But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
The householder answers the complaint of the workers hired first that he has done them no wrong because he has paid them exactly the penny they agreed to receive. His giving the same penny to those hired later takes nothing from their agreed wage, for he is entitled to do as he chooses with his own, and generosity to others is no injustice to them. He stands for God, whose reward is given by free grace and not earned as a right by longer service, greater labor, or comparison with others. The worth of service is measured by the spirit of faith and love in which it is rendered rather than by length of time or amount accomplished, so those who bargain for stipulated terms receive what they agreed while those who trust the Master are valued for that trust. Thus even those who enter the work at the eleventh hour and serve faithfully receive the same penny, showing that it is never too late to be accepted and saved.
Agreement Keeps Householder Just
The reply is the householder's answer to the complaint of the worker or workers hired first, affirming that he has done no wrong because he paid the penny they had agreed to receive. Their claim to greater wages and higher honor because they bore the day's burden does not entitle them to more, and their complaint that the later workers were paid the same does not make the agreed wage unjust. Honoring the agreed wage is just, rather than measuring fairness by how long each labored or by comparing one worker's pay with another's. The value of service to God is likewise measured by the spirit in which it is given, not by the time spent working or by how long a person has labored.
Paying the late-hired laborers the same amount did not cancel the first laborer's agreed wage, and the agreed payment establishes fairness while generosity to others does not cancel obligation to the first. The householder was entitled to give his own money as he chose, including giving the late workers the same amount, and his choice was an act of generosity and liberality, not an injustice. The first workers' pay followed their agreement, while the later workers' pay reflected the householder's generosity, an unexpected kindness and not a denial of the first workers' agreed wage. Those eleventh-hour workers received a full day's pay although they had not earned it, illustrating the gracious reward Christ gives to the unworthy sinner who enters His service, in contrast with the stated demand of the first workers.
The householder's treatment of the workers represents God's dealings with people and with the human family in the management of the workers in His vineyard. Those dealings follow the principles and laws of His kingdom, which is not of this world, rather than human standards or opinions, and Christ came to represent God by working according to them. God is not bound by the actions of any other householder or by any human standard, nor confined by precise regulations, for His thoughts and ways are higher than human thoughts and ways. The first workers' complaint arose from selfishness and resentment of His generosity as with an evil eye, whereas with purified hearts they would have recognized His liberality and unexpected kindness in giving the eleventh-hour workers the same pay.
Those who came first demanded and agreed to definite, stipulated terms and received exactly what they specified, the sum and amount for which they agreed to work. The last made no stipulated terms but left the matter of payment with the householder, having faith that He would do what is right and just, trusting in the master's promise and His generous purpose. The answer therefore makes no excuse for supposed unfairness: demanding a definite reward brings exactly that reward, while trusting faith receives generous payment as unexpected kindness. The first called in the parable are those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate, and at the close of the day they find themselves last, while God sends forth His angels with every true, self-sacrificing, faithful worker, and those who deny self and take up the cross daily and follow Christ enter into the design of the divine Planner and are instructed and guided.
Reward Given by Grace
The parable to which the answer belongs was given to restore the truth of God's free grace against the teaching that His favor must be earned and the reward of the righteous gained by one's own works. It sets forth the right principles of grace and reward, coming right after an event that opened the way to expose that error. It rebukes a grasping, mercenary spirit in worship that bargains with God for reward, a spirit from which even Christ's disciples were not wholly free.
No one can claim God's reward as a right or boast over others, for eternal life and salvation are given by grace. Longer service, greater labor, visible results, and comparison with others do not earn it. Those who are saved should not begrudge others an equal share, and a spirit of entitlement and complaint over it is unchristlike. The first laborer's misplaced claim to special reward and greater honor because of long service and hardship exposes self-righteous service that values reward above the privilege of serving Christ and resents others receiving equal privileges. God's goodness to others is no injustice, and He deals justly while service is not to be driven by self-exaltation or a demand to merit reward.
