And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.
The householder finds workers idle in the marketplace about the third hour because no one has hired them and sends them into the vineyard with no fixed sum named, only the promise to give whatever is fair and right, and they go to work in trust. The vineyard is the world and God's work, cause and kingdom everywhere calling for laborers, and the householder is God and Christ as employer who watches over His servants. Those hired later ask no questions and make no bargain over wages but leave payment to his goodness and justice, while to stipulate terms and serve for expected honor reveals distrust and the hireling spirit. The reward is not earned as debt or measured by length of labor, amount done, or visible results, but is given by grace according to faith, love, humility and faithfulness, so that first and last may share the same eternal gift. No one is to remain idle, for the call is to every man, woman, youth and child to take up some part, and even those who enter at the eleventh hour near the close of earth's history and the closing work of the third angel's message may answer faithfully and receive the penny.
Parable Context and Wording
Matthew 20:4 belongs to the parable of the workers hired for the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16, which is joined to the account of the rich young man and the reward of following Christ in Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30, and it pictures a lone laborer with a long-handled hoe working the soil in a fenced rural field among trees and crops. About the third hour the householder finds additional workers idle in the marketplace, idle because no one had hired them, invites them to go also into the vineyard with the promise to give whatever is right, and they accept and go to work. They trust his offer and leave payment to him in confidence, and their pay is later shown to be the same penny given to the workers hired earlier and later, though those who had worked longer object. The vineyard workers represent the Master's servants, whose call could come at different times, even near the end of the working day.
The Lord's invitation to work continues from early morning until the last hour of the day. Those hired later had not been present in the morning and had not refused an earlier call, since they had been unemployed and unhired. Therefore the verse does not excuse those who hear the truth, agree with it, and then refuse to obey, or who turn down the first call to suit their own wishes. It warns against delaying response to the first call of mercy, in contrast to the later workers' acceptance of the call. God rewards service according to the spirit in which it is done, not according to a claim to large wages or recognition.
The householder's treatment of the workers represents God's dealings with the human family and with people, while the steward represents Christ. The vineyard owner invites workers to labor while leaving their payment to his judgment, and Christ's teaching here follows the laws of God's kingdom, not human standards or opinions, because God's thoughts and ways are higher. The equal payment to workers hired later shows the householder's liberality, which selfishness kept the first workers from recognizing. The verse contrasts workers who trust the employer to give what is right with a hireling spirit that makes fixed terms with God, claiming a set reward for a set amount of work, and those who measure their service against the wages they expect and regard their work as worth more than later workers' are last in God's estimation.
The promise names no fixed sum but leaves payment to the owner's judgment of what is fair and right. The later-hired workers are sent without fixing their pay and without agreeing on a set wage, trusting his justice, goodness, fairness and generosity and asking no questions about wages. Their trust illustrates the spirit desired in servants, who are to labor in confidence in His justice, not as hirelings seeking reward in proportion to their work. Christ so deals with people to develop their moral and spiritual abilities, judging service not by the amount of labor or its visible results but by the spirit brought to the work, and rewarding according to the generosity of His purpose. Those who will not work unless they get the wages they themselves demand show the opposite spirit, represented by the laborers first called, who set their own terms and at the close of the day were made last.
Vineyard Meaning and Promise
In the Saviour's parables the vineyard is a figure for the world, and that figure is worth studying. It is the great moral vineyard now calling for laborers in foreign lands, and fitness for any place of usefulness in the world, in the church, or in that vineyard requires educating and training schools that impress the greatness of the work and bring practical godliness into daily experience.
The vineyard is His work, God's work, the service of God and the kingdom of God, His cause, His field, and household work, and the church as Christ's vineyard. The Lord's vineyard is everywhere, one great field with different parts, a broad field needing many laborers that must be cultivated throughout the field rather than concentrated in one place, with work still waiting to be done. Christ calls people into His vineyard to work and promises to give what is right, and no one is to remain idle, for everyone is required to work for time and eternity. The Master calls workers to advance that work with the means entrusted to them.
The call is to young men to consecrate themselves to Him unreservedly and go as earnest, persevering, successful laborers, exercising powers of mind for God rather than for self and acquiring property, studying the Scriptures and becoming intelligent in spiritual knowledge, warning sinners and winning souls to Christ, turning sinners to Christ and pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward, walking in the light and going on from one degree of light and strength to another. Going into the vineyard means giving self unreservedly in devoted, self-sacrificing labor to present the truth to those in darkness, availing every opportunity where there is an opening to press in the truth, working in unison with heavenly messengers who are moving on hearts, staying wide awake, and laboring zealously for the salvation of fellow men in imitation of the Saviour's life of self-denial and sacrifice and faithful, earnest labor. God has workers throughout His vineyard whom He teaches, leads, and guides, and they are to serve in their appointed places rather than be bound under one human center of control.
The same vineyard is gospel ministry, especially calling young men to prepare for that work, and Christ's spiritual work for the young which the church is called to take up. It is also the home, where older family members are to cultivate this part of the Lord's vineyard by helping and patiently teaching younger children, sharing the knowledge the Lord has enabled them to gain. The field of God's work is where God calls for more young men to labor in gospel ministry.
The householder, owner, and Master is Christ and God as employer, who hires those called to work in God's vineyard and knows and watches over His laborers wherever they serve. Those hired are responsible for using all their abilities in the best service they can offer. Christ as employer calls every soul into active labor in some of the various departments of the work, and the shepherd of the flock is to lead and guide his flock in that labor. Those so employed, especially ministers who open the Scriptures to others, must keep themselves from every worldly entanglement and bind themselves to the living Source of all power that they may represent correctly what it means to be a Christian, being like Jesus in mind, in thoughts, in words, in actions, doing duty carefully and intelligently, exercising powers wisely and not destroying or over-wearing nature so as to be unfitted to do good work for the Lord. The church and its institutions are to send workers into the field and support them with sympathy and opportunities to develop, so their interest in the work does not fade.
What is right is a just, fair, and fitting reward promised to additional workers hired during the day who accepted the work and went to the vineyard. That promise stands within the arrangement under which workers hired at different times later received the same wage, though those who had worked longer objected. Christ calls people to labor and promises them their wages, and believers who consecrate themselves to God and work with Christ are brought nearer to Him and grow in spiritual strength and understanding, with their wages received later. The laborer who accepts the call and works receives the promised reward, while the loiterer in the marketplace does not, and the penny represents a reward connected with faithful work, for people must do their part and the fruit they bear makes the character of their work visible before God, angels, and others.
