Landowner Speaks with Men in the MarketBible World
20:3Matthew 20:3
And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
About the third hour the owner of the vineyard went out to the hiring place where work-seekers waited, found others standing without work, and sent them into his vineyard with the promise to give what was right. They were idle because no one had yet hired them, not because they had refused an earlier call, and his return at later hours to the eleventh shows that workers are called at different times and do not all begin together. Those hired late receive the same penny as those hired first, for the reward is a gift of grace from his generosity, not a debt earned by length of labor, amount accomplished, hardship, or capacity. Its measure is the spirit brought to the work — faith, love, humble gratitude and trust that leaves payment to the owner — while bargaining for a set wage and grumbling at equal favor exposes a self-seeking hireling spirit that claims superiority over others. Therefore no one is to remain idle, but every one, young and old, is to labor earnestly for souls even now at this late hour, trusting that faithful work will be rewarded in due time.
Marketplace Scene and Hiring
About the third hour the householder went out and found other workers standing idle in the marketplace, and he called them to work in his vineyard with the promise to give them what was right. They accepted and went, and those hired at this later hour belong among the workers called to serve in the vineyard, illustrating that Christ accepts people who come even late with humble, trusting service rather than bargaining for wages. The marketplace was the hiring place where those seeking work waited and employers came to find them, and the householder's repeated returns there to find more workers waiting without employment represent God's dealings with people and with the human family. His dealings show that God's ways and standards are higher than human ones, and that Christ worked according to the principles of God's kingdom rather than human standards.
Those found idle at the third hour were unemployed because no one had hired them, not because they had refused an earlier call. They had not been at the marketplace in the morning, and when asked why they stood idle their answer was that no one had hired them. This distinguishes those who had not yet received the call from those who heard it and refused, while the invitation to work continues throughout the day.
The hirings at successive hours through the day to the eleventh hour show workers called at different times and not only at the start, so not every worker follows the same path or begins at the same time. The third-hour workers show that people may be called to labor at different times, including laborers brought in at the eleventh hour who respond faithfully whatever the length of their service. Faithful late-hour laborers who enter when the work has become harder take the places and crowns of those who leave the work or who, having had abundant light, reject Christ and duty, and they receive the promised reward and the same wages as those who worked the whole day.
The verse belongs to the parable of the laborers in Matthew 20:1-16, which stands with Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30 about the rich young ruler and the reward of those who serve God. The vineyard represents the world and the Lord's field of service, with the vineyard parables showing the world as a place of work for God and the call to become workers in the Lord's vineyard applied to humble service for Him.
Grace and Equal Reward
Those called at the third hour and afterward share the same penny as those who labored from the first, for God may make the last first with full reward and standing in truth. The householder's finding of more laborers standing idle and calling them into the vineyard belongs to this same reckoning, in which no laborer has ground to claim superiority over another or to begrudge another's portion. The first workers stand for those who rely on long years of service and expect greater pay for having done more, yet service belongs to God and eternal life is His gift rather than a wage to be claimed selfishly according to work done. Purity of motive and earnest desire to glorify God can therefore bring the same reward to one who accomplishes less as to one who accomplishes more.
The recompense rests on generous purpose rather than debt, not on length of time, amount of labor, visible results, hardship, advantages, learning, or capacity. The marketplace where seekers waited and employers came to hire sets forth God's dealings with people, and the later workers' trust in the promise shows the reward is measured by His generosity rather than by labor performed. Long service with hardship earns no greater payment, and to treat service as a claim to salvation or a fixed payment breeds complaint instead of trust. Every believer has a place and differing talents are used, with honor given according to faithfulness rather than privilege or ability, and without pride or demand for esteem.
What gives service its value is the spirit of faith, love, humble gratitude, and thankful trust brought to the work, not how long one labors. The promise to give what is right did not lessen the grace of equal reward for a later start, for the last workers trusted the householder and were placed first because they worked in faith. Penitent sinners who come in humble faith even at a late hour and obey His commandments are accepted, since a short service does not earn a full reward but God graciously rewards the grateful one who prizes the privilege of working with Christ. The householder's generosity thus teaches that the last may be rewarded as the first, with many called but few chosen.
