned service into a bargain for a fixed reward, while faith and trust that accept the householder's promise without setting terms stand as the contrasting spirit Christ values. That recompense is gracious: faith and love that purify the soul weigh more than length of labor, and the complaint of those who claim long service entitles them to greater reward exposes a faultfinding and self-exalting heart lacking faith that works by love.
Giving generously to others does no wrong to those who receive exactly what was promised, for the penny agreed upon was paid in full and the thought that the late-hired should have less and the long laborers more reveals an eager, grasping, mercenary temper unworthy of greater wages or the highest place. To treat favor and reward as earned by work is error, since the principles at stake are those of free grace. No one can claim salvation as a right, and grudging another's reward is forbidden because the reward is given by grace in which the first and the last share.
Reward is not for workers to measure out or judge for one another, for the Lord Himself gives each worker what is due. What counts is the spirit and the principles guiding the work: purity of motive and an earnest desire to glorify God bring the faithful worker the same reward as one who accomplishes more. God employs people of varied talents and honors each according to faithfulness rather than measure of capacity or learning, so greater advantages or abilities give no ground for pride or demand for esteem.
Self-exaltation and the claim to deserve special recognition make those who might have been first last. That hireling temper enters for pay, stays for what will be received, tries to make terms with God for a stated amount of work for a stated sum, and rates its own work above that of later comers; in God's estimation such workers are last, and the same wage-seeking spirit still marks many professed believers. Yet this does not excuse those who hear the truth and refuse to obey it, nor those who deliberately refuse God's first call with the thought of repenting later.
Prophecy and Late Workers
The murmuring is a warning first to the Jews, who were proud of being first called and resented Gentiles receiving equal privileges, and to disciples who must guard against self-righteousness, claims of merit, jealousy and desire for importance. The complaint of the first laborers shows a self-congratulatory spirit that believes long service entitles them to greater honor and reward, values reward above the privilege of serving, distrusts divine goodness, and begrudges generosity toward others.
The equal penny for eleventh-hour workers means that the thief's faith in a dying Saviour could receive salvation though it came at the end of life. It means also that people who learn late that their sins are forgiven can still make wrongs right and share in the joy and final triumph. Late-called workers may through grace present the truth so effectively as to be accounted first.
In the perils of the last day men and women brought into the fold at the eleventh hour are paid as much as those who first entered the field. If they are earnest they are accepted and worked through as they cooperate with the Holy Spirit, use all talents with humble minds, and do all-round work to extend knowledge of God. As they put on Christ their minds are enlarged, they become wise unto salvation, they labor for those in the churches and learn how to help others, they give heavenly truth to others who in turn help still others, and whole communities are blessed.
In the final crisis over religious liberty many souls will come out of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, and come to the front. Their zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore, including Sabbathkeeping Adventists who do not walk in the light. Seeing the battle coming they will give a certain sound, and when calamity comes they will gird with the whole armor, exalt God's law, hold the faith of Jesus, and maintain religious liberty, and as eleventh-hour laborers they will receive their penny.
Like a householder hiring through the ages, the parable calls people to labor throughout the ages and has particular force near the close of earth's history. It applies to faithful workers who enter late when the work is harder and people more hardened. Such late comers who remain faithful take places left vacant by those who fall away, while others who had greater light turn from Christ and forfeit their crown to newcomers who receive it.
Late workers who confess the truth and become Christ's workers share the reward of those who served throughout the day, even as those who worked all day murmured when they saw the eleventh-hour workers receive the same wages.
The Vineyard and Its Call
The vineyard is the world, and it is the Lord's work and cause and kingdom for saving fellow men by presenting truth to those in darkness, and Christ uses it to call people to earnest labor for souls. Laboring there means entering the ministry to work for Him, and those He accepts for it are people of good abilities. The Master of the vineyard is calling workers, and the call applies to entering the cities to work with God for the winning of souls. The Lord has a vineyard which is His cause and the work of warning sinners and winning souls to Christ.
All men and women who are Christians in every sense of the word should be workers in it, wide awake and zealously laboring for the salvation of their fellow men in imitation of the Saviour's life of self-denial, sacrifice, and faithful, earnest labor. Every professing Christian has an assigned task and should persevere in service. Service in the Master's vineyard is work for every individual member of the church, not ministers alone. The Lord's vineyard is a place of work for all, no one should be idle, and God accepts willing service. God has some part of the vineyard for everyone who knows the truth, and there is great need of workers with a burden for souls.