God does not reward His servants according to the amount of labor done or according to visible results, but according to His gracious purpose and according to the principles and spirit brought into the work. He deals with men in a way that cultivates their moral and spiritual capabilities. Workers who serve with pure motives and an earnest desire to glorify God receive the same reward even when they accomplish less, because the principles governing their work determine their reward. Faithfulness and principle, not how long they have labored, decide the reward of latecomers who faithfully devote their abilities and means, and God honors each worker according to faithfulness rather than ability, education, or capacity. Serving without pride or demands for esteem and appreciation belongs to this fairness.
The eleventh-hour workers made no stipulated terms but left payment with the householder in faith that he would do what is right and just, and their gratitude for being accepted and their joy at his kindness show that humble, trusting service values the opportunity to work with God more than compensation. They received a full day's pay although they had not earned it, illustrating the gracious reward Christ gives to the unworthy sinner who enters His service.
Spirit Measures Service Value
The worth of service to God is decided by the spirit of faith and love in which it is given, not by how long a person has labored. The householder does no wrong to the workers hired early because he pays them the penny they agreed to receive, even when those hired later receive the same amount. Honoring the agreed wage is just, rather than measuring fairness by length of labor or by comparing one worker's pay with another's. The agreed wage gives no ground to demand greater recognition for longer service, for God rewards according to the spirit in which the work is done. The value of work is not measured by wages or by a worker's own estimate, and those who serve in that spirit of faith and love receive the reward of grace.
Those who bargain for a stipulated wage receive exactly what they agreed to, while service marked by loving, trusting faith is valued for the spirit in which it is done. Christ's servants are to trust their Master rather than make terms with God for a fixed reward. To serve with a hireling's spirit is to make terms with God and work for a stated reward, then regard one's own labor as worth more than the labor of later workers. God esteems that spirit as last, yet many professed believers work for the wages they hope to receive. Those who complain in this way need purified hearts in order to recognize his liberality and unexpected kindness.
Service is not a ground for self-exaltation or for disparaging others. Those who work for Christ in dependence on God do not strive to exalt themselves but hide self with Christ. Those who claim entitlement and find fault may be placed last because they exalt self rather than hiding it with Christ. Workers are therefore called to examine their hearts and not to exalt their own labor or disparage the labor of others.
Rebuke of Hireling Spirit
The first workers' demand for greater pay because they had carried the burden of the day exposed a grasping, mercenary spirit that bargains with God for reward and measures service by labor and comparison with others. It is a hireling spirit that serves for an agreed, stated reward and treats its own labor as worth more than the service of those who came later, and even Christ's disciples were not wholly free from it. Many professed believers work in this way for the wages they hope to receive, making terms with God instead of trusting their Master. The parable was given to restore the truth of God's free grace against the teaching that His favor must be earned and the reward of the righteous gained by one's own works, setting forth the right principles of grace and reward.
Long service and hardship do not entitle anyone to a larger reward or greater honor, and the early laborer has no just grievance or claim to more on the basis of longer service. Paying the promised penny is no wrong even when later workers receive the same amount, for the householder's generosity to others does not violate the agreement or make His goodness an injustice. Eternal life is God's gift and is not earned by comparing one person's work with another's, and service does not earn salvation. A spirit of entitlement and complaint that measures reward by labor and demands to merit reward is unchristlike and driven by self-exaltation.
Resentment of the householder's generosity sprang from selfishness and was an evil eye, for he was entitled to do as he chose with his own money, including giving the late workers the same amount. With purified hearts the complaining workers would have recognized his liberality and unexpected kindness instead of grumbling over their reward. Workers in God's service should not grumble over their reward, but have the grumbling heart changed so they can recognize generosity toward those who came later and trust rather than bargain for a fixed reward.