Those called feel the burden of the work and carry the message with power, laboring through prayer, holy living, and teaching the truth to raise up Sabbathkeepers in new fields rather than spending most of their effort among believers who already understand the truth. Not everyone who helps in the work is called to give himself wholly to teaching or to travel extensively, for some are called only to assist. Laborers in the vineyard are those who work for the salvation of souls, including those handling sacred things in the publishing work, sending up earnest prayers in faith for fellow workers who are not fully in the truth, feeling the worth of the soul for whom Christ died, and holding a sense of the sacredness of the work instead of treating it as common labor. Trifling frivolity in sacred work grieves angels, and fruitless cumberers of the ground are called to consecrate themselves to Him and center their affections and hopes in Him. Those called are to serve willingly and faithfully, for their service is owed to Christ who purchased them through His blood and suffering, using entrusted abilities in working for the salvation of others, each serving according to what God has given.
Trust Instead of Bargaining
The workers hired after the first hour asked no question about wages and made no bargain over reward, but accepted the promise to receive whatever was right and left payment entirely to the householder in confidence in his justice, goodness, fairness and generosity. Their willingness to work without demanding a set reward shows service marked by faith and gratitude rather than a hireling's bargaining spirit, and they are to enter the work trusting that they will receive what is right, even at the eleventh hour. Such trust is rewarded according to generous purpose and not according to the amount of work done, so that a poor sinner entering service late, expecting little because service has been short and knowing unworthiness, yet glad simply to be accepted, may receive far more than has been earned.
Those serving are taught to trust the Master to give what is right rather than to stipulate their own terms, insist on a fixed wage, or set a high estimate on their service, as though He would deal unfairly. Work for Christ is not to be motivated merely by wages or human praise or self-exaltation, but by loving cooperation with God and dependence on Him, and entering the divine Planner's design requires denying self, taking up the cross daily and following Christ, with angels sent forth with every true self-sacrificing faithful worker. Those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate are the first-called in the parable, who at the close of the day found themselves last.
The first-called illustrate the hireling spirit by making fixed terms with God and claiming a set reward for a set amount of work, treating their labor as more valuable than that of later workers and serving for expected wages, recognition and honor. Their belief that long service, hardships and sacrifices entitle them to greater reward and honor, as though a certain amount of work earned a corresponding payment and even earned salvation, reveals self-advancement, distrust of God, jealousy and resentment when others are treated generously. Even those who endure hardship and trial become unchristlike and untrustworthy when they complain and claim entitlement to a large reward.
Service is valued not by how long one has labored, the amount of labor, or its visible results, but by the spirit of faith, love, gratitude, humility and thankful obedience brought to the work. Christ deals with people to develop their moral and spiritual abilities according to the laws and principles of His kingdom and not by human standards or opinions, because His thoughts and ways are higher. A purified heart sees the householder's liberality and generosity of purpose, while selfishness keeps workers from recognizing it, and grumbling, murmuring and complaining over His dealings show failure to recognize His goodness and a heart that needs changing. The last are placed first because they bring faith to their labor, and the earlier workers would also have remained first had they worked with loving trust, whereas those who measure service against expected wages and regard their work as worth more than later workers' are last in God's estimation.
Reward According to Grace
The parable teaches that divine favor and the reward of the righteous are not earned by human works and cannot be claimed as a debt or a right. The reward is a gift of grace resting on generosity of purpose, presenting the right principles of free grace and correcting a grasping, mercenary spirit. Those called later trusted the householder to give what was right without agreeing on a set wage, laboring in confidence in his justice rather than as hirelings seeking reward in proportion to their work.
First and last share the same eternal reward, so no laborer can begrudge another's share. Longer service does not entitle earlier workers to greater payment, and grumbling over generosity is met with a call to faith rather than resentment. People are not to measure one another's work or reward, for the Lord gives each worker what is due not according to amount accomplished alone but according to the spirit and principles governing the work.
The poor sinner who enters Christ's service late leaves payment to the householder, trusting goodness rather than bargaining over reward. Expecting little because service has been short and knowing unworthiness, yet glad simply to be accepted and rejoicing in the privilege, such a one works from gratitude rather than chiefly to gain a reward. Christ's gracious reward then exceeds what has been earned, giving far more than expected according to gracious purpose rather than merit or the amount or visible results of work.
The dying thief shows such eleventh-hour faith. He asked in faith, patience, contrition and earnestness, fully realizing that Jesus could save him, with hope mingled with anguish that without Him he would be lost, eternally lost. He cast his helpless dying soul and body on Christ in consciousness of his own sinfulness and entire dependence on the mercy of a dying Saviour.
Purity of motive and an earnest desire to glorify God can bring the same reward to a worker who accomplishes less as to one who accomplishes more. God honors each worker according to faithfulness rather than capacity or learning, giving each believer a place to serve and using varied talents without requiring service to seek esteem or appreciation as its condition. Even the humblest servant can serve by consistently living out the faith rather than by constant argument about doctrine, while the penny remains a reward connected with faithful work in which people must do their part and the fruit borne makes the character of the work visible.
The value of service is measured by the spirit of faith and love in which it is done, not by how long a person has labored, and the recompense of grace is blessed. Faithful service in spreading the offer of mercy and helping people reach salvation is accepted unto the commendation and eternal reward of the faithful servant. Those trained for the work of sharing truth are to enter it promptly and persevere, with God going before them and giving them souls as their reward.
Late Workers and Final Crisis
Those called later to the vineyard are promised what is right, and applied to the final crisis this means that people who accept the truth at the eleventh hour and become Christ's workers receive the same reward as those who have labored throughout the day. The eleventh-hour workers are faithful laborers who accept the work and trust the master to give what is right, entering God's work when it has become harder and people more hardened. They receive their penny, and others are called to fill places left vacant by deaths and apostasies.
Many souls will yet come out of the ranks of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, whose zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore. These late converts are the eleventh-hour laborers and they will receive their penny. They will see the battle coming over religious liberty and will give the trumpet a certain sound, and when the crisis is upon them, when the season of calamity shall come, they will come to the front, gird themselves with the whole armor of God, exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty. Workers brought in even at the eleventh hour may answer Christ's call and serve faithfully, and people from every nation who gain light from Scripture may take the place of those who had greater privileges but turned from Christ, with those who accept the work and remain true to principle receiving the reward for faithfulness.