Those hired first agreed beforehand on their pay, while those hired later left payment to the owner, trusting him to do what is just. That trust rather than bargaining is the ground of service to Christ, for humble, trusting labor matters more than stipulating wages. God deals by the principles of His kingdom rather than human standards, valuing the spirit brought to the work above mere amount or visible outcome. Yet the penny is given to the laborer and not to the loiterer, so the reward is for faithful work and cooperation with God rather than idleness.
Murmuring at such generosity wins no sympathy, for grumbling comes from a heart that needs to be changed and purified of faultfinding. Those who trust the Master recognize His generosity instead of complaining.
Hireling Spirit Exposed
The first-hired workers display the hireling spirit by bargaining for an agreed, stipulated wage before they begin, treating their own work as worth more than the work of those hired later, relying on long years of service, and expecting a greater stated reward from God for a stated amount of service. Those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate are represented by these first-called workers. Their grumbling when the later workers receive the same wage exposes that spirit, for self-congratulation, jealousy, and resentment toward others' equal privileges reveal a self-seeking and untrusting heart, and their selfishness keeps them from recognizing the householder's generosity. Service to God gives no one title to claim honor, preference, or superiority over others.
True workers do not labor for wages, praise, or self-exaltation, in dependence on God and cooperation with Him. They do not set the highest estimate on their own services, swell with pride and self-importance, measure every hour's work with exactness, study how little they may do to reach the lowest standard, set a high price on their own labor, or desire and demand higher and still higher wages, since demanding high wages misrepresents the self-denying example of Jesus Christ their Pattern. Instead they labor whole-heartedly to the utmost of ability, compare their efforts with the Saviour's work, account themselves unprofitable servants, and arouse to grasp the fullness of Christ that they may do much for Him. Those who insist on the wages they stipulate and exalt their own estimate of themselves are counted last at the end of the day, despite their estimate of themselves.
Standing idle in the marketplace pictures spiritual idleness, which means spiritual unfaithfulness. The penalty of slothfulness is sure, so that if every idler understood it he would be up and doing with his Lord's entrusted talents instead of remaining slothful. Even actions that are worthy receive no credit when all the work bears the mark of unfaithfulness.
Late-Hour Prophetic Calling
The successive hirings in the parable mean God calling new workers late in time, and the penny means full reward and standing in truth. In the final crisis over the law of God and religious liberty many souls will come out of the ranks of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, to receive that penny. Their zeal will far exceed that of those who have long stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth, including Sabbathkeeping Adventists. They will see the battle coming and give the trumpet a certain sound, coming to the front when calamity comes and girding themselves with the whole armor of God. They will exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty.
Those standing idle in the marketplace picture those who have long remained inactive in God's service, and in the closing work of the third angel's message they will heed God's commission and enter active service as workers for the Master. The marketplace scene represents His call to His people at every time, and the call to work is especially urgent near the close of earth's history. There must be no idlers in the Master's vineyard now, because the period of probation is fast closing and the opportunity to give the last message of mercy to the lost will soon be past forever, so the help of everyone that loves Jesus is needed in the Lord's work.
The parable portrays workers being called at different times, and its late-hour workers and their penny apply to faithful laborers who enter the work when it has become harder. They take the places of those who leave and receive their reward. When people who have had abundant light reject Christ and their duty, others take their place and receive their crown, while those who respond faithfully, whatever the length of their service, receive the promised reward.
The others standing idle in the marketplace are those in the world who are longing for truth. Being called to work means their conversion into helpers in the Lord's great vineyard who serve God's cause intelligently. They show by their faith and works that the labor put forth for them was not in vain.
Universal Duty to Labor
Christ wants no idlers in His vineyard but requires everyone to work for time and eternity. Every man and woman who is a Christian in every sense of the word must be a worker, wide awake and zealously laboring for the salvation of fellow men in unison with heavenly messengers while God and angels are moving on hearts, following the Saviour's example of self-denial, sacrifice, and faithful, earnest labor instead of sleeping. Every individual member of the church, young and old, has a responsibility to have some part to act in the Master's vineyard, not ministers alone, as God's agents in communicating heaven's light to the world. This call rests on the fact that at infinite cost to the Father and the Son salvation has been brought within reach of all, that none should perish but all might have eternal life, and that the church has been richly endowed with the knowledge and belief of the truth, so obeying the truth means being doers of the words of Christ. Those who fail to take up useful work let talents and experience go unused and become idle in the Master's vineyard instead of bearing responsibility and helping others, focusing selfishly on their own interests rather than taking up duties, serving others, and helping sustain the work entrusted to them. The Lord needs workers who use their time to serve others rather than spend it in idleness, fruitlessness, burying of talents, or foolish pursuits, and persevering daily effort increases their usefulness and fruitfulness.
