Jesus told the Parable of the Vineyard Workers, which seems to condone idleness. This daily devotion looks at what the parable is really talking about.
Nuggets
- God calls us to salvation for differing lengths.
- God’s salvation is offered to all regardless of what we have done.
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In the last devotion, we started talking about how God does not want us to be idle. Jesus told a Parable of the Vineyard Workers that seems to contradict that.
If we don’t have the confidence in what Scriptures say, we won’t be able to focus on God. So, even though it isn’t about thoughts, let’s take a look.
“Avoid idleness. Serious callings do naturally compose men’s spirits, but too much recreation makes them blaze out in vanity. Idle souls as well as idle spirits will be ranging” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
Let's Put It into Context #1
We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes. Charnock has taught us
- that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
- that we focus our thoughts by being humble instead of prideful, following God instead of the worldview, and working instead of being idle.
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Glossary
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Bible Verse
Idleness is the sin of wanting to obtain a reward without working for that reward.
Workers of Different Longevity
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on one denarius, he sent them into his vineyard for the day. When he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He said to them, ‘You also go into my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went. About noon and about three, he went out again and did the same thing. Then about five he went and found others standing around and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one hired us,’ they said to him. ‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he told them” (Mt. 20: 1-7 CSB)
God calls us to salvation for differing lengths.
It is easy to look at this parable as a story about idleness in our careers. The vineyard workers don’t find work until the end of the day.
But it isn’t about that at all. We’ll get to that.
First, we have to remember the workers who weren’t hired still showed up at the interview. They didn’t just sign up for unemployment and not try to get work.
The workers weren’t idle by choice. True, we don’t know why they weren’t hired, but they had waited, as Gray said, as was the custom when they weren’t hired right off.
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Jesus’ purpose for telling this parable was to apply it to our spiritual growth. It is all about spiritual idleness. Tucker reminded us that spiritual idleness is detrimental to us and others.
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It seems like, in many instances, we leave the bulk of the work to only a few workers. We can’t do that. We need to step up and do our share.
Sometimes, that may mean not waiting for the Nominating Committee to come to us. We may have to go to them.
I know. How many times do we feel that we are not qualified to do something God is calling us to do? Well, that just means we have to put in the work to get qualified.
What is sad is when we don’t feel qualified in doing what God is calling us to do and we use it and other reasons to not follow through. Let’s say God is calling us to be a missionary. Instead of us going, we throw financial support to an already established missionary.
Yay for the other missionary, but God isn’t going to accept the substitute. We have chosen to not follow His Will.
We’ve got to do the work when God calls. God may give us a limited opportunity to complete it. We know Satan is going to do everything in his power to stop God’s work from going forward.
We don’t want to miss out on our blessing. God will help us when we are faithful. He will give us the strength and wisdom we need to complete the task.
Atherton detailed what this wisdom is. We learn about ourselves. More importantly, we learn about God.
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Okay. I have to do an Elaine-speak on something else Atherton wrote.
- Some people don’t work because they don’t have a job.
- Some have a job, but don’t like their employer, their job, or their wages.
- Some say they can’t work for some reason.
- Some are looking for work but can’t get hired.
- Some don’t want to give up our old way of life.
God is not calling us to what Guthrie called busy idleness. We can do a lot of things that amount to nothing.
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I wondered, when I read this, if our attempts to serve Him when He really didn’t call us to do that would fall under here. What God calls us to do in His service will be pleasant and profitable.
God Rewards Those He Calls
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius. So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner: ‘These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day’s work and the burning heat.’ He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? Take what’s yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what is mine? Are you jealous because I’m generous?’ ‘So the last will be first, and the first last.’” (Mt. 20: 1-16: CSB)
God’s salvation is offered to all regardless of what we have done.
This set of verses inform the usual interpretation of this parable. How long we have had salvation is not as important as that we are saved. Only children of God will be rewarded.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.//////
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Salvation is the same for all who ABCD. We all are changed from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. We all are given access to Sovereign God. We all are given eternal life.
Why? We are given these rewards because God shows us mercy. God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
God is the One who designed the Plan of Salvation. He decided what would satisfy Him to pay the price for our disobedience.
What salvation entails was determined by God. He figured out what we would have to do to gain it. We have to believe that Jesus died for our sins.
Then, God calls us to salvation. He calls each and every one of us. Some, He may call when we are young. Others He will call when we are older.
God alone knows when He will call us home. It may be when our life here is over. It may be when all life here is over.
But it is all God’s Plan.
Taylor was right when he said that no employer would give what equates to a part-time employee the salary equaling that of a full-time employee. But God is not just any employer. He gave what He promised.
We have to remember a very important passage. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 8-9 CSB).
What this tells us is that the doing isn’t the main ingredient here. Yes, some of them performed their ministry for a long time. Not all of them did.
So, quantity wasn’t what was rewarded. It was quality.
Those who were late to the labor gave God their all. It was like Taylor’s sermon title said. The worth of work is determined by the spirituality of its motive.
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They served God fully.
It wasn’t about the doing. It was about the being. That is what perfection is about.
Of course, those that worked all day grumbled. “We were the ones who worked all day in the hot sun. Why didn’t we get more than those who put in such little work?”
Ooo, baby! Can’t we disciples grumble when we think someone is getting too much — or not enough! Taylor equated the day-long workers with the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
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We have to watch when we start grumbling. Taylor wrote, “Work in this spirit, however great it may seem, is small in the sight of God. The ‘perfect’ and the ‘chosen’ labour for love.”
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We shouldn’t be a disciple for what we get out of it — or what we get out of. We should be a disciple because we love God.
But look at it this way. After the question of “Why have you stood out here more almost 12 hours?” nothing more was said about the men being idle.
Jesus did not condone the full-time laborer’s envy. Their complaining did not get them what they wanted.
I always got where the all-day group were paid the agreed upon amount (Mt. 20: 14). What I missed was this was the negotiated amount. “After agreeing with the workers on one denarius …” (Mt. 20: 2 CSB).
Ooo, baby. Apply that to today. Some want to rewrite Scriptures. They want to bargain to have things their way.
They will always be dissatisfied.
Huntingdon made another good point. He wrote, “Christ nowhere offers us heaven as a price for good behaviour, as foolish parents, or rather wicked parents, lure their children to obey with sweetmeats and toys.”
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Only true children of God are rewarded. “But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name” (Jn. 1: 12 CSB).
That means it takes faith. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
Making the Connections
Huntington summed it up nicely.
“The early and late workers have alike the promised penny, the common and open privilege of the gospel and Church. But have you turned the Christianity of condition and privilege into the personal Christianity of choice and character? The length of time you have been in the Church is now of little consequence; all that is over. Are you Christ’s men? What are your feelings toward the brother-souls that live and work near you? The parable strikes a blow at the notion that any works of ours are profitable, to trod, or even to our salvation. The quality, not the performance, is the accepted thing, the heart of faith and love, not any self-complacent operations.”
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- It isn’t about longevity.
- It isn’t about earning our way to Heaven.
- It is about genuine salvation.
- It is about character.
- It is about the second greatest commandment.
Glossary
How Do We Apply This?
- Believe God will follow through as He promised.
- Love others instead of envy their blessings.
- Don’t compare ourselves with other disciples.
- Complete the work assigned to us.
Resource
We are called to work for God. Idleness is detrimental to all.
Father God. We hear Your call to do Your Will. We choose to do it Your way. Amen.
What do you think?
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