Those who serve for stipulated wages and exalt self through entitlement, complaint, and fault-finding may be placed last, because they exalt self rather than hide it with Christ and God esteems this spirit as last. God rewards according to the spirit in which the work is done, not as grounds to demand greater recognition for longer service. The first called are those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate, and at the close of the day they find themselves last and are made last. Men and women fix their own destiny as candidates either for heaven or for hell, while God sends forth His angels with every true, self-sacrificing, faithful worker, and those who deny self and take up the cross daily and follow Christ enter into the design of the divine Planner and are instructed and guided.
The parable does not excuse people who hear the truth and refuse to obey it, nor does it vindicate those who reject the first call, since the workers hired later had not been present in the morning to refuse that call. The first laborers stand for people who serve self-righteously, value reward above the privilege of serving Christ, and resent others receiving equal privileges.
Late Workers Share Reward
Those who accept the truth and begin working for Christ at the last hour receive the same reward as those who have worked throughout the day. Earnest eleventh-hour workers are accepted, and the Lord works through them, paying them as much as those who began work earlier. The one-hour laborers represent latecomers who faithfully devote their abilities and means to advancing God's work, and their reward rests on faithfulness and principle, not on how long they have labored.
The equal reward of the eleventh-hour laborers who receive the same as those who worked many hours illustrates that a person who turns to Christ in faith at life's end can receive salvation. The dying thief entrusted himself wholly to Jesus in contrition and dependence on mercy. Even those who come at the eleventh hour can receive the master's generosity, for the eleventh hour is late but it is not too late for sins to be forgiven and wrongs to be made right.
Faithful workers who enter God's service when the work has become harder will receive their penny as the agreed wage given to those hired late in the day. Latecomers who faithfully present the truth may through Christ's grace be accounted first and receive the same reward as the earlier workers.
Many souls yet to come out of the ranks of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, when the crisis over religious liberty comes, will receive their penny. The penny is the full reward and place given to these late workers alongside earlier workers. Their zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore, as they see the battle coming and give the trumpet a certain sound. They will come to the front in the season of calamity, gird themselves with the whole armor of God, exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty.
Christ represents Himself as calling workers into His vineyard at every hour of the day, and that call to labor is especially forceful near the close of earth's history. People brought into God's work late may still receive the reward, while those who reject their opportunities and leave their place may be replaced by others.
Vineyard Calls All to Work
The vineyard is the Lord's work of saving fellow men, and every Christian man and woman in every sense of the word, every accountable person and every church member, is called to be a worker in it, with work for everyone, no idlers, and no one to remain idle. Each person should willingly perform the position and duties assigned by God however demanding they may seem, serving wherever needed according to ability rather than seeking the most enjoyable or profitable position. The responsibility to serve as God's agent in sharing heaven's light belongs not to ministers alone.
Labor in the vineyard means devoted, self-sacrificing, unreserved giving of self to present the truth to those in darkness, availing every opportunity where there is an opening to press in the truth. It is to be done wide awake and zealously while honest souls troubled by the signs of the times in the unsettled state of the nations ask what will be the end of all these things, working in unison with heavenly messengers moving on hearts and consciences in other nations. Its toilers are to be prayerful, faithful, self-denying and self-controlled, with lives showing the truth's power so their work has effect, following the Saviour's example of self-denial, sacrifice, and faithful earnest labor rather than measuring every hour with exactness or putting the highest estimate on one's own services. Laboring there is sowing the seed of truth with wide-awake zeal, prayerful anxiety and unceasing activity, without consulting inclination or personal ease, in willing sacrifice and faithful earnest labor for souls. Men of promise and ability when converted must be shown the necessity of this work and be faithfully instructed and carefully trained to labor unselfishly, earnestly and perseveringly for salvation, so that faith increases rather than fails when teachers leave for another place.