The vineyard is God's worldwide work of bringing people out of darkness and error, establishing them in truth, and saving souls through willing, devoted, unselfish service. That labor is to be done earnestly for the salvation of others, without excusing oneself from unpleasant work when souls need help, but ministering to the sick and discouraged and laboring to save them. The owner's summons to work calls God's servants to labor in the cities with Him to win souls, entering them with courage, zeal, and sustained effort. Workers are needed to labor earnestly and persistently, especially by opening new fields and working personally for people, rather than concentrating on churches that already have many advantages and only laboring among those who already understand. The field includes foreign lands, neglected and destitute fields, homes and neighborhoods, and new places where believers are to be raised up.
The call embraces making the light of God's message widely available to every soul by circulating publications to spread it, with canvassing as gospel ministry expressing faith. It embraces the ministry of the Word in its various lines, including entering the ministry to explain the Scriptures and lecture on prophecy. It embraces medical missionary and sanitarium work, training youth and children including home instruction, and advancing God's cause with entrusted means to glorify God rather than for selfish gain and for self and property. The vineyard work is using powers of mind for God, studying the Scriptures, warning sinners, winning souls to Christ, and pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward while walking in the light from one degree of light and strength to another. Few do this work when there should be many, because young men are wise in worldly and temporal things but not intelligent in spiritual knowledge and the things of the kingdom of God, yet God accepts those with really good abilities, and those just entering need schooling in at least the common branches and more perfectly in the truths of God's word for this time, with lectures on the prophecies, to discipline the mind, develop its powers, and cultivate entrusted talents for useful service. Those who labor faithfully will when the warfare is ended be welcomed into the joy of their Lord. The work is presenting the truth to those in darkness for salvation, availing every opportunity where there is an opening to press in the truth in unison with heavenly messengers moving on hearts and consciences while honest souls are troubled by the signs of the times, requiring devoted, self-sacrificing men giving themselves unreservedly in imitation of the Saviour's life.
There is work for every accountable person in the Lord's vineyard, with opportunities to serve the Master wherever suffering people need help. There is work for everyone in His service, to be done wherever needed and to the utmost of ability, without seeking personal enjoyment or gain, for service for Christ requires personal sacrifice. Its true toilers are people of prayer, faith, and self-denial, whose lives show the power of the truth they share, and whose labor is effective.
Those who have received the truth are to work with Christ, and their reward will come in due time. They can prepare for and join mission work even at this late hour of the day.
The parable is used to appeal for renewed consecration and greater courage and activity in Christian service, and to encourage an increase of willing workers in the Master's vineyard. Its invitation to serve reaches people waiting idle and carries an invitation of mercy to be spread throughout the world, so that those who respond may help others reach the haven of rest and share the reward of eternal life. The church is urged to answer that call by sending laborers into the field and supporting their work of saving souls.
Training Sending and Supporting
Ministers are to give those standing idle a portion of the vineyard and put them to work at once rather than leaving them waiting for employment. They are to be sent out as missionaries where they are needed, into cities and towns, highways and hedges, and the dark places of the earth to invite others to the marriage supper. When they blunder they are to be corrected and set to work again, for talents are learned by using them in service and abilities grow by exercise in work.
They are not to be detained idle for more schooling, for keeping them back wastes time and money, leaves work undone, and loses souls. Schools and instruction are to be practical training schools that fit men and women for usefulness in the world, in the church, and in the vineyard, bringing practical godliness into daily experience and impressing upon them the greatness of the missionary work in foreign lands. Those fitted to serve are then to be sent promptly to labor, and heavenly intelligences cooperate with them as they go.
Christ sees promise and needed abilities in people who seem discouraging and unpromising, including ordinary workers from fields, vineyards, and workshops. As they give themselves to the work, keep learning, and respond to His leading, He fits them for service within their abilities. Even with little education He gives them power through the Holy Spirit to speak and to labor effectively.