The call has special force near the close of earth's history, made throughout the ages to urge the idle to labor for Him. It bears especially on the closing work of the third angel's message, when those who have stood idle in the marketplace can still heed God's call and enter active service for Him. God has useful work in both the home field and distant regions for humble people with varied talents, who can serve acceptably even without human ordination. The Master is now calling everyone who loves Jesus to go into His vineyard to give the last message of mercy to the lost, because probation is fast closing and the opportunity will soon be past forever so there must be no idlers, and faithfulness in that vineyard includes not robbing God in tithes and offerings which are needed to sustain His cause. The value of service to God is measured by the spirit in which it is given and not by how long a person has labored, and the sending of later-hired laborers with the promise to pay what was right is applied to sharing religious books, whose circulation should not be forbidden even when they are sold at a low price if doing so helps the light reach people who might otherwise miss it.
Everyone Called to Labor
No one is to remain idle, for there is work for everyone and for each in the Lord's vineyard, and the call to go also into the vineyard with the promise to give whatever is right leaves no genuine Christian without a share to take up. The work is open to all and gives work for each and work for all, so none need crowd out another and none should assume service is unnecessary. Those who answer go to labor to bring people from error to truth and to prepare them for Christ's coming, with renewed consecration and greater courage and activity, and each accountable person can find opportunities to do good for the Master and help suffering people.
The call is not for ministers alone but for every individual church member to have some part as God's agent in communicating heaven's light to the world. Every son and daughter of God has responsibility, including men, women, youth and children, each to use God-given powers to become more efficient and each to take part according to ability during God-given probation while character is formed after Christ's example. No one is to wait for a regular process or formal assignment before making any effort, but each is to begin right where they are, including many working in what are called irregular lines outside regular lines of service. Such self-sacrificing work wins souls to the Lord and brings experience of being laborers together with God, while slothful members who let souls perish and bury entrusted talents must be aroused to unearth them and put them out by enlightening others and making Christ known, until the church is taught to minister effectually and those doing nothing become diligent laborers developing talents for positions of trust and influence.
Christ welcomes and calls those who seem unlikely, unqualified, unprepared or with little education, drawn young and old from fields, vineyards and workshops for the closing work of the gospel. He sees in them abilities and qualifications suited to a place and time, and the vineyard is the work He gives them to do. As they give their hearts to the work, keep learning and begin humbly, His providence fits them for work within their capabilities and the Holy Spirit gives them power to speak. Each serves according to the abilities He sees, with ability and opportunity guiding the place of service.
Answering the call means laboring zealously for the salvation of others in imitation of Christ's self-denial, sacrifice and faithful earnest work. Those who labor there are to be prayerful and faithful, self-denying and restrained in appetite and passion, with lives showing the power of the truth they share so that labor bears fruit and effect. Every son and daughter of God is to use the powers God has given to become more efficient in serving the Master, going forward in trust that God will direct, bless, sustain and give wisdom and strength.
Work is not to be chosen for personal enjoyment, gain, esteem, appreciation or flattering financial prospects, but each is to accept the position assigned in the moral vineyard and faithfully perform every duty even when difficult, serving wherever needed to the fullest ability in personal sacrifice. Going means bearing the burden of souls and daily learning how to win people to truth in gratitude to the Lord who gave His life, including gospel ministry such as canvassing with faith-filled books that give light, while refusing means using powers for selfish interests, taking a worldly stamp, turning from the Spirit's convictions and choosing other book work for money, which gives no fitness for ministry and loses time and opportunity. Labor is to be whole-hearted to the utmost of ability, without setting a high estimate on service, without pride and self-importance, without measuring every hour with exactness or studying how little meets the lowest standard, but comparing efforts with the Saviour's work and accounting self an unprofitable servant, with God honoring each worker according to faithfulness rather than capacity or learning.
Spiritual idleness is unfaithfulness and slothfulness brings penalty, for work bears the mark of faithfulness or unfaithfulness so that even worthy actions receive no credit when the person is unfaithful. There are to be no idlers in the Lord's vineyard, and idlers will not find an abundant entrance into Christ's kingdom. The claim to have been called to labor there must be given up when it leaves the burden of caring for family and self-support on the church. The heaviest obligation rests on the worker whose means and opportunity are greatest, for today is a day of trust and opportunity before the coming day of reckoning, and interest is expected from entrusted talents in proportion to capital, with each responsible for use or abuse according to ability and opportunity, using means and powers not for selfish unsanctified desire but in God's service beyond the home.
With every true self-sacrificing faithful worker God sends forth His angels. Going into the vineyard means giving self unreservedly in devoted labor to present truth to those in darkness, availing every opening to press in the truth, working in unison with heavenly messengers moving on hearts, staying wide awake and laboring zealously for fellow men. Entering the divine Planner's design requires denying self, taking up the cross daily and following Christ, unlike those who will not work without wages they themselves stipulate and who, though first called, are found last at the close of the day.
The call includes a mother's work for her own children in an unbelieving home, remaining with them through poverty and harsh abusive opposition, praying with them, training them and counteracting a godless father's influence that teaches disrespect for her and disregard for God and the Bible, which is doing the commanded vineyard work rather than a hindrance to be left for other religious labor. It includes children such as the Lindsay children using their abilities and taking up their share of labor in God's cause rather than leaving burdens resting heavily on parents. Faithfulness in the vineyard, now in the fast-closing probation when the last message of mercy must go to the lost with the help of everyone who loves Jesus, includes not robbing God in tithes and offerings needed to sustain His cause.
Fields and Ways to Serve
The call to go into the vineyard means going where the work is needed, leaving places where the message is already established and planting truth in towns, regions, neglected fields and new fields that have not heard it. Workers are to spread rather than concentrate efforts and institutions in one place, and means must not be selfishly absorbed in one place or one line to build a mammoth institution. Equity and just judgment require giving other parts of the vineyard a chance to have facilities and memorials, building many small sanitariums, treatment-rooms and hygienic restaurants in many places, with every building erected with reference to the needs of other places. Servants are constantly to enlarge the circle of efforts, to do more and never less, until the work widens and broadens to encircle the world, teaching new converts to extend the knowledge of truth and enter the work at once to carry the message to regions beyond. Ministers are to spend more time educating workers than preaching to those already in the truth, and are not to confine work to churches that already have much light and many advantages.