Men standing idle in the marketplace are to be given a part of God's vineyard to work, and ministers of Christ must apportion the vineyard to them, correct their blunders, and set them at work again. Workers learn how to employ their talents only by using their ability where they are, so hindering them from going forth does harm, and they should not wait for a regular process before beginning where they are but take up self-sacrificing service and learn by experience what it means to work together with God. Receiving the penny is linked to doing the work faithfully rather than loitering in the marketplace, for the penny was given to the vineyard laborer, not to one who merely loitered. Turning abilities to labor in His vineyard would do much good, while using them for selfish gain can do great harm, and God's children are to serve diligently and use abilities efficiently in the assigned work.
The vineyard is home missionary work in large cities, in cities and towns, along the highways and hedges, calling and bidding people to come to the marriage supper because all things are now ready. Those who improve their talents where they are will be taught by God and blessed with teachers sent by God, and there will be missionaries who do good work in the vineyard without going to Battle Creek. God calls servants to labor earnestly and persistently for souls, including opening new fields and establishing new groups of Sabbathkeepers rather than concentrating on churches that already have many advantages or concentrating resources in one place. That summons is applied to entering the cities to win souls, to taking hold of the neglected work among the colored people, and to the home as sacred work where older family members patiently teach and help younger children with God-given abilities, extending also to training workers for foreigners and youth.
Christ welcomes people into His work, seeing qualifications and promise in those who may discourage others and, as they remain learners, preparing them through His providence and giving them power through the Holy Spirit to do work suited to their abilities. God accepts and uses those who study the Scriptures and become intelligent in spiritual knowledge and the things of the kingdom, cultivating abilities and laboring earnestly and perseveringly in warning sinners, winning souls to Christ, and pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward. Such laborers turn their minds into a heavenly, divine channel, walk in the light, and go from one degree of light and strength to another until the warfare is ended, when faithful servants are welcomed to the joy of their Lord. Earnest eleventh-hour entrants are accepted and the Lord works through them, and workers should not be left without sympathy or opportunities to grow, for the Master knows and watches over those laboring in His vineyard and their work will be seen as it truly is when they give account.
Each believer has an assigned task in the Lord's cause and in one vineyard, and is obligated to use all abilities in His service and to persevere in it. Service is to be wherever needed according to ability, without selfish rivalry or feelings of superiority among servants laboring in different places in one field. Workers are accountable for using what the master entrusts, with greater means, opportunities and abilities bringing greater responsibility, and even one talent must be put to work with no one remaining idle waiting for greater capacity. The Lord expects interest according to capital given and does not require what they lack but accepts faithful effort according to what they have, with vessels large and small each responsible and a coming reckoning showing how accounts stand. The Lord has workers throughout His vineyard whom He directs in service, each with a part to act, and they can work in harmony without being bound to a single human center of control.
Service for God is labor in His vineyard under a sacred agreement between man and his fellow man that must be kept fair and true. The laborer has a right to the wage he agreed to and to a voice in any lowering of it, as much as workers in ordinary trade, and pay is not to be cut down without consent and without understanding his situation. To cut wages coolly and indifferently turns the back to God and reveals selfish character before heaven and men, bringing families into strait places and want, giving occasion to tempt and discourage workers, and driving them from the field. God's cause can afford to deal on right principles of justice and righteousness, so when lack of means presses the true situation is to be openly set forth and those employed asked if they can live on less, treating workers together with God as living persons with a voice and not as inanimate objects to be handled about. An agreed payment is not to be treated as a wrong even when others receive different wages, and high wages demanded for self can undermine Christ's self-denying example and make workers receiving less feel wronged, calling those in the Lord's vineyard to self-denial in supporting missionary work.
The vineyard setting otherwise connects the reply about the agreed wage with service in God's work, including laborers who give Bible readings and hold meetings to awaken interest but cannot support themselves and need help with living expenses, and young people urged to do their Lord's work with promise of faithful reward. God's workmen are not to have their labor prescribed by a human rule that disregards their own convictions of duty. Workers beginning new work need help from experienced workers and should not regard their part as independent.