The Master knows and watches His workers wherever they labor, and laborers are to be sent into the field and supported with sympathy and opportunities to grow. The work is one large field needing many laborers scattered throughout its different parts rather than centered in one place, without sectional rivalry and without over-centralizing at one point. Servants of God are constantly to enlarge the circle of their efforts until the work widens to encircle the world, visiting place after place, raising up church after church, and then passing on to other equally important fields instead of spending their time only upon those who have already accepted the truth. As soon as converts take their stand they are to be organized, set to work, and taught how to work, with more time given to educating them for service than to preaching to them, so they at once impart what they have received and carry truth to regions beyond. Faithful workers are to be sustained by sympathy, opportunity, and fair dealing.
Wages and arrangements with those employed in God's cause are a sacred transaction between fellow workers to be conducted on right and true principles, with the true situation set forth openly and with their voice and consent. Their wages must not be cut down without their consent and without understanding their situation, for they have as much right to a voice in such transactions as those employed in trade. Cutting wages from selfish counsel treats workers as inanimate objects, brings families into strait places with oppression and want, tempts and discourages workers and drives them from the field, and does not glorify God. Service in the Lord's field, where each worker is given a place to labor, should not require the sacrifice of life and health.
No one is to wait for a formal or regular process before making any effort, but each is to take up the work right where they are. Men, women, and youth are called according to capacity, and no one should remain idle while waiting for greater ability or a greater task but faithfully do what can be done now. Many should step out of regular lines into self-sacrificing irregular lines, becoming laborers together with God by whom souls are won and by which workers learn through experience. The present probationary opportunity is to be used to develop Christlike character and to bring the light of truth to those in darkness, living out faith and not only talking about it. In this labor workers are to examine the heart so as not to exalt self or judge the work of others.
The church is to become active in caring for and training the young to enter God's work. New converts are to be trained to labor earnestly and unselfishly for the salvation of others rather than left fruitless. Beginners are to receive help from experienced workers rather than being left independent, and more laborers are to be found and called from idleness into the Lord's vineyard. Each is to fill the position assigned and faithfully perform every duty, with the message proclaimed to those who have not heard.
Further points
True laborers in the vineyard are marked by earnest prayers offered in faith for fellow workers who are not yet fully in the truth. They feel deeply the worth of souls for whom Christ died and handle sacred things with a living sense of the sacredness of the work. This means not treating God's work as common labor and not grieving angels with trifling frivolities. It also means refusing to remain fruitless cumberers of the ground, but consecrating self to God and centering all affections and hopes in Him.
About the third hour the owner of the vineyard went out to the hiring place where work-seekers waited, found others standing without work, and sent them into his vineyard with the promise to give what was right. They were idle because no one had yet hired them, not because they had refused an earlier call, and his return at later hours to the eleventh shows that workers are called at different times and do not all begin together. Those hired late receive the same penny as those hired first, for the reward is a gift of grace from his generosity, not a debt earned by length of labor, amount accomplished, hardship, or capacity. Its measure is the spirit brought to the work — faith, love, humble gratitude and trust that leaves payment to the owner — while bargaining for a set wage and grumbling at equal favor exposes a self-seeking hireling spirit that claims superiority over others. Therefore no one is to remain idle, but every one, young and old, is to labor earnestly for souls even now at this late hour, trusting that faithful work will be rewarded in due time.
Marketplace Scene and Hiring
About the third hour the householder went out and found other workers standing idle in the marketplace, and he called them to work in his vineyard with the promise to give them what was right. They accepted and went, and those hired at this later hour belong among the workers called to serve in the vineyard, illustrating that Christ accepts people who come even late with humble, trusting service rather than bargaining for wages. The marketplace was the hiring place where those seeking work waited and employers came to find them, and the householder's repeated returns there to find more workers waiting without employment represent God's dealings with people and with the human family. His dealings show that God's ways and standards are higher than human ones, and that Christ worked according to the principles of God's kingdom rather than human standards.
Those found idle at the third hour were unemployed because no one had hired them, not because they had refused an earlier call. They had not been at the marketplace in the morning, and when asked why they stood idle their answer was that no one had hired them. This distinguishes those who had not yet received the call from those who heard it and refused, while the invitation to work continues throughout the day.
The hirings at successive hours through the day to the eleventh hour show workers called at different times and not only at the start, so not every worker follows the same path or begins at the same time. The third-hour workers show that people may be called to labor at different times, including laborers brought in at the eleventh hour who respond faithfully whatever the length of their service. Faithful late-hour laborers who enter when the work has become harder take the places and crowns of those who leave the work or who, having had abundant light, reject Christ and duty, and they receive the promised reward and the same wages as those who worked the whole day.