The vineyard call is God's summons for earnest workers to labor in cities for the salvation of souls, entering with heart, soul and voice, working together with God, redeeming time after long delay, and persisting until the work is thorough. It is also a call to foreign lands, to the Southern field, to work among the colored people, to foreigners, and to destitute regions needing memorials, facilities and equity. Fitness for any place of usefulness in the world, in the church or in that great moral vineyard requires educating and training schools that impress the greatness of the work and bring practical godliness into daily experience. Those trained for sharing truth are to enter promptly and persevere, with God going before them and giving them souls as their reward.
Idle ones are to be given a share of work rather than left idle, since by using abilities people learn how to use them. When they make mistakes they are to be corrected and set to work again. Promising new believers must be shown that they are to work earnestly for the salvation of others, students who unite with the Saviour grow in spirituality and become valuable soul-winning workers, and workers must be prepared and given opportunities and support to serve both at home and in foreign fields.
The church and its institutions are to send workers into the field and support them with sympathy and opportunities to develop, so their interest does not fade. Service will be accounted for before the Lord, who watches over workers wherever they serve, including canvassers bringing the gospel to people who do not know truth in the large vineyard. Laborers giving Bible readings and holding meetings in different places and awakening widespread interest need support because wages do not cover food and rent, and they must not be driven from their work. Workers faithfully carrying out a God-appointed work should be allowed to proceed and be supported with gifts and freewill offerings, not confined by human restrictions, and new workers should receive help from the experienced without regarding work in one part of the field as independent of the rest.
Labor in the vineyard includes canvassing with books that express faith and give light, circulating publications, giving Bible readings and meetings, speaking truth, handing tracts, presenting books, and exerting a saving influence day by day. Christians who know truth are to seize opportunities to share it and work earnestly for salvation, proclaiming the message to those who have not heard it. Going means bearing the burden of souls and daily learning how to win people in gratitude to the Lord who gave His life, while refusing means using powers for selfish interests, taking a worldly stamp, being turned aside from convictions of the Spirit, and choosing other book work for more flattering financial prospects, which gives no fitness for ministry and loses time and opportunities. Every member of the family is to be educated to work for the Master, exercising means and powers beyond the home, using day-by-day opportunities, redeeming precious time, and cooperating with God in saving souls, with many receiving the message and reflecting light to others.
Young men are called to consecrate themselves unreservedly and go as earnest, persevering, successful laborers, exercising powers of mind for God rather than for self and acquiring property. Laboring means studying the Scriptures to become intelligent in spiritual knowledge, explaining the Scriptures, lecturing upon the prophecies, warning sinners, winning souls, turning sinners to Christ, pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward, walking in the light, and going from one degree of light and strength to another to advance God's glory. God accepts those who really have good abilities He can use and who serve intelligently with knowledge of important Bible truths and the common branches of education, since ignorance does not increase humility or spirituality. All talents are entrusted by the Creator who gave existence and must be cultivated and improved as duty to Him, education disciplines the mind, develops its powers and directs them understandingly to represent Bible religion, and even a few months' schooling in common branches and present truth with lectures on prophecy greatly benefits those entering ministry.
Young people called into the vineyard are to take up the work the Master gives, trusting He will give what is right, seeking opportunities to save souls rather than devoting themselves to pleasure, since faithful service belongs to the way of life leading to eternal life. Students uniting with the Saviour grow in spirituality and become valuable workers winning souls, and consecrated youth using abilities in His service can become persevering workers warning sinners and may be welcomed to the joy of the Lord when warfare is ended. Those given much light are responsible for helping educate youth, and neglecting that duty makes them like idlers in the vineyard, while they should work earnestly and make the most of opportunities God provides.
The Master calls workers to advance His work with means and abilities entrusted to them, to be used while available, bringing satisfaction in this life and reward hereafter. Abilities put to work for the Lord can do much good, but when turned to selfish gain they are perverted and can do great harm. Refusing vineyard work for selfish financial interest means turning away from duty and opportunities God has given.
Answering the call to new fields requires practicing self-denial and being determined not to fail nor be discouraged, cooperating with God and fellow workers, without expecting paid passage or large wages or to be carried financially or spiritually, trusting the Master to give what is right. Medical missionaries are to go to neglected fields to save souls rather than choose work nearby merely because it is profitable.
Those employed in God's cause are laborers whose wages are a sacred transaction between man and fellow man to be dealt with on fair, true and right principles. Laborers have the same right to a voice in wage arrangements as men employed in trade, and wages must never be cut without their consent and without understanding their situation. Handling workers coolly and indifferently as inanimate objects without voice, letting men without discrimination or judgment sit in audit and deduct from wages, changes God's order to follow selfish counsel, turns the back to God, stands against the handlers before heaven and men, and brings families into straits, oppression, want, temptation, discouragement, and in some cases flight from the field, so God is not glorified by it. When lack of means presses, the true situation is to be set forth openly and workers asked if they can do with less support, with the human will under sanctification of the Spirit.
Missionary workers set at work and supported there are to trust to receive whatever is right rather than setting a high price on labors or seeking higher and still higher wages, following the self-denial of Jesus as Pattern so fellow workers with lower wages do not feel wronged. No human rule is to prescribe one required kind of prior service; each worker should seek direction from God, and those unable to support themselves through work should be helped to serve according to ability.
When men in responsible positions fail to heed appeals for a destitute field and close their senses to work they should do, the work must still be done and cannot be left undone by neglect of stewards. Workers called into the vineyard then have a perfect right to go anywhere in the field, bring necessities directly before the people, solicit means without it passing through any office or society, and devise and plan to prepare their own way when no special effort is made to prepare the way for them.
The vineyard needs earnest, faithful, persevering labor without selfish or sectional aims, treating work as sacred service rather than common labor, undertaking even unpleasant duties despite disappointment or rebuffs, warning the careless and saving the lost. Every member of Christ's household has a task, precious time is to be used in prayer, Bible study and labor for others rather than idleness or foolish purposes, no one should wait for others to help but should join Christ and rely on His strength, wisdom and merits, and those humbly taking part in missionary work are workers in that vineyard. Daily effort increases ability to serve effectively and bear fruit for God's glory even though each can accomplish only a little, all talents must be cultivated, ministers must produce fruit rather than remain idle consumers of support, and those fruitless are called to consecrate themselves to God.
God does nothing without man's cooperation, yet work is done under the Lord's direction, not in human strength. The Master's vineyard is a great work calling for men to whom He has given ability for service, church members must stop standing idle and use entrusted talents in service and soul-winning, and gifts given to God can support workers who go out to bring people to Him.