The householder answers the complaint of the workers hired first that he has done them no wrong because he has paid them exactly the penny they agreed to receive. His giving the same penny to those hired later takes nothing from their agreed wage, for he is entitled to do as he chooses with his own, and generosity to others is no injustice to them. He stands for God, whose reward is given by free grace and not earned as a right by longer service, greater labor, or comparison with others. The worth of service is measured by the spirit of faith and love in which it is rendered rather than by length of time or amount accomplished, so those who bargain for stipulated terms receive what they agreed while those who trust the Master are valued for that trust. Thus even those who enter the work at the eleventh hour and serve faithfully receive the same penny, showing that it is never too late to be accepted and saved.
Agreement Keeps Householder Just
The reply is the householder's answer to the complaint of the worker or workers hired first, affirming that he has done no wrong because he paid the penny they had agreed to receive. Their claim to greater wages and higher honor because they bore the day's burden does not entitle them to more, and their complaint that the later workers were paid the same does not make the agreed wage unjust. Honoring the agreed wage is just, rather than measuring fairness by how long each labored or by comparing one worker's pay with another's. The value of service to God is likewise measured by the spirit in which it is given, not by the time spent working or by how long a person has labored.
Paying the late-hired laborers the same amount did not cancel the first laborer's agreed wage, and the agreed payment establishes fairness while generosity to others does not cancel obligation to the first. The householder was entitled to give his own money as he chose, including giving the late workers the same amount, and his choice was an act of generosity and liberality, not an injustice. The first workers' pay followed their agreement, while the later workers' pay reflected the householder's generosity, an unexpected kindness and not a denial of the first workers' agreed wage. Those eleventh-hour workers received a full day's pay although they had not earned it, illustrating the gracious reward Christ gives to the unworthy sinner who enters His service, in contrast with the stated demand of the first workers.
The householder's treatment of the workers represents God's dealings with people and with the human family in the management of the workers in His vineyard. Those dealings follow the principles and laws of His kingdom, which is not of this world, rather than human standards or opinions, and Christ came to represent God by working according to them. God is not bound by the actions of any other householder or by any human standard, nor confined by precise regulations, for His thoughts and ways are higher than human thoughts and ways. The first workers' complaint arose from selfishness and resentment of His generosity as with an evil eye, whereas with purified hearts they would have recognized His liberality and unexpected kindness in giving the eleventh-hour workers the same pay.
Those who came first demanded and agreed to definite, stipulated terms and received exactly what they specified, the sum and amount for which they agreed to work. The last made no stipulated terms but left the matter of payment with the householder, having faith that He would do what is right and just, trusting in the master's promise and His generous purpose. The answer therefore makes no excuse for supposed unfairness: demanding a definite reward brings exactly that reward, while trusting faith receives generous payment as unexpected kindness. The first called in the parable are those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate, and at the close of the day they find themselves last, while God sends forth His angels with every true, self-sacrificing, faithful worker, and those who deny self and take up the cross daily and follow Christ enter into the design of the divine Planner and are instructed and guided.
Reward Given by Grace
The parable to which the answer belongs was given to restore the truth of God's free grace against the teaching that His favor must be earned and the reward of the righteous gained by one's own works. It sets forth the right principles of grace and reward, coming right after an event that opened the way to expose that error. It rebukes a grasping, mercenary spirit in worship that bargains with God for reward, a spirit from which even Christ's disciples were not wholly free.
No one can claim God's reward as a right or boast over others, for eternal life and salvation are given by grace. Longer service, greater labor, visible results, and comparison with others do not earn it. Those who are saved should not begrudge others an equal share, and a spirit of entitlement and complaint over it is unchristlike. The first laborer's misplaced claim to special reward and greater honor because of long service and hardship exposes self-righteous service that values reward above the privilege of serving Christ and resents others receiving equal privileges. God's goodness to others is no injustice, and He deals justly while service is not to be driven by self-exaltation or a demand to merit reward.