The verse belongs to the parable of the laborers in Matthew 20:1-16, which stands with Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30 about the rich young ruler and the reward of those who serve God. The vineyard represents the world and the Lord's field of service, with the vineyard parables showing the world as a place of work for God and the call to become workers in the Lord's vineyard applied to humble service for Him.
Grace and Equal Reward
Those called at the third hour and afterward share the same penny as those who labored from the first, for God may make the last first with full reward and standing in truth. The householder's finding of more laborers standing idle and calling them into the vineyard belongs to this same reckoning, in which no laborer has ground to claim superiority over another or to begrudge another's portion. The first workers stand for those who rely on long years of service and expect greater pay for having done more, yet service belongs to God and eternal life is His gift rather than a wage to be claimed selfishly according to work done. Purity of motive and earnest desire to glorify God can therefore bring the same reward to one who accomplishes less as to one who accomplishes more.
The recompense rests on generous purpose rather than debt, not on length of time, amount of labor, visible results, hardship, advantages, learning, or capacity. The marketplace where seekers waited and employers came to hire sets forth God's dealings with people, and the later workers' trust in the promise shows the reward is measured by His generosity rather than by labor performed. Long service with hardship earns no greater payment, and to treat service as a claim to salvation or a fixed payment breeds complaint instead of trust. Every believer has a place and differing talents are used, with honor given according to faithfulness rather than privilege or ability, and without pride or demand for esteem.
What gives service its value is the spirit of faith, love, humble gratitude, and thankful trust brought to the work, not how long one labors. The promise to give what is right did not lessen the grace of equal reward for a later start, for the last workers trusted the householder and were placed first because they worked in faith. Penitent sinners who come in humble faith even at a late hour and obey His commandments are accepted, since a short service does not earn a full reward but God graciously rewards the grateful one who prizes the privilege of working with Christ. The householder's generosity thus teaches that the last may be rewarded as the first, with many called but few chosen.
Those hired first agreed beforehand on their pay, while those hired later left payment to the owner, trusting him to do what is just. That trust rather than bargaining is the ground of service to Christ, for humble, trusting labor matters more than stipulating wages. God deals by the principles of His kingdom rather than human standards, valuing the spirit brought to the work above mere amount or visible outcome. Yet the penny is given to the laborer and not to the loiterer, so the reward is for faithful work and cooperation with God rather than idleness.
Murmuring at such generosity wins no sympathy, for grumbling comes from a heart that needs to be changed and purified of faultfinding. Those who trust the Master recognize His generosity instead of complaining.
Hireling Spirit Exposed
The first-hired workers display the hireling spirit by bargaining for an agreed, stipulated wage before they begin, treating their own work as worth more than the work of those hired later, relying on long years of service, and expecting a greater stated reward from God for a stated amount of service. Those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate are represented by these first-called workers. Their grumbling when the later workers receive the same wage exposes that spirit, for self-congratulation, jealousy, and resentment toward others' equal privileges reveal a self-seeking and untrusting heart, and their selfishness keeps them from recognizing the householder's generosity. Service to God gives no one title to claim honor, preference, or superiority over others.
True workers do not labor for wages, praise, or self-exaltation, in dependence on God and cooperation with Him. They do not set the highest estimate on their own services, swell with pride and self-importance, measure every hour's work with exactness, study how little they may do to reach the lowest standard, set a high price on their own labor, or desire and demand higher and still higher wages, since demanding high wages misrepresents the self-denying example of Jesus Christ their Pattern. Instead they labor whole-heartedly to the utmost of ability, compare their efforts with the Saviour's work, account themselves unprofitable servants, and arouse to grasp the fullness of Christ that they may do much for Him. Those who insist on the wages they stipulate and exalt their own estimate of themselves are counted last at the end of the day, despite their estimate of themselves.
Standing idle in the marketplace pictures spiritual idleness, which means spiritual unfaithfulness. The penalty of slothfulness is sure, so that if every idler understood it he would be up and doing with his Lord's entrusted talents instead of remaining slothful. Even actions that are worthy receive no credit when all the work bears the mark of unfaithfulness.
Late-Hour Prophetic Calling
The successive hirings in the parable mean God calling new workers late in time, and the penny means full reward and standing in truth. In the final crisis over the law of God and religious liberty many souls will come out of the ranks of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, to receive that penny. Their zeal will far exceed that of those who have long stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth, including Sabbathkeeping Adventists. They will see the battle coming and give the trumpet a certain sound, coming to the front when calamity comes and girding themselves with the whole armor of God. They will exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty.