The householder finds workers idle in the marketplace about the third hour because no one has hired them and sends them into the vineyard with no fixed sum named, only the promise to give whatever is fair and right, and they go to work in trust. The vineyard is the world and God's work, cause and kingdom everywhere calling for laborers, and the householder is God and Christ as employer who watches over His servants. Those hired later ask no questions and make no bargain over wages but leave payment to his goodness and justice, while to stipulate terms and serve for expected honor reveals distrust and the hireling spirit. The reward is not earned as debt or measured by length of labor, amount done, or visible results, but is given by grace according to faith, love, humility and faithfulness, so that first and last may share the same eternal gift. No one is to remain idle, for the call is to every man, woman, youth and child to take up some part, and even those who enter at the eleventh hour near the close of earth's history and the closing work of the third angel's message may answer faithfully and receive the penny.
Parable Context and Wording
Matthew 20:4 belongs to the parable of the workers hired for the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16, which is joined to the account of the rich young man and the reward of following Christ in Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30, and it pictures a lone laborer with a long-handled hoe working the soil in a fenced rural field among trees and crops.
About the third hour the householder finds additional workers idle in the marketplace, idle because no one had hired them, invites them to go also into the vineyard with the promise to give whatever is right, and they accept and go to work.
They trust his offer and leave payment to him in confidence, and their pay is later shown to be the same penny given to the workers hired earlier and later, though those who had worked longer object.
The vineyard workers represent the Master's servants, whose call could come at different times, even near the end of the working day.
The Lord's invitation to work continues from early morning until the last hour of the day.
Those hired later had not been present in the morning and had not refused an earlier call, since they had been unemployed and unhired.
Therefore the verse does not excuse those who hear the truth, agree with it, and then refuse to obey, or who turn down the first call to suit their own wishes.
It warns against delaying response to the first call of mercy, in contrast to the later workers' acceptance of the call.
God rewards service according to the spirit in which it is done, not according to a claim to large wages or recognition.
The householder's treatment of the workers represents God's dealings with the human family and with people, while the steward represents Christ.
The vineyard owner invites workers to labor while leaving their payment to his judgment, and Christ's teaching here follows the laws of God's kingdom, not human standards or opinions, because God's thoughts and ways are higher.
The equal payment to workers hired later shows the householder's liberality, which selfishness kept the first workers from recognizing.
The verse contrasts workers who trust the employer to give what is right with a hireling spirit that makes fixed terms with God, claiming a set reward for a set amount of work, and those who measure their service against the wages they expect and regard their work as worth more than later workers' are last in God's estimation.
The promise names no fixed sum but leaves payment to the owner's judgment of what is fair and right.
The later-hired workers are sent without fixing their pay and without agreeing on a set wage, trusting his justice, goodness, fairness and generosity and asking no questions about wages.
Their trust illustrates the spirit desired in servants, who are to labor in confidence in His justice, not as hirelings seeking reward in proportion to their work.
Christ so deals with people to develop their moral and spiritual abilities, judging service not by the amount of labor or its visible results but by the spirit brought to the work, and rewarding according to the generosity of His purpose.
Those who will not work unless they get the wages they themselves demand show the opposite spirit, represented by the laborers first called, who set their own terms and at the close of the day were made last.
Vineyard Meaning and Promise
In the Saviour's parables the vineyard is a figure for the world, and that figure is worth studying. It is the great moral vineyard now calling for laborers in foreign lands, and fitness for any place of usefulness in the world, in the church, or in that vineyard requires educating and training schools that impress the greatness of the work and bring practical godliness into daily experience.
The vineyard is His work, God's work, the service of God and the kingdom of God, His cause, His field, and household work, and the church as Christ's vineyard. The Lord's vineyard is everywhere, one great field with different parts, a broad field needing many laborers that must be cultivated throughout the field rather than concentrated in one place, with work still waiting to be done. Christ calls people into His vineyard to work and promises to give what is right, and no one is to remain idle, for everyone is required to work for time and eternity. The Master calls workers to advance that work with the means entrusted to them.
The call is to young men to consecrate themselves to Him unreservedly and go as earnest, persevering, successful laborers, exercising powers of mind for God rather than for self and acquiring property, studying the Scriptures and becoming intelligent in spiritual knowledge, warning sinners and winning souls to Christ, turning sinners to Christ and pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward, walking in the light and going on from one degree of light and strength to another. Going into the vineyard means giving self unreservedly in devoted, self-sacrificing labor to present the truth to those in darkness, availing every opportunity where there is an opening to press in the truth, working in unison with heavenly messengers who are moving on hearts, staying wide awake, and laboring zealously for the salvation of fellow men in imitation of the Saviour's life of self-denial and sacrifice and faithful, earnest labor. God has workers throughout His vineyard whom He teaches, leads, and guides, and they are to serve in their appointed places rather than be bound under one human center of control.
The same vineyard is gospel ministry, especially calling young men to prepare for that work, and Christ's spiritual work for the young which the church is called to take up. It is also the home, where older family members are to cultivate this part of the Lord's vineyard by helping and patiently teaching younger children, sharing the knowledge the Lord has enabled them to gain. The field of God's work is where God calls for more young men to labor in gospel ministry.
The householder, owner, and Master is Christ and God as employer, who hires those called to work in God's vineyard and knows and watches over His laborers wherever they serve. Those hired are responsible for using all their abilities in the best service they can offer. Christ as employer calls every soul into active labor in some of the various departments of the work, and the shepherd of the flock is to lead and guide his flock in that labor. Those so employed, especially ministers who open the Scriptures to others, must keep themselves from every worldly entanglement and bind themselves to the living Source of all power that they may represent correctly what it means to be a Christian, being like Jesus in mind, in thoughts, in words, in actions, doing duty carefully and intelligently, exercising powers wisely and not destroying or over-wearing nature so as to be unfitted to do good work for the Lord. The church and its institutions are to send workers into the field and support them with sympathy and opportunities to develop, so their interest in the work does not fade.
What is right is a just, fair, and fitting reward promised to additional workers hired during the day who accepted the work and went to the vineyard. That promise stands within the arrangement under which workers hired at different times later received the same wage, though those who had worked longer objected. Christ calls people to labor and promises them their wages, and believers who consecrate themselves to God and work with Christ are brought nearer to Him and grow in spiritual strength and understanding, with their wages received later. The laborer who accepts the call and works receives the promised reward, while the loiterer in the marketplace does not, and the penny represents a reward connected with faithful work, for people must do their part and the fruit they bear makes the character of their work visible before God, angels, and others.