God does not reward His servants according to the amount of labor done or according to visible results, but according to His gracious purpose and according to the principles and spirit brought into the work. He deals with men in a way that cultivates their moral and spiritual capabilities. Workers who serve with pure motives and an earnest desire to glorify God receive the same reward even when they accomplish less, because the principles governing their work determine their reward. Faithfulness and principle, not how long they have labored, decide the reward of latecomers who faithfully devote their abilities and means, and God honors each worker according to faithfulness rather than ability, education, or capacity. Serving without pride or demands for esteem and appreciation belongs to this fairness.
The eleventh-hour workers made no stipulated terms but left payment with the householder in faith that he would do what is right and just, and their gratitude for being accepted and their joy at his kindness show that humble, trusting service values the opportunity to work with God more than compensation. They received a full day's pay although they had not earned it, illustrating the gracious reward Christ gives to the unworthy sinner who enters His service.
Spirit Measures Service Value
The worth of service to God is decided by the spirit of faith and love in which it is given, not by how long a person has labored. The householder does no wrong to the workers hired early because he pays them the penny they agreed to receive, even when those hired later receive the same amount. Honoring the agreed wage is just, rather than measuring fairness by length of labor or by comparing one worker's pay with another's. The agreed wage gives no ground to demand greater recognition for longer service, for God rewards according to the spirit in which the work is done. The value of work is not measured by wages or by a worker's own estimate, and those who serve in that spirit of faith and love receive the reward of grace.
Those who bargain for a stipulated wage receive exactly what they agreed to, while service marked by loving, trusting faith is valued for the spirit in which it is done. Christ's servants are to trust their Master rather than make terms with God for a fixed reward. To serve with a hireling's spirit is to make terms with God and work for a stated reward, then regard one's own labor as worth more than the labor of later workers. God esteems that spirit as last, yet many professed believers work for the wages they hope to receive. Those who complain in this way need purified hearts in order to recognize his liberality and unexpected kindness.
Service is not a ground for self-exaltation or for disparaging others. Those who work for Christ in dependence on God do not strive to exalt themselves but hide self with Christ. Those who claim entitlement and find fault may be placed last because they exalt self rather than hiding it with Christ. Workers are therefore called to examine their hearts and not to exalt their own labor or disparage the labor of others.
Rebuke of Hireling Spirit
The first workers' demand for greater pay because they had carried the burden of the day exposed a grasping, mercenary spirit that bargains with God for reward and measures service by labor and comparison with others. It is a hireling spirit that serves for an agreed, stated reward and treats its own labor as worth more than the service of those who came later, and even Christ's disciples were not wholly free from it. Many professed believers work in this way for the wages they hope to receive, making terms with God instead of trusting their Master. The parable was given to restore the truth of God's free grace against the teaching that His favor must be earned and the reward of the righteous gained by one's own works, setting forth the right principles of grace and reward.
Long service and hardship do not entitle anyone to a larger reward or greater honor, and the early laborer has no just grievance or claim to more on the basis of longer service. Paying the promised penny is no wrong even when later workers receive the same amount, for the householder's generosity to others does not violate the agreement or make His goodness an injustice. Eternal life is God's gift and is not earned by comparing one person's work with another's, and service does not earn salvation. A spirit of entitlement and complaint that measures reward by labor and demands to merit reward is unchristlike and driven by self-exaltation.
Resentment of the householder's generosity sprang from selfishness and was an evil eye, for he was entitled to do as he chose with his own money, including giving the late workers the same amount. With purified hearts the complaining workers would have recognized his liberality and unexpected kindness instead of grumbling over their reward. Workers in God's service should not grumble over their reward, but have the grumbling heart changed so they can recognize generosity toward those who came later and trust rather than bargain for a fixed reward.