No one is to sit down in his own house and call the church to himself, but to give himself wholly to God, go to work, keep step with God's people and God's work, and place himself decidedly as a worker in the channel where God is working in unity and harmony with those who carry the load. People who are idle should be put to work in God's service, with ministers giving them a share of the work, correcting their mistakes, and setting them to work again, since using their abilities teaches them how to use their talents. God can provide instruction wherever people faithfully develop their gifts, so workers need not all go to one central place before serving, and capable workers can be prepared for that work through instruction. Christ welcomes and prepares unlikely workers for service in His vineyard, seeing their potential and, as they learn, equipping them through providence and the Holy Spirit to do work suited to their abilities. People who may seem discouraging or unpromising can have qualifications for service in His vineyard, and as learners under His providence can be fitted for work within their abilities and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
God's servants as vineyard workers are hired by God and must use their abilities faithfully, being accountable to use the abilities and opportunities entrusted to them in His service. Each person in God's household has work assigned by Christ and should use the abilities God gives to serve Him diligently and effectively. Each person is responsible only for what God has given, with return expected in proportion to ability and opportunity, and even one talent used well is accepted according to what a person has, not what is lacked. Faithful servants who work for their Master will be rewarded.
The call to enter the cities and work as laborers in the Lord's vineyard applies the vineyard labor to gospel work for the salvation of souls. It applies to workers trained to share present truth with people of their own nationalities, whose labor will bring souls as their hire. Its picture of labor in the vineyard applies to schools, where faithful cultivation of the land and disinterested care of the buildings by students cures the love of sports and amusements that causes perplexity in school work. Those doing sacred publishing work are laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, and such labor requires earnest prayer in faith for fellow workers not fully in the truth, a felt sense of the worth of the soul for whom Christ died, and a sense of the sacredness of the work as different from common labor. Young men whose services God would accept are to consecrate themselves to Him unreservedly, exercise powers of mind in His service instead of in serving self and acquiring property, study the Scriptures and become intelligent in spiritual knowledge and the things of the kingdom instead of being wise only in worldly and temporal things, turn their minds into a heavenly divine channel, walk in the light going on from one degree of light and strength to another, and labor as earnest persevering successful workers who turn sinners to Christ and point the unbelieving and desponding to a bright track heavenward, so that when the warfare is ended they are welcomed to the joy of their Lord, though now few do this work when many should.
Faithful Service Required
Those who serve God are not to demand a fixed wage, stipulate their own terms, or bargain for a stated amount of work for a stated sum as though the Master would deal unfairly. The murmuring after receiving pay exposes a hireling spirit that enters the work for pay and stays in it for what will be received, valuing its own work above that of those who came later. Grumbling earns no sympathy, for the complaining worker needs a changed heart to esteem his own work and the work of others rightly, with love and dependence on God. A heart set on finding fault treats the householder's generosity as a grievance, while a purified heart recognizes it as liberality. Self-seeking bargainers who will not work without the wages they stipulate end last at the close of the day, whereas with every true, self-sacrificing, faithful worker God sends His angels. Entering the design of the divine Planner requires denying self, taking up the cross daily, and following Christ in obedient, instructed, guided service.
Service in the Lord's work is not to be chosen for the greatest enjoyment or gain, but to be carried out wherever needed and to the best of ability with a spirit of personal sacrifice. Obedience and unselfish love matter more than rich offerings, and God's work requires people to use their abilities and bear its burdens rather than holding back when there is no worldly gain. Workers must examine their motives, for service done for Christ is not driven by wages, praise, or desire to appear clever, but by love, dependence on God, and joyful cooperation with Him. Greater advantages or abilities are no cause for pride or demand for esteem, since God employs varied talents and honors each according to faithfulness rather than measure of capacity or learning.
The complaint warns against envy, selfish ambition, and focusing on wages, feeling wronged by what others receive or desiring ever-higher wages. Jealousy that centers on self rather than the good of the whole vineyard leads to murmuring against the householder. Instead workers are to support God's work wherever help is needed rather than resenting or neglecting other fields, looking to Christ's self-denying example.