Those called feel the burden of the work and carry the message with power, laboring through prayer, holy living, and teaching the truth to raise up Sabbathkeepers in new fields rather than spending most of their effort among believers who already understand the truth. Not everyone who helps in the work is called to give himself wholly to teaching or to travel extensively, for some are called only to assist. Laborers in the vineyard are those who work for the salvation of souls, including those handling sacred things in the publishing work, sending up earnest prayers in faith for fellow workers who are not fully in the truth, feeling the worth of the soul for whom Christ died, and holding a sense of the sacredness of the work instead of treating it as common labor. Trifling frivolity in sacred work grieves angels, and fruitless cumberers of the ground are called to consecrate themselves to Him and center their affections and hopes in Him. Those called are to serve willingly and faithfully, for their service is owed to Christ who purchased them through His blood and suffering, using entrusted abilities in working for the salvation of others, each serving according to what God has given.
Trust Instead of Bargaining
The workers hired after the first hour asked no question about wages and made no bargain over reward, but accepted the promise to receive whatever was right and left payment entirely to the householder in confidence in his justice, goodness, fairness and generosity. Their willingness to work without demanding a set reward shows service marked by faith and gratitude rather than a hireling's bargaining spirit, and they are to enter the work trusting that they will receive what is right, even at the eleventh hour. Such trust is rewarded according to generous purpose and not according to the amount of work done, so that a poor sinner entering service late, expecting little because service has been short and knowing unworthiness, yet glad simply to be accepted, may receive far more than has been earned.
Those serving are taught to trust the Master to give what is right rather than to stipulate their own terms, insist on a fixed wage, or set a high estimate on their service, as though He would deal unfairly. Work for Christ is not to be motivated merely by wages or human praise or self-exaltation, but by loving cooperation with God and dependence on Him, and entering the divine Planner's design requires denying self, taking up the cross daily and following Christ, with angels sent forth with every true self-sacrificing faithful worker. Those who will not work without the wages they themselves stipulate are the first-called in the parable, who at the close of the day found themselves last.
The first-called illustrate the hireling spirit by making fixed terms with God and claiming a set reward for a set amount of work, treating their labor as more valuable than that of later workers and serving for expected wages, recognition and honor. Their belief that long service, hardships and sacrifices entitle them to greater reward and honor, as though a certain amount of work earned a corresponding payment and even earned salvation, reveals self-advancement, distrust of God, jealousy and resentment when others are treated generously. Even those who endure hardship and trial become unchristlike and untrustworthy when they complain and claim entitlement to a large reward.
Service is valued not by how long one has labored, the amount of labor, or its visible results, but by the spirit of faith, love, gratitude, humility and thankful obedience brought to the work. Christ deals with people to develop their moral and spiritual abilities according to the laws and principles of His kingdom and not by human standards or opinions, because His thoughts and ways are higher. A purified heart sees the householder's liberality and generosity of purpose, while selfishness keeps workers from recognizing it, and grumbling, murmuring and complaining over His dealings show failure to recognize His goodness and a heart that needs changing. The last are placed first because they bring faith to their labor, and the earlier workers would also have remained first had they worked with loving trust, whereas those who measure service against expected wages and regard their work as worth more than later workers' are last in God's estimation.
Reward According to Grace
The parable teaches that divine favor and the reward of the righteous are not earned by human works and cannot be claimed as a debt or a right. The reward is a gift of grace resting on generosity of purpose, presenting the right principles of free grace and correcting a grasping, mercenary spirit. Those called later trusted the householder to give what was right without agreeing on a set wage, laboring in confidence in his justice rather than as hirelings seeking reward in proportion to their work.
First and last share the same eternal reward, so no laborer can begrudge another's share. Longer service does not entitle earlier workers to greater payment, and grumbling over generosity is met with a call to faith rather than resentment. People are not to measure one another's work or reward, for the Lord gives each worker what is due not according to amount accomplished alone but according to the spirit and principles governing the work.
The poor sinner who enters Christ's service late leaves payment to the householder, trusting goodness rather than bargaining over reward. Expecting little because service has been short and knowing unworthiness, yet glad simply to be accepted and rejoicing in the privilege, such a one works from gratitude rather than chiefly to gain a reward. Christ's gracious reward then exceeds what has been earned, giving far more than expected according to gracious purpose rather than merit or the amount or visible results of work.
The dying thief shows such eleventh-hour faith. He asked in faith, patience, contrition and earnestness, fully realizing that Jesus could save him, with hope mingled with anguish that without Him he would be lost, eternally lost. He cast his helpless dying soul and body on Christ in consciousness of his own sinfulness and entire dependence on the mercy of a dying Saviour.
Purity of motive and an earnest desire to glorify God can bring the same reward to a worker who accomplishes less as to one who accomplishes more. God honors each worker according to faithfulness rather than capacity or learning, giving each believer a place to serve and using varied talents without requiring service to seek esteem or appreciation as its condition. Even the humblest servant can serve by consistently living out the faith rather than by constant argument about doctrine, while the penny remains a reward connected with faithful work in which people must do their part and the fruit borne makes the character of the work visible.
The value of service is measured by the spirit of faith and love in which it is done, not by how long a person has labored, and the recompense of grace is blessed. Faithful service in spreading the offer of mercy and helping people reach salvation is accepted unto the commendation and eternal reward of the faithful servant. Those trained for the work of sharing truth are to enter it promptly and persevere, with God going before them and giving them souls as their reward.
Late Workers and Final Crisis
Those called later to the vineyard are promised what is right, and applied to the final crisis this means that people who accept the truth at the eleventh hour and become Christ's workers receive the same reward as those who have labored throughout the day. The eleventh-hour workers are faithful laborers who accept the work and trust the master to give what is right, entering God's work when it has become harder and people more hardened. They receive their penny, and others are called to fill places left vacant by deaths and apostasies.
Many souls will yet come out of the ranks of the world and out of the churches, even the Catholic church, whose zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore. These late converts are the eleventh-hour laborers and they will receive their penny. They will see the battle coming over religious liberty and will give the trumpet a certain sound, and when the crisis is upon them, when the season of calamity shall come, they will come to the front, gird themselves with the whole armor of God, exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty. Workers brought in even at the eleventh hour may answer Christ's call and serve faithfully, and people from every nation who gain light from Scripture may take the place of those who had greater privileges but turned from Christ, with those who accept the work and remain true to principle receiving the reward for faithfulness.