Those who serve for stipulated wages and exalt self through entitlement, complaint, and fault-finding may be placed last, because they exalt self rather than hide it with Christ and God esteems this spirit as last. God rewards according to the spirit in which the work is done, not as grounds to demand greater recognition for longer service. The first called are those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate, and at the close of the day they find themselves last and are made last. Men and women fix their own destiny as candidates either for heaven or for hell, while God sends forth His angels with every true, self-sacrificing, faithful worker, and those who deny self and take up the cross daily and follow Christ enter into the design of the divine Planner and are instructed and guided.
The parable does not excuse people who hear the truth and refuse to obey it, nor does it vindicate those who reject the first call, since the workers hired later had not been present in the morning to refuse that call. The first laborers stand for people who serve self-righteously, value reward above the privilege of serving Christ, and resent others receiving equal privileges.
Late Workers Share Reward
Those who accept the truth and begin working for Christ at the last hour receive the same reward as those who have worked throughout the day. Earnest eleventh-hour workers are accepted, and the Lord works through them, paying them as much as those who began work earlier. The one-hour laborers represent latecomers who faithfully devote their abilities and means to advancing God's work, and their reward rests on faithfulness and principle, not on how long they have labored.
The equal reward of the eleventh-hour laborers who receive the same as those who worked many hours illustrates that a person who turns to Christ in faith at life's end can receive salvation. The dying thief entrusted himself wholly to Jesus in contrition and dependence on mercy. Even those who come at the eleventh hour can receive the master's generosity, for the eleventh hour is late but it is not too late for sins to be forgiven and wrongs to be made right.
Faithful workers who enter God's service when the work has become harder will receive their penny as the agreed wage given to those hired late in the day. Latecomers who faithfully present the truth may through Christ's grace be accounted first and receive the same reward as the earlier workers.
Many souls yet to come out of the ranks of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, when the crisis over religious liberty comes, will receive their penny. The penny is the full reward and place given to these late workers alongside earlier workers. Their zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore, as they see the battle coming and give the trumpet a certain sound. They will come to the front in the season of calamity, gird themselves with the whole armor of God, exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty.
Christ represents Himself as calling workers into His vineyard at every hour of the day, and that call to labor is especially forceful near the close of earth's history. People brought into God's work late may still receive the reward, while those who reject their opportunities and leave their place may be replaced by others.
Vineyard Calls All to Work
The vineyard is the Lord's work of saving fellow men, and every Christian man and woman in every sense of the word, every accountable person and every church member, is called to be a worker in it, with work for everyone, no idlers, and no one to remain idle. Each person should willingly perform the position and duties assigned by God however demanding they may seem, serving wherever needed according to ability rather than seeking the most enjoyable or profitable position. The responsibility to serve as God's agent in sharing heaven's light belongs not to ministers alone.
Labor in the vineyard means devoted, self-sacrificing, unreserved giving of self to present the truth to those in darkness, availing every opportunity where there is an opening to press in the truth. It is to be done wide awake and zealously while honest souls troubled by the signs of the times in the unsettled state of the nations ask what will be the end of all these things, working in unison with heavenly messengers moving on hearts and consciences in other nations. Its toilers are to be prayerful, faithful, self-denying and self-controlled, with lives showing the truth's power so their work has effect, following the Saviour's example of self-denial, sacrifice, and faithful earnest labor rather than measuring every hour with exactness or putting the highest estimate on one's own services. Laboring there is sowing the seed of truth with wide-awake zeal, prayerful anxiety and unceasing activity, without consulting inclination or personal ease, in willing sacrifice and faithful earnest labor for souls. Men of promise and ability when converted must be shown the necessity of this work and be faithfully instructed and carefully trained to labor unselfishly, earnestly and perseveringly for salvation, so that faith increases rather than fails when teachers leave for another place.