When gain is sought instead of faithful labor, murmuring and bitterness come. Labor in the Lord's vineyard means putting God-given abilities, quick perception, and understanding of His word to active use in the Master's service to do good and glorify God, with energy, efficiency, and humility that commands respect and gives influence for good over all associated with. Faithfulness in that which is least with talents already entrusted is required. When love of money takes firm hold the powers are perverted and debased by sordid love of gain, making a man selfish, penurious, and overbearing, conformed to the world instead of transformed by renewing of the mind. Covetously desiring and selfishly retaining a father's property adds a heavier stewardship than can be managed, rooting out love for humanity and love for God, disturbing peace and confidence between brothers, producing bitter feelings, selfish advantage-taking, loss of self-command, and a course that reproaches God's cause and does much harm where much good might have been done.
Murmuring against God as the goodman of the house when He sets His laborers in all parts of His vineyard is wrong. God Himself teaches, leads, guides, rules, counsels, guards, and empowers every worker and every sanitarium established, and He is the confidence and power of its managers. No institution is to be bound or attached with human cords to Battle Creek as its great center and power, or asked to subscribe to human contracts, for human devising for management is wrong in principle and does not represent God and His mercy and love. The responsible men at Battle Creek already carry all they can carry and more than they should attempt, and if half their burdens were lifted and planted in other places the light would be much more far-reaching. High and influential and also lowly ones each have a part to act, and all can work in perfect harmony without central human control by looking to God and not to men.
No one is to sit down in his own house and call the church to himself, wait for a regular process before serving, or regard his part in one part of the field as an independent whole. God has some part of the vineyard for everyone who knows the truth, and there is great need of workers with a burden for souls. Each is to give himself wholly to God, go to work where he is in self-sacrificing labor, keep step with God's people and God's work, and place himself decidedly as a worker together with God in the channel where God is working in unity and harmony with those who carry the load. Workers beginning a new work for the Master are to receive help from those experienced in it.
The wages of laborers in God's cause must not be cut down without their consent and without understanding their situation. God's cause can afford to be fair and true and to deal on right principles. Workers have as much right to a voice in wage transactions as men employed in various branches of trade, and all arrangements with those in God's service are a sacred transaction between man and his fellow man. When lack of means presses, the true situation must be published and those employed asked if they could do with less means of support. Cutting wages by selfish counsel turns the back to God and reveals the character of men handling sacred things. Sitting on auditing committees without discrimination, judgment, and real understanding of workers brings oppression and want into families, brings families into strait places, gives occasion for the enemy to tempt and discourage workers, and in some cases drives them from the field, for such cool, indifferent handling of workers as if they were inanimate objects without voice is not justice nor righteousness, and God is not glorified by it.
Those who murmur measure every hour's work with exactness, set the highest estimate on their own services, swell with pride and self-importance, and study how little they can do to reach the lowest standard. Whole-hearted workers who labor to the utmost of their ability do the opposite: they do not overvalue themselves, they compare their efforts with the Saviour's work, account themselves unprofitable servants, and seek to grasp the fullness of Christ so they may do much for Him.
Those doing sacred work, including sacred publishing work as labor in the Lord's vineyard, are to serve earnestly, faithfully, and without selfish purposes. Such labor requires earnest prayer in faith for fellow workers not fully in the truth, a felt sense of the worth of the soul for whom Christ died, and a sense of the sacredness of the work as different from common labor. Trifling frivolity while handling sacred things grieves angels and fails this calling, and fruitless cumberers of the ground are called to consecrate themselves to God and center their affections and hopes in Him. The means entrusted by the Master are to be used while living to advance that work rather than for selfish gain.
When they had received the agreed penny, the first-hired workers complained against the householder because those hired later received the same amount. They had received exactly what was promised and suffered no wrong, yet seeing the one-hour and eleventh-hour workers paid a full day's wage they expected more for themselves and thought the late workers should have less. Their murmuring exposes a hireling, grasping spirit that serves for pay, bargains with God for a fixed sum for a fixed work, and treats His favor as earned. God's reward rests not on time worked or visible results but on His own generous purpose and mercy, so His goodness to others is no injustice to those who receive what was promised and no one can claim salvation as a right. He values and rewards service according to the faith, love, gratitude and trust in which it is done, not according to length of labor or amount accomplished.
The Story Told
The verse pictures the workers hired first murmuring against the householder after each had received the same penny, because he gave equal pay to those hired later. Their complaint rose when they compared their long labor through the day with the short labor of the late-hired, one-hour and eleventh-hour workers, and they expected more for themselves once they saw the others receive a full day's pay. They regarded that equal payment as unfair and resented the householder's generosity and liberality toward the others, feeling that their longer service entitled them to more. Yet selfishness kept them from recognizing his liberality, and his dealing with the workers stands for God's dealing with the human family.
