Wei Lin from the East speaks, "Thoughts on God's divine nature -- perfectly just, loving unconditionally."

Dear all bros & sis,

Coincidentally, my bible talk berean group was also doing a study on Matt 20. So, tot of sharing our insights with you all. We did our discussion based on the theme, Jesus as the servant.

Let's grow deeper in our love for god and his words this year as we embark on our journey of NT readings. :)

love,
weilin

Matthew 20: 1-16 – Parable of the vineyard workers

God is humble to invite outsiders to His kingdom. God is in fact doing the workers a favour by employing them; as the workers are all idling. Even though it is a losing business for the vineyard owner, he accepts all the idle workers; jus like how god accepts us through grace.

God is generous to give every sinner equal amount of grace and is impartial by not showing favouritism to anyone who enters His kingdom earlier than the rest.

Do our best to serve even though every follower will still receive the same reward from God himself at the end of the day.

The workers who started work earlier; they complained when they only received a denarius; the same amount as the workers who started work later. They feel that they deserved more than a denarius since they put in more hours of work. The workers who complained had a worldly mindset about servant hood. They forgot that it was the vineyard owner who first gave them a job when they were idling.

Do we have a worldly mindset about servant hood? Do we look at other Christians and compare how much we serve and how much we gained?

We need to remind ourselves that we serve because god chose us and gave us salvation first even before we started doing anything for him.

Matthew 20: 24-28 – Being a slave for god

As slaves, when we have victories, the credit is to the master. Sometimes, in the world when we have victories, we claim the credit for ourselves and we built on our reputation in the world. Serve with an attitude without claiming any credit and recognition.

As slaves, we do not have anything, there are no possessions owned by the slaves. They are fully under the control of the master; and submit to the master in obedience. Be grateful to God as a Master who is still willing to provide my needs even when I am His slave.

We are either slaves to sins or slaves to God. Make a stand to choose to be God’s slave to righteousness, letting Him take total control of my life.

Are we being slaves to God or other things in our lives?