LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Working in the Lord's Vineyard
"About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them: Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? Because no one has hired us, they answered. He said to them: You also go and work in my vineyard" (Matthew 20:6-7).
God does not want us to stand idle but to work. [This verse] tells us that God has His determined field of labor – the vineyard. Perhaps you will say you are very busy and have no leisure. But where on earth are you so busy? If you are not working in the vineyard, what difference is that from “standing idle”? If you are not living in the will of God, you are in God's sight as one standing idle, no matter how much other work you have been doing.
Or possibly you are busily engaged in so-called spiritual work, yet God may still say to you: “Why do you stand idle? Works done outside of this vineyard are not Mine”. Though you may be very busy, in God's eye you are idle nonetheless. Only works done in the vineyard are recognized by Him. Such works originate in God and are for God. If your work is done outside His will, all the days you have spent on it are reckoned by Him as making you as one who is standing idle…
“All day” points to a lifetime. How about you? Are you standing all the day idle? Or are you working in the vineyard? Do not misunderstand me as suggesting that you should resign from your work and preach. What is most essential is that whatever we do we must be clear we are standing in the will of God.
Working in the vineyard means working in the will of God. And in the vineyard of His will are all sorts of labors: some laborers are digging the ground, some are sowing the seed, and some are making repairs. No matter what work is being done, it will be acceptable if it is done for the good of the vineyard. And hence we need not be so exclusive as to consider only certain walks or works done by certain people as being God's works. No, as long as the days are spent in the vineyard, they will be remembered. (Watchman Nee).