They had bargained for a stated sum in advance, a penny for the day, and they received exactly what was promised and what they had agreed to. The householder had done them no wrong, for God's goodness in giving to others is no wrong to those who receive what was promised. Still they thought the late-hired should receive less and they themselves should receive more, and that eager, grasping spirit showed them unworthy of greater wages or the highest place. By contrast the last workers trusted the householder to do what was right without asking about wages, trusting his promise, and they were rewarded according to the generosity of his purpose.
Seeing the late-hired receive a full day's pay, the first workers expected a greater reward for their longer labor and measured by human standards of time worked and visible results. Their complaint reflects a hireling spirit, comparing themselves with others and thinking they had earned a reward in proportion to their work. The parable sets against this God's generous reward, given according to His own purpose and mercy rather than the amount of labor or human merit, for He deals with His servants by the principles of His kingdom and not by human standards of earned compensation. So the equal reward for late workers who confess the truth and become Christ's workers shows that they share the reward of those who served throughout the day.
The first approached service as hirelings, valuing their own work and demanding a stated reward, while the eleventh-hour workers asked nothing about payment, trusted the householder, and received his generosity with gratitude, indeed receiving more than they had earned and answering with gratitude and trust in His gracious, generous dealings. God does not reward His servants simply according to the amount of labor or its visible results, but according to the spirit in which they work. The penny is the reward given to the laborer, not to the one who loiters in the marketplace, thus distinguishing those who work from those who do not. The goodman of the house is God, who sets His laborers in all parts of His vineyard and Himself teaches, leads, guides, rules, counsels and guards every worker and every sanitarium established, being the confidence and power of its managers. The responsible men at Battle Creek already carry all they can carry and more than they should attempt, so that if half their burdens were lifted and planted in other places the light would be much more far-reaching; no institution is to be bound or attached with human cords to Battle Creek as its great center and power or asked to subscribe to human contracts, for human devising for management is wrong in principle and does not represent God and His mercy and love, and high and influential and lowly ones each have a part to act and can work in perfect harmony without central human control by looking to God and not to men.
The Murmurers' Spirit
The murmuring exposes an eager, grasping, mercenary, hireling spirit that treats divine favor and reward as earned by work rather than given by free grace. Those in this spirit enter service for pay and stay in it for what they will receive, seeking to make terms with God to do a stated amount of work for a stated sum, as the first-hired did. They are those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate, while self-sacrificing, faithful workers are attended by angels and self-seeking bargainers end last at the close of the day. Entering the divine plan instead requires denying self, taking up the cross daily, and following in obedient, instructed, guided service.
They valued wages more than the privilege of serving and approached service as a bargain for a fixed reward, in contrast to workers who accept the householder's promise in faith and trust. They valued their own labor above that of those who came later, worked for the reward they expected, and sought to make service conditional on an agreed payment. They measured service by human standards of time worked and visible results, measuring every hour with exactness and setting the highest estimate on their own services. Whole-hearted workers do the opposite: they labor to the utmost without overvaluing themselves, compare their efforts with the Saviour's work, account themselves unprofitable servants, swell with no pride and self-importance, study not how little they can do to reach the lowest standard, and seek Christ's fullness so they may do much for Him.
Their complaint reflects a faultfinding, self-exalting, self-congratulatory spirit marked by selfishness and an unpurified heart, without faith that works by love and purifies the soul. They claimed that long service entitled them to greater honor, reward, place, and recognition, valuing reward above the privilege of serving Christ. Such self-exaltation and unchristlike reliance on work as earning salvation makes those who might have been first last. This does not excuse those who hear the truth and refuse to obey it, or who deliberately refuse the first call and later repent.
They resented the householder's generosity and liberality toward others and treated His goodness as a reason to grumble, though He had done them no wrong in giving what was promised. They begrudged another's reward from jealousy, envy, rivalry, discontent, and a sense of superiority and entitlement because of longer service. No one can claim salvation as a right, for the reward is given by grace and the first and the last share in it. Jealous focus on one's own interests rather than the good of the whole vineyard leads to murmuring against the householder through envy and selfish ambition.