Those standing idle in the marketplace picture those who have long remained inactive in God's service, and in the closing work of the third angel's message they will heed God's commission and enter active service as workers for the Master. The marketplace scene represents His call to His people at every time, and the call to work is especially urgent near the close of earth's history. There must be no idlers in the Master's vineyard now, because the period of probation is fast closing and the opportunity to give the last message of mercy to the lost will soon be past forever, so the help of everyone that loves Jesus is needed in the Lord's work.
The parable portrays workers being called at different times, and its late-hour workers and their penny apply to faithful laborers who enter the work when it has become harder. They take the places of those who leave and receive their reward. When people who have had abundant light reject Christ and their duty, others take their place and receive their crown, while those who respond faithfully, whatever the length of their service, receive the promised reward.
The others standing idle in the marketplace are those in the world who are longing for truth. Being called to work means their conversion into helpers in the Lord's great vineyard who serve God's cause intelligently. They show by their faith and works that the labor put forth for them was not in vain.
Universal Duty to Labor
Christ wants no idlers in His vineyard but requires everyone to work for time and eternity. Every man and woman who is a Christian in every sense of the word must be a worker, wide awake and zealously laboring for the salvation of fellow men in unison with heavenly messengers while God and angels are moving on hearts, following the Saviour's example of self-denial, sacrifice, and faithful, earnest labor instead of sleeping. Every individual member of the church, young and old, has a responsibility to have some part to act in the Master's vineyard, not ministers alone, as God's agents in communicating heaven's light to the world. This call rests on the fact that at infinite cost to the Father and the Son salvation has been brought within reach of all, that none should perish but all might have eternal life, and that the church has been richly endowed with the knowledge and belief of the truth, so obeying the truth means being doers of the words of Christ. Those who fail to take up useful work let talents and experience go unused and become idle in the Master's vineyard instead of bearing responsibility and helping others, focusing selfishly on their own interests rather than taking up duties, serving others, and helping sustain the work entrusted to them. The Lord needs workers who use their time to serve others rather than spend it in idleness, fruitlessness, burying of talents, or foolish pursuits, and persevering daily effort increases their usefulness and fruitfulness.
The vineyard is God's worldwide work of bringing people out of darkness and error, establishing them in truth, and saving souls through willing, devoted, unselfish service. That labor is to be done earnestly for the salvation of others, without excusing oneself from unpleasant work when souls need help, but ministering to the sick and discouraged and laboring to save them. The owner's summons to work calls God's servants to labor in the cities with Him to win souls, entering them with courage, zeal, and sustained effort. Workers are needed to labor earnestly and persistently, especially by opening new fields and working personally for people, rather than concentrating on churches that already have many advantages and only laboring among those who already understand. The field includes foreign lands, neglected and destitute fields, homes and neighborhoods, and new places where believers are to be raised up.
The call embraces making the light of God's message widely available to every soul by circulating publications to spread it, with canvassing as gospel ministry expressing faith. It embraces the ministry of the Word in its various lines, including entering the ministry to explain the Scriptures and lecture on prophecy. It embraces medical missionary and sanitarium work, training youth and children including home instruction, and advancing God's cause with entrusted means to glorify God rather than for selfish gain and for self and property. The vineyard work is using powers of mind for God, studying the Scriptures, warning sinners, winning souls to Christ, and pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward while walking in the light from one degree of light and strength to another. Few do this work when there should be many, because young men are wise in worldly and temporal things but not intelligent in spiritual knowledge and the things of the kingdom of God, yet God accepts those with really good abilities, and those just entering need schooling in at least the common branches and more perfectly in the truths of God's word for this time, with lectures on the prophecies, to discipline the mind, develop its powers, and cultivate entrusted talents for useful service. Those who labor faithfully will when the warfare is ended be welcomed into the joy of their Lord. The work is presenting the truth to those in darkness for salvation, availing every opportunity where there is an opening to press in the truth in unison with heavenly messengers moving on hearts and consciences while honest souls are troubled by the signs of the times, requiring devoted, self-sacrificing men giving themselves unreservedly in imitation of the Saviour's life.
