The True Meaning of the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard — Bible Study
At dusk, after I prayed to the Lord at my desk, I read chapter 20 of the Gospel of Matthew where it says that those who went into the vineyard early finally got the same wages as those who went late. I thought, “If those of us who have sacrificed and labored for the Lord for many years finally get the same wages as those who work for Him late, won’t this be God purposely favoring the latecomers?” I always thought so.
Afterward, I read a passage in a book, “No matter how much you are able to accept, no matter how much you have heard, how much you have understood, how much you live out or how much you obtain, there is one fact: The truth, the way and the life of God is bestowed freely on each and every person, and this is fair to each and every person. God will not favor one person over another due to someone being a new believer, who has only believed for a couple of months, or someone who has believed for two years, for 10 years or for 20 years; nor will He treat each and every person, or anyone, differently because of their age, their appearance, their gender, the family they were born into or their family’s background, right? He hasn’t done this, has He? Each and every person obtains the same from God. He doesn’t make anyone obtain less, or make anyone obtain much more. To each and every person this is fair and reasonable. He gives to you in time and in proportion, not letting you go hungry, cold or thirsty, right? When God does these things, what does God require of man? That is, when God bestows these things on man, does He have a selfish motive? (No.) He doesn’t have any selfish motive. This is for certain, isn’t it?” (“Man is the Greatest Beneficiary of God’s Management Plan”). These words cleared up my misunderstandings of God. As it turned out, God treats everyone fairly. In the course of His salvation work, the truth He bestows to us and the environments and opportunities He arranges for us are all the same. Whether we ultimately attain the truth depends on whether we love and seek the truth. The essence of some people’s nature neither loves nor pursues the truth. Even though they have believed in God for many years, they have missed every chance given by God to gain the truth, and they will attain nothing in the end. While, some people haven’t believed in God for very long, but they have a heart that loves and craves the truth. They often pray to God, seek the truth and act according to His word when encountering things. Finally, they will attain the truth and have a pleasant destination.
I reflected: Why can’t I praise the righteousness of God in this matter but always rely on my conceptions and imaginations to look at things and complain about God? Is this not because my conceptions and imaginations are not compatible with the standard by which God judges man? I determine who deserves to win God’s approval on the basis of who has believed in God for a long time, who understands the Bible more, who works hard or who is respected by people. While God doesn’t judge people by these. He establishes one’s outcome not according to the outward objective factors but according to whether he attains the truth. Just as a passage in a book says, “I decide the destination of each man not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, or least of all, the degree of misery, but on whether they possess truth. There is no other choice but this” (“You Ought to Do Enough Good Deeds to Prepare for Your Destination”). I saw that God eventually decides man’s outcome based purely on whether he possesses truth. This is the standard by which God judges man. For God doesn’t look at our status, seniority, our time spent believing in Him or amount of suffering, thus regardless of whether we are leaders or ordinary believers, all those who long for and seek the truth and who are humble or obedient will obtain God’s enlightenment and blessings, like the laborers who went into the vineyard late. All those who have believed in God for a long time but have not obtained the truth will be eliminated in the end, no matter how much suffering they have endured or how qualified they are. That’s an undeniable fact that nobody can alter.
I thought back to when God led the Israelites out of Egypt. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Those young men and the lofty “warriors” looked up to by others all died in the wilderness because of complaining about God; eventually only the women and children who obeyed His sovereignty and arrangements and never complained about Him entered Canaan. That is quite contrary to our imaginations and conceptions. Take another example: The Jewish chief priests, Pharisees and scribes believed that they were familiar with the Bible and the law and some of them traveled far and wide to preach the gospel, so they felt that they worked most and had impressive qualifications, and that they were best qualified to welcome the Messiah and receive His selection. However, when the Lord Jesus came to work, He didn’t choose them, nor appear to work among them according to people’s notions and imaginations, but instead He chose the fisherman Peter, the farmer John and others as His disciples outside of the temple because He knew the Pharisees didn’t have a God-revering heart. They served God using their years of work as capital; they arrogantly and stubbornly held to themselves and denied the appearance of God because the Lord Jesus was not called Messiah. They clearly knew that the Lord Jesus’ word has authority and has power, and yet they were not willing to let go of their status or seek the truth, much less accept God’s new work. Moreover, they resisted His work with their knowledge of the Bible and their notions and imaginations. Therefore they were eliminated by the Lord Jesus’ work. On the contrary, though the disciples of the Lord and the Jews who followed Him had less knowledge of the Bible and didn’t, like the Pharisees, travel around the world preaching the gospel and work hard, yet they had a fearful and seeking heart and also had a thirst for the truth. Thus the Lord Jesus bestowed the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and the way of repentance upon them, so that they could receive His salvation.
The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). From this, I realized that if we want to receive God’s blessings, we should have a heart that loves and longs for the truth, and practically pursue the truth and walk in His way, and in so doing, we will receive His blessings.
Under God’s enlightenment and guidance, I understood: No matter how much God’s work does not fit with our notions, He is righteous. He looks deep into man’s heart and has a thorough understanding of us. He knows best who truly believes in Him and loves the truth and who is a hypocrite and is weary of the truth. So, God decides our different outcomes on the basis of our essence and there is absolutely no deviation. Hence we shouldn’t measure God’s work with our conceptions and imaginations. Instead, we should pursue the truth and be obedient in the environment He has created for us. This is what a sensible creation should do.
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