Instead of recognizing liberality with gratitude and trust, they distrusted goodness, compared their reward with others, and showed a heart focused on finding fault that sees generosity as a grievance. A purified heart recognizes the same generosity as liberality, while the first workers received only what they had agreed to and the last trusted the householder to do what was right without setting terms. God does not reward simply according to amount of labor or its visible results but according to the spirit in which the work is done. The same complaint is joined to reluctance to serve when service offers no worldly gain, whereas obedience and unselfish love matter more than rich offerings, and the work requires using abilities and bearing burdens.
How God Rewards
The parable sets human reckoning by hours worked and visible results against a generosity that pays by a different rule, for the householder gives not according to amount of labor or human merit but according to his own purpose and mercy. The first-hired had fixed a stated wage in advance and then expected more when the late-hired received a full day's pay, yet his dealings picture how God deals with people and with the human family on the principles of His own kingdom rather than on human opinions, examples, or standards of earned compensation. The later workers asked no terms but trusted him to do what was right, and receiving more than they had earned they answered with gratitude, which is the trust the parable calls for toward gracious and generous dealing.
God measures service by the spirit brought to the work rather than by time spent, quantity accomplished, capacity, or learning. The first workers valued wages above the privilege of serving and turned service into a bargain for a fixed reward, while faith and trust that accept the householder's promise without setting terms stand as the contrasting spirit Christ values. That recompense is gracious: faith and love that purify the soul weigh more than length of labor, and the complaint of those who claim long service entitles them to greater reward exposes a faultfinding and self-exalting heart lacking faith that works by love.
Giving generously to others does no wrong to those who receive exactly what was promised, for the penny agreed upon was paid in full and the thought that the late-hired should have less and the long laborers more reveals an eager, grasping, mercenary temper unworthy of greater wages or the highest place. To treat favor and reward as earned by work is error, since the principles at stake are those of free grace. No one can claim salvation as a right, and grudging another's reward is forbidden because the reward is given by grace in which the first and the last share.
Reward is not for workers to measure out or judge for one another, for the Lord Himself gives each worker what is due. What counts is the spirit and the principles guiding the work: purity of motive and an earnest desire to glorify God bring the faithful worker the same reward as one who accomplishes more. God employs people of varied talents and honors each according to faithfulness rather than measure of capacity or learning, so greater advantages or abilities give no ground for pride or demand for esteem.
Self-exaltation and the claim to deserve special recognition make those who might have been first last. That hireling temper enters for pay, stays for what will be received, tries to make terms with God for a stated amount of work for a stated sum, and rates its own work above that of later comers; in God's estimation such workers are last, and the same wage-seeking spirit still marks many professed believers. Yet this does not excuse those who hear the truth and refuse to obey it, nor those who deliberately refuse God's first call with the thought of repenting later.
Prophecy and Late Workers
The murmuring is a warning first to the Jews, who were proud of being first called and resented Gentiles receiving equal privileges, and to disciples who must guard against self-righteousness, claims of merit, jealousy and desire for importance. The complaint of the first laborers shows a self-congratulatory spirit that believes long service entitles them to greater honor and reward, values reward above the privilege of serving, distrusts divine goodness, and begrudges generosity toward others.
The equal penny for eleventh-hour workers means that the thief's faith in a dying Saviour could receive salvation though it came at the end of life. It means also that people who learn late that their sins are forgiven can still make wrongs right and share in the joy and final triumph. Late-called workers may through grace present the truth so effectively as to be accounted first.
In the perils of the last day men and women brought into the fold at the eleventh hour are paid as much as those who first entered the field. If they are earnest they are accepted and worked through as they cooperate with the Holy Spirit, use all talents with humble minds, and do all-round work to extend knowledge of God. As they put on Christ their minds are enlarged, they become wise unto salvation, they labor for those in the churches and learn how to help others, they give heavenly truth to others who in turn help still others, and whole communities are blessed.
In the final crisis over religious liberty many souls will come out of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, and come to the front. Their zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore, including Sabbathkeeping Adventists who do not walk in the light. Seeing the battle coming they will give a certain sound, and when calamity comes they will gird with the whole armor, exalt God's law, hold the faith of Jesus, and maintain religious liberty, and as eleventh-hour laborers they will receive their penny.
Like a householder hiring through the ages, the parable calls people to labor throughout the ages and has particular force near the close of earth's history. It applies to faithful workers who enter late when the work is harder and people more hardened. Such late comers who remain faithful take places left vacant by those who fall away, while others who had greater light turn from Christ and forfeit their crown to newcomers who receive it.