There is work for every accountable person in the Lord's vineyard, with opportunities to serve the Master wherever suffering people need help. There is work for everyone in His service, to be done wherever needed and to the utmost of ability, without seeking personal enjoyment or gain, for service for Christ requires personal sacrifice. Its true toilers are people of prayer, faith, and self-denial, whose lives show the power of the truth they share, and whose labor is effective.
Those who have received the truth are to work with Christ, and their reward will come in due time. They can prepare for and join mission work even at this late hour of the day.
The parable is used to appeal for renewed consecration and greater courage and activity in Christian service, and to encourage an increase of willing workers in the Master's vineyard. Its invitation to serve reaches people waiting idle and carries an invitation of mercy to be spread throughout the world, so that those who respond may help others reach the haven of rest and share the reward of eternal life. The church is urged to answer that call by sending laborers into the field and supporting their work of saving souls.
Training Sending and Supporting
Ministers are to give those standing idle a portion of the vineyard and put them to work at once rather than leaving them waiting for employment. They are to be sent out as missionaries where they are needed, into cities and towns, highways and hedges, and the dark places of the earth to invite others to the marriage supper. When they blunder they are to be corrected and set to work again, for talents are learned by using them in service and abilities grow by exercise in work.
They are not to be detained idle for more schooling, for keeping them back wastes time and money, leaves work undone, and loses souls. Schools and instruction are to be practical training schools that fit men and women for usefulness in the world, in the church, and in the vineyard, bringing practical godliness into daily experience and impressing upon them the greatness of the missionary work in foreign lands. Those fitted to serve are then to be sent promptly to labor, and heavenly intelligences cooperate with them as they go.
Christ sees promise and needed abilities in people who seem discouraging and unpromising, including ordinary workers from fields, vineyards, and workshops. As they give themselves to the work, keep learning, and respond to His leading, He fits them for service within their abilities. Even with little education He gives them power through the Holy Spirit to speak and to labor effectively.
The Master knows and watches His workers wherever they labor, and laborers are to be sent into the field and supported with sympathy and opportunities to grow. The work is one large field needing many laborers scattered throughout its different parts rather than centered in one place, without sectional rivalry and without over-centralizing at one point. Servants of God are constantly to enlarge the circle of their efforts until the work widens to encircle the world, visiting place after place, raising up church after church, and then passing on to other equally important fields instead of spending their time only upon those who have already accepted the truth. As soon as converts take their stand they are to be organized, set to work, and taught how to work, with more time given to educating them for service than to preaching to them, so they at once impart what they have received and carry truth to regions beyond. Faithful workers are to be sustained by sympathy, opportunity, and fair dealing.
Wages and arrangements with those employed in God's cause are a sacred transaction between fellow workers to be conducted on right and true principles, with the true situation set forth openly and with their voice and consent. Their wages must not be cut down without their consent and without understanding their situation, for they have as much right to a voice in such transactions as those employed in trade. Cutting wages from selfish counsel treats workers as inanimate objects, brings families into strait places with oppression and want, tempts and discourages workers and drives them from the field, and does not glorify God. Service in the Lord's field, where each worker is given a place to labor, should not require the sacrifice of life and health.
No one is to wait for a formal or regular process before making any effort, but each is to take up the work right where they are. Men, women, and youth are called according to capacity, and no one should remain idle while waiting for greater ability or a greater task but faithfully do what can be done now. Many should step out of regular lines into self-sacrificing irregular lines, becoming laborers together with God by whom souls are won and by which workers learn through experience. The present probationary opportunity is to be used to develop Christlike character and to bring the light of truth to those in darkness, living out faith and not only talking about it. In this labor workers are to examine the heart so as not to exalt self or judge the work of others.
The church is to become active in caring for and training the young to enter God's work. New converts are to be trained to labor earnestly and unselfishly for the salvation of others rather than left fruitless. Beginners are to receive help from experienced workers rather than being left independent, and more laborers are to be found and called from idleness into the Lord's vineyard. Each is to fill the position assigned and faithfully perform every duty, with the message proclaimed to those who have not heard.
Further points
True laborers in the vineyard are marked by earnest prayers offered in faith for fellow workers who are not yet fully in the truth. They feel deeply the worth of souls for whom Christ died and handle sacred things with a living sense of the sacredness of the work. This means not treating God's work as common labor and not grieving angels with trifling frivolities. It also means refusing to remain fruitless cumberers of the ground, but consecrating self to God and centering all affections and hopes in Him.