The call has special force near the close of earth's history, made throughout the ages to urge the idle to labor for Him. It bears especially on the closing work of the third angel's message, when those who have stood idle in the marketplace can still heed God's call and enter active service for Him. God has useful work in both the home field and distant regions for humble people with varied talents, who can serve acceptably even without human ordination. The Master is now calling everyone who loves Jesus to go into His vineyard to give the last message of mercy to the lost, because probation is fast closing and the opportunity will soon be past forever so there must be no idlers, and faithfulness in that vineyard includes not robbing God in tithes and offerings which are needed to sustain His cause. The value of service to God is measured by the spirit in which it is given and not by how long a person has labored, and the sending of later-hired laborers with the promise to pay what was right is applied to sharing religious books, whose circulation should not be forbidden even when they are sold at a low price if doing so helps the light reach people who might otherwise miss it.
Everyone Called to Labor
No one is to remain idle, for there is work for everyone and for each in the Lord's vineyard, and the call to go also into the vineyard with the promise to give whatever is right leaves no genuine Christian without a share to take up. The work is open to all and gives work for each and work for all, so none need crowd out another and none should assume service is unnecessary. Those who answer go to labor to bring people from error to truth and to prepare them for Christ's coming, with renewed consecration and greater courage and activity, and each accountable person can find opportunities to do good for the Master and help suffering people.
The call is not for ministers alone but for every individual church member to have some part as God's agent in communicating heaven's light to the world. Every son and daughter of God has responsibility, including men, women, youth and children, each to use God-given powers to become more efficient and each to take part according to ability during God-given probation while character is formed after Christ's example. No one is to wait for a regular process or formal assignment before making any effort, but each is to begin right where they are, including many working in what are called irregular lines outside regular lines of service. Such self-sacrificing work wins souls to the Lord and brings experience of being laborers together with God, while slothful members who let souls perish and bury entrusted talents must be aroused to unearth them and put them out by enlightening others and making Christ known, until the church is taught to minister effectually and those doing nothing become diligent laborers developing talents for positions of trust and influence.
Christ welcomes and calls those who seem unlikely, unqualified, unprepared or with little education, drawn young and old from fields, vineyards and workshops for the closing work of the gospel. He sees in them abilities and qualifications suited to a place and time, and the vineyard is the work He gives them to do. As they give their hearts to the work, keep learning and begin humbly, His providence fits them for work within their capabilities and the Holy Spirit gives them power to speak. Each serves according to the abilities He sees, with ability and opportunity guiding the place of service.
Answering the call means laboring zealously for the salvation of others in imitation of Christ's self-denial, sacrifice and faithful earnest work. Those who labor there are to be prayerful and faithful, self-denying and restrained in appetite and passion, with lives showing the power of the truth they share so that labor bears fruit and effect. Every son and daughter of God is to use the powers God has given to become more efficient in serving the Master, going forward in trust that God will direct, bless, sustain and give wisdom and strength.
Work is not to be chosen for personal enjoyment, gain, esteem, appreciation or flattering financial prospects, but each is to accept the position assigned in the moral vineyard and faithfully perform every duty even when difficult, serving wherever needed to the fullest ability in personal sacrifice. Going means bearing the burden of souls and daily learning how to win people to truth in gratitude to the Lord who gave His life, including gospel ministry such as canvassing with faith-filled books that give light, while refusing means using powers for selfish interests, taking a worldly stamp, turning from the Spirit's convictions and choosing other book work for money, which gives no fitness for ministry and loses time and opportunity. Labor is to be whole-hearted to the utmost of ability, without setting a high estimate on service, without pride and self-importance, without measuring every hour with exactness or studying how little meets the lowest standard, but comparing efforts with the Saviour's work and accounting self an unprofitable servant, with God honoring each worker according to faithfulness rather than capacity or learning.
Spiritual idleness is unfaithfulness and slothfulness brings penalty, for work bears the mark of faithfulness or unfaithfulness so that even worthy actions receive no credit when the person is unfaithful. There are to be no idlers in the Lord's vineyard, and idlers will not find an abundant entrance into Christ's kingdom. The claim to have been called to labor there must be given up when it leaves the burden of caring for family and self-support on the church. The heaviest obligation rests on the worker whose means and opportunity are greatest, for today is a day of trust and opportunity before the coming day of reckoning, and interest is expected from entrusted talents in proportion to capital, with each responsible for use or abuse according to ability and opportunity, using means and powers not for selfish unsanctified desire but in God's service beyond the home.
With every true self-sacrificing faithful worker God sends forth His angels. Going into the vineyard means giving self unreservedly in devoted labor to present truth to those in darkness, availing every opening to press in the truth, working in unison with heavenly messengers moving on hearts, staying wide awake and laboring zealously for fellow men. Entering the divine Planner's design requires denying self, taking up the cross daily and following Christ, unlike those who will not work without wages they themselves stipulate and who, though first called, are found last at the close of the day.
The call includes a mother's work for her own children in an unbelieving home, remaining with them through poverty and harsh abusive opposition, praying with them, training them and counteracting a godless father's influence that teaches disrespect for her and disregard for God and the Bible, which is doing the commanded vineyard work rather than a hindrance to be left for other religious labor. It includes children such as the Lindsay children using their abilities and taking up their share of labor in God's cause rather than leaving burdens resting heavily on parents. Faithfulness in the vineyard, now in the fast-closing probation when the last message of mercy must go to the lost with the help of everyone who loves Jesus, includes not robbing God in tithes and offerings needed to sustain His cause.
Fields and Ways to Serve
The call to go into the vineyard means going where the work is needed, leaving places where the message is already established and planting truth in towns, regions, neglected fields and new fields that have not heard it. Workers are to spread rather than concentrate efforts and institutions in one place, and means must not be selfishly absorbed in one place or one line to build a mammoth institution. Equity and just judgment require giving other parts of the vineyard a chance to have facilities and memorials, building many small sanitariums, treatment-rooms and hygienic restaurants in many places, with every building erected with reference to the needs of other places. Servants are constantly to enlarge the circle of efforts, to do more and never less, until the work widens and broadens to encircle the world, teaching new converts to extend the knowledge of truth and enter the work at once to carry the message to regions beyond. Ministers are to spend more time educating workers than preaching to those already in the truth, and are not to confine work to churches that already have much light and many advantages.