Late workers who confess the truth and become Christ's workers share the reward of those who served throughout the day, even as those who worked all day murmured when they saw the eleventh-hour workers receive the same wages.
The Vineyard and Its Call
The vineyard is the world, and it is the Lord's work and cause and kingdom for saving fellow men by presenting truth to those in darkness, and Christ uses it to call people to earnest labor for souls. Laboring there means entering the ministry to work for Him, and those He accepts for it are people of good abilities. The Master of the vineyard is calling workers, and the call applies to entering the cities to work with God for the winning of souls. The Lord has a vineyard which is His cause and the work of warning sinners and winning souls to Christ.
All men and women who are Christians in every sense of the word should be workers in it, wide awake and zealously laboring for the salvation of their fellow men in imitation of the Saviour's life of self-denial, sacrifice, and faithful, earnest labor. Every professing Christian has an assigned task and should persevere in service. Service in the Master's vineyard is work for every individual member of the church, not ministers alone. The Lord's vineyard is a place of work for all, no one should be idle, and God accepts willing service. God has some part of the vineyard for everyone who knows the truth, and there is great need of workers with a burden for souls.
No one is to sit down in his own house and call the church to himself, but to give himself wholly to God, go to work, keep step with God's people and God's work, and place himself decidedly as a worker in the channel where God is working in unity and harmony with those who carry the load. People who are idle should be put to work in God's service, with ministers giving them a share of the work, correcting their mistakes, and setting them to work again, since using their abilities teaches them how to use their talents. God can provide instruction wherever people faithfully develop their gifts, so workers need not all go to one central place before serving, and capable workers can be prepared for that work through instruction. Christ welcomes and prepares unlikely workers for service in His vineyard, seeing their potential and, as they learn, equipping them through providence and the Holy Spirit to do work suited to their abilities. People who may seem discouraging or unpromising can have qualifications for service in His vineyard, and as learners under His providence can be fitted for work within their abilities and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
God's servants as vineyard workers are hired by God and must use their abilities faithfully, being accountable to use the abilities and opportunities entrusted to them in His service. Each person in God's household has work assigned by Christ and should use the abilities God gives to serve Him diligently and effectively. Each person is responsible only for what God has given, with return expected in proportion to ability and opportunity, and even one talent used well is accepted according to what a person has, not what is lacked. Faithful servants who work for their Master will be rewarded.
The call to enter the cities and work as laborers in the Lord's vineyard applies the vineyard labor to gospel work for the salvation of souls. It applies to workers trained to share present truth with people of their own nationalities, whose labor will bring souls as their hire. Its picture of labor in the vineyard applies to schools, where faithful cultivation of the land and disinterested care of the buildings by students cures the love of sports and amusements that causes perplexity in school work. Those doing sacred publishing work are laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, and such labor requires earnest prayer in faith for fellow workers not fully in the truth, a felt sense of the worth of the soul for whom Christ died, and a sense of the sacredness of the work as different from common labor. Young men whose services God would accept are to consecrate themselves to Him unreservedly, exercise powers of mind in His service instead of in serving self and acquiring property, study the Scriptures and become intelligent in spiritual knowledge and the things of the kingdom instead of being wise only in worldly and temporal things, turn their minds into a heavenly divine channel, walk in the light going on from one degree of light and strength to another, and labor as earnest persevering successful workers who turn sinners to Christ and point the unbelieving and desponding to a bright track heavenward, so that when the warfare is ended they are welcomed to the joy of their Lord, though now few do this work when many should.
Faithful Service Required
Those who serve God are not to demand a fixed wage, stipulate their own terms, or bargain for a stated amount of work for a stated sum as though the Master would deal unfairly. The murmuring after receiving pay exposes a hireling spirit that enters the work for pay and stays in it for what will be received, valuing its own work above that of those who came later. Grumbling earns no sympathy, for the complaining worker needs a changed heart to esteem his own work and the work of others rightly, with love and dependence on God. A heart set on finding fault treats the householder's generosity as a grievance, while a purified heart recognizes it as liberality. Self-seeking bargainers who will not work without the wages they stipulate end last at the close of the day, whereas with every true, self-sacrificing, faithful worker God sends His angels. Entering the design of the divine Planner requires denying self, taking up the cross daily, and following Christ in obedient, instructed, guided service.