Men standing idle in the marketplace are to be given a part of God's vineyard to work, and ministers of Christ must apportion the vineyard to them, correct their blunders, and set them at work again. Workers learn how to employ their talents only by using their ability where they are, so hindering them from going forth does harm, and they should not wait for a regular process before beginning where they are but take up self-sacrificing service and learn by experience what it means to work together with God. Receiving the penny is linked to doing the work faithfully rather than loitering in the marketplace, for the penny was given to the vineyard laborer, not to one who merely loitered. Turning abilities to labor in His vineyard would do much good, while using them for selfish gain can do great harm, and God's children are to serve diligently and use abilities efficiently in the assigned work.
The vineyard is home missionary work in large cities, in cities and towns, along the highways and hedges, calling and bidding people to come to the marriage supper because all things are now ready. Those who improve their talents where they are will be taught by God and blessed with teachers sent by God, and there will be missionaries who do good work in the vineyard without going to Battle Creek. God calls servants to labor earnestly and persistently for souls, including opening new fields and establishing new groups of Sabbathkeepers rather than concentrating on churches that already have many advantages or concentrating resources in one place. That summons is applied to entering the cities to win souls, to taking hold of the neglected work among the colored people, and to the home as sacred work where older family members patiently teach and help younger children with God-given abilities, extending also to training workers for foreigners and youth.
Christ welcomes people into His work, seeing qualifications and promise in those who may discourage others and, as they remain learners, preparing them through His providence and giving them power through the Holy Spirit to do work suited to their abilities. God accepts and uses those who study the Scriptures and become intelligent in spiritual knowledge and the things of the kingdom, cultivating abilities and laboring earnestly and perseveringly in warning sinners, winning souls to Christ, and pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward. Such laborers turn their minds into a heavenly, divine channel, walk in the light, and go from one degree of light and strength to another until the warfare is ended, when faithful servants are welcomed to the joy of their Lord. Earnest eleventh-hour entrants are accepted and the Lord works through them, and workers should not be left without sympathy or opportunities to grow, for the Master knows and watches over those laboring in His vineyard and their work will be seen as it truly is when they give account.
Each believer has an assigned task in the Lord's cause and in one vineyard, and is obligated to use all abilities in His service and to persevere in it. Service is to be wherever needed according to ability, without selfish rivalry or feelings of superiority among servants laboring in different places in one field. Workers are accountable for using what the master entrusts, with greater means, opportunities and abilities bringing greater responsibility, and even one talent must be put to work with no one remaining idle waiting for greater capacity. The Lord expects interest according to capital given and does not require what they lack but accepts faithful effort according to what they have, with vessels large and small each responsible and a coming reckoning showing how accounts stand. The Lord has workers throughout His vineyard whom He directs in service, each with a part to act, and they can work in harmony without being bound to a single human center of control.
Service for God is labor in His vineyard under a sacred agreement between man and his fellow man that must be kept fair and true. The laborer has a right to the wage he agreed to and to a voice in any lowering of it, as much as workers in ordinary trade, and pay is not to be cut down without consent and without understanding his situation. To cut wages coolly and indifferently turns the back to God and reveals selfish character before heaven and men, bringing families into strait places and want, giving occasion to tempt and discourage workers, and driving them from the field. God's cause can afford to deal on right principles of justice and righteousness, so when lack of means presses the true situation is to be openly set forth and those employed asked if they can live on less, treating workers together with God as living persons with a voice and not as inanimate objects to be handled about. An agreed payment is not to be treated as a wrong even when others receive different wages, and high wages demanded for self can undermine Christ's self-denying example and make workers receiving less feel wronged, calling those in the Lord's vineyard to self-denial in supporting missionary work.
The vineyard setting otherwise connects the reply about the agreed wage with service in God's work, including laborers who give Bible readings and hold meetings to awaken interest but cannot support themselves and need help with living expenses, and young people urged to do their Lord's work with promise of faithful reward. God's workmen are not to have their labor prescribed by a human rule that disregards their own convictions of duty. Workers beginning new work need help from experienced workers and should not regard their part as independent.