The vineyard call is God's summons for earnest workers to labor in cities for the salvation of souls, entering with heart, soul and voice, working together with God, redeeming time after long delay, and persisting until the work is thorough. It is also a call to foreign lands, to the Southern field, to work among the colored people, to foreigners, and to destitute regions needing memorials, facilities and equity. Fitness for any place of usefulness in the world, in the church or in that great moral vineyard requires educating and training schools that impress the greatness of the work and bring practical godliness into daily experience. Those trained for sharing truth are to enter promptly and persevere, with God going before them and giving them souls as their reward.
Idle ones are to be given a share of work rather than left idle, since by using abilities people learn how to use them. When they make mistakes they are to be corrected and set to work again. Promising new believers must be shown that they are to work earnestly for the salvation of others, students who unite with the Saviour grow in spirituality and become valuable soul-winning workers, and workers must be prepared and given opportunities and support to serve both at home and in foreign fields.
The church and its institutions are to send workers into the field and support them with sympathy and opportunities to develop, so their interest does not fade. Service will be accounted for before the Lord, who watches over workers wherever they serve, including canvassers bringing the gospel to people who do not know truth in the large vineyard. Laborers giving Bible readings and holding meetings in different places and awakening widespread interest need support because wages do not cover food and rent, and they must not be driven from their work. Workers faithfully carrying out a God-appointed work should be allowed to proceed and be supported with gifts and freewill offerings, not confined by human restrictions, and new workers should receive help from the experienced without regarding work in one part of the field as independent of the rest.
Labor in the vineyard includes canvassing with books that express faith and give light, circulating publications, giving Bible readings and meetings, speaking truth, handing tracts, presenting books, and exerting a saving influence day by day. Christians who know truth are to seize opportunities to share it and work earnestly for salvation, proclaiming the message to those who have not heard it. Going means bearing the burden of souls and daily learning how to win people in gratitude to the Lord who gave His life, while refusing means using powers for selfish interests, taking a worldly stamp, being turned aside from convictions of the Spirit, and choosing other book work for more flattering financial prospects, which gives no fitness for ministry and loses time and opportunities. Every member of the family is to be educated to work for the Master, exercising means and powers beyond the home, using day-by-day opportunities, redeeming precious time, and cooperating with God in saving souls, with many receiving the message and reflecting light to others.
Young men are called to consecrate themselves unreservedly and go as earnest, persevering, successful laborers, exercising powers of mind for God rather than for self and acquiring property. Laboring means studying the Scriptures to become intelligent in spiritual knowledge, explaining the Scriptures, lecturing upon the prophecies, warning sinners, winning souls, turning sinners to Christ, pointing the unbelieving and desponding heavenward, walking in the light, and going from one degree of light and strength to another to advance God's glory. God accepts those who really have good abilities He can use and who serve intelligently with knowledge of important Bible truths and the common branches of education, since ignorance does not increase humility or spirituality. All talents are entrusted by the Creator who gave existence and must be cultivated and improved as duty to Him, education disciplines the mind, develops its powers and directs them understandingly to represent Bible religion, and even a few months' schooling in common branches and present truth with lectures on prophecy greatly benefits those entering ministry.
Young people called into the vineyard are to take up the work the Master gives, trusting He will give what is right, seeking opportunities to save souls rather than devoting themselves to pleasure, since faithful service belongs to the way of life leading to eternal life. Students uniting with the Saviour grow in spirituality and become valuable workers winning souls, and consecrated youth using abilities in His service can become persevering workers warning sinners and may be welcomed to the joy of the Lord when warfare is ended. Those given much light are responsible for helping educate youth, and neglecting that duty makes them like idlers in the vineyard, while they should work earnestly and make the most of opportunities God provides.
The Master calls workers to advance His work with means and abilities entrusted to them, to be used while available, bringing satisfaction in this life and reward hereafter. Abilities put to work for the Lord can do much good, but when turned to selfish gain they are perverted and can do great harm. Refusing vineyard work for selfish financial interest means turning away from duty and opportunities God has given.
Answering the call to new fields requires practicing self-denial and being determined not to fail nor be discouraged, cooperating with God and fellow workers, without expecting paid passage or large wages or to be carried financially or spiritually, trusting the Master to give what is right. Medical missionaries are to go to neglected fields to save souls rather than choose work nearby merely because it is profitable.
Those employed in God's cause are laborers whose wages are a sacred transaction between man and fellow man to be dealt with on fair, true and right principles. Laborers have the same right to a voice in wage arrangements as men employed in trade, and wages must never be cut without their consent and without understanding their situation. Handling workers coolly and indifferently as inanimate objects without voice, letting men without discrimination or judgment sit in audit and deduct from wages, changes God's order to follow selfish counsel, turns the back to God, stands against the handlers before heaven and men, and brings families into straits, oppression, want, temptation, discouragement, and in some cases flight from the field, so God is not glorified by it. When lack of means presses, the true situation is to be set forth openly and workers asked if they can do with less support, with the human will under sanctification of the Spirit.
Missionary workers set at work and supported there are to trust to receive whatever is right rather than setting a high price on labors or seeking higher and still higher wages, following the self-denial of Jesus as Pattern so fellow workers with lower wages do not feel wronged. No human rule is to prescribe one required kind of prior service; each worker should seek direction from God, and those unable to support themselves through work should be helped to serve according to ability.
When men in responsible positions fail to heed appeals for a destitute field and close their senses to work they should do, the work must still be done and cannot be left undone by neglect of stewards. Workers called into the vineyard then have a perfect right to go anywhere in the field, bring necessities directly before the people, solicit means without it passing through any office or society, and devise and plan to prepare their own way when no special effort is made to prepare the way for them.
The vineyard needs earnest, faithful, persevering labor without selfish or sectional aims, treating work as sacred service rather than common labor, undertaking even unpleasant duties despite disappointment or rebuffs, warning the careless and saving the lost. Every member of Christ's household has a task, precious time is to be used in prayer, Bible study and labor for others rather than idleness or foolish purposes, no one should wait for others to help but should join Christ and rely on His strength, wisdom and merits, and those humbly taking part in missionary work are workers in that vineyard. Daily effort increases ability to serve effectively and bear fruit for God's glory even though each can accomplish only a little, all talents must be cultivated, ministers must produce fruit rather than remain idle consumers of support, and those fruitless are called to consecrate themselves to God.
God does nothing without man's cooperation, yet work is done under the Lord's direction, not in human strength. The Master's vineyard is a great work calling for men to whom He has given ability for service, church members must stop standing idle and use entrusted talents in service and soul-winning, and gifts given to God can support workers who go out to bring people to Him.