Service in the Lord's work is not to be chosen for the greatest enjoyment or gain, but to be carried out wherever needed and to the best of ability with a spirit of personal sacrifice. Obedience and unselfish love matter more than rich offerings, and God's work requires people to use their abilities and bear its burdens rather than holding back when there is no worldly gain. Workers must examine their motives, for service done for Christ is not driven by wages, praise, or desire to appear clever, but by love, dependence on God, and joyful cooperation with Him. Greater advantages or abilities are no cause for pride or demand for esteem, since God employs varied talents and honors each according to faithfulness rather than measure of capacity or learning.
The complaint warns against envy, selfish ambition, and focusing on wages, feeling wronged by what others receive or desiring ever-higher wages. Jealousy that centers on self rather than the good of the whole vineyard leads to murmuring against the householder. Instead workers are to support God's work wherever help is needed rather than resenting or neglecting other fields, looking to Christ's self-denying example.
When gain is sought instead of faithful labor, murmuring and bitterness come. Labor in the Lord's vineyard means putting God-given abilities, quick perception, and understanding of His word to active use in the Master's service to do good and glorify God, with energy, efficiency, and humility that commands respect and gives influence for good over all associated with. Faithfulness in that which is least with talents already entrusted is required. When love of money takes firm hold the powers are perverted and debased by sordid love of gain, making a man selfish, penurious, and overbearing, conformed to the world instead of transformed by renewing of the mind. Covetously desiring and selfishly retaining a father's property adds a heavier stewardship than can be managed, rooting out love for humanity and love for God, disturbing peace and confidence between brothers, producing bitter feelings, selfish advantage-taking, loss of self-command, and a course that reproaches God's cause and does much harm where much good might have been done.
Murmuring against God as the goodman of the house when He sets His laborers in all parts of His vineyard is wrong. God Himself teaches, leads, guides, rules, counsels, guards, and empowers every worker and every sanitarium established, and He is the confidence and power of its managers. No institution is to be bound or attached with human cords to Battle Creek as its great center and power, or asked to subscribe to human contracts, for human devising for management is wrong in principle and does not represent God and His mercy and love. The responsible men at Battle Creek already carry all they can carry and more than they should attempt, and if half their burdens were lifted and planted in other places the light would be much more far-reaching. High and influential and also lowly ones each have a part to act, and all can work in perfect harmony without central human control by looking to God and not to men.
No one is to sit down in his own house and call the church to himself, wait for a regular process before serving, or regard his part in one part of the field as an independent whole. God has some part of the vineyard for everyone who knows the truth, and there is great need of workers with a burden for souls. Each is to give himself wholly to God, go to work where he is in self-sacrificing labor, keep step with God's people and God's work, and place himself decidedly as a worker together with God in the channel where God is working in unity and harmony with those who carry the load. Workers beginning a new work for the Master are to receive help from those experienced in it.
The wages of laborers in God's cause must not be cut down without their consent and without understanding their situation. God's cause can afford to be fair and true and to deal on right principles. Workers have as much right to a voice in wage transactions as men employed in various branches of trade, and all arrangements with those in God's service are a sacred transaction between man and his fellow man. When lack of means presses, the true situation must be published and those employed asked if they could do with less means of support. Cutting wages by selfish counsel turns the back to God and reveals the character of men handling sacred things. Sitting on auditing committees without discrimination, judgment, and real understanding of workers brings oppression and want into families, brings families into strait places, gives occasion for the enemy to tempt and discourage workers, and in some cases drives them from the field, for such cool, indifferent handling of workers as if they were inanimate objects without voice is not justice nor righteousness, and God is not glorified by it.
Those who murmur measure every hour's work with exactness, set the highest estimate on their own services, swell with pride and self-importance, and study how little they can do to reach the lowest standard. Whole-hearted workers who labor to the utmost of their ability do the opposite: they do not overvalue themselves, they compare their efforts with the Saviour's work, account themselves unprofitable servants, and seek to grasp the fullness of Christ so they may do much for Him.
Those doing sacred work, including sacred publishing work as labor in the Lord's vineyard, are to serve earnestly, faithfully, and without selfish purposes. Such labor requires earnest prayer in faith for fellow workers not fully in the truth, a felt sense of the worth of the soul for whom Christ died, and a sense of the sacredness of the work as different from common labor. Trifling frivolity while handling sacred things grieves angels and fails this calling, and fruitless cumberers of the ground are called to consecrate themselves to God and center their affections and hopes in Him. The means entrusted by the Master are to be used while living to advance that work rather than for selfish gain.