<p>20:8&nbsp;<em>And when evening came</em>- The Lord&rsquo;s coming is likened to the dawn in Mal. 4, here to the sunset. The day of opportunity for service ends, and yet in another sense the sun arises heralding the eternal day of God&rsquo;s Kingdom.</p><p><em>The owner of the vineyard said to his steward- </em>AV &quot;The Lord&quot;. The Lord of the vineyard is presumably God, and His &ldquo;steward&rdquo;, the duty manager, is the Lord Jesus.</p><p><em>Call the labourers</em>-&nbsp;<em>Kaleo</em>&nbsp;is used both of the calling of men and women to the Gospel in this life, and also of the final call to judgment. In responding to the call, we are actually embarking upon a journey to judgment, and therefore as the Lord elsewhere explains, it is absurd if we uphold differences with our brother on that journey. We are on our way to judgment- that should humble us and impart a sense of urgency to every moment of this journey. Mt. 22:3 speaks of how the Lord&rsquo;s Angelic servants &ldquo;call them that were bidden&rdquo;. But &ldquo;call&rdquo; and &ldquo;bidden&rdquo; both translate&nbsp;<em>kaleo</em>. The called ones are further called- to judgment.</p><p><em>And pay them their wages-&nbsp;</em>At the judgment, the preacher receives&nbsp;<em>wages</em>&nbsp;for what he did (Jn. 4:36), the labourers receive&nbsp;<em>hire</em>&nbsp;(s.w. wages) for their work in the vineyard (Mt. 20:8; 1 Cor. 3:8). There is a&nbsp;<em>reward</em>&nbsp;(s.w. wages) for those who rise to the level of loving the totally unresponsive (Mt. 5:46), or preaching in situations quite against their natural inclination (1 Cor. 9:18).&nbsp;<em>Salvation</em>&nbsp;itself isn't given on this basis of works; but the judgment is of works in order to teach us self-knowledge. And this is why there will be a 'going through' of our deeds. In this life, we see ourselves in a dark mirror; but only when the Lord appears will we clearly see ourselves face to face. This coming to true self-knowledge will only be possible through the judgment process. There is indeed a &lsquo;wage&rsquo; paid for Gospel work; each man shall receive &ldquo;his own reward s.w. &ldquo;hire&rdquo; according to his labour&rdquo;- but that &ldquo;reward&rdquo; is the fact that a man&rsquo;s work &lsquo;abides&rsquo; through the fire of the final judgment (1 Cor. 3:8,14). So whilst the hire / reward / wage is on one hand salvation, it will also be unique to each of us and directly in proportion to the success of our work with others. If they enter the Kingdom, then that will be an aspect of our eternal reward, and thus Paul can say that his eternal &ldquo;crown of rejoicing&rdquo; is the likes of his Thessalonian converts standing approved at the final judgment (1 Thess. 2:19). So often, allegiance to a particular denominational way of thinking hinders believers from this work. They may read these words and find the idea somewhat strange, because they feel they have never brought anyone into the group they belong to. But the group we ultimately belong to is the body of Christ. The commission to take the Gospel to the world and baptize them is given to each of us. And so we do well to ask ourselves the question: &lsquo;How many times have I ever asked someone if they want to be baptized, offered to baptize them, and baptized someone?&rsquo;. Fear of eldership displeasure and rejection from what is little more than a church social club has hamstrung so much such witness.</p><p><em>Beginning from the last to the first-&nbsp;</em>The giving of the payment begins at the last, which is an element of unreality in the story. The message may be that this was in order to teach the longer and harder working labourers that the wage really was a penny a day for each worker. The purpose of the judgment process will be for our benefit, and one of the hardest lessons for Christ&rsquo;s people is to accept that others who worked less than us are really also saved to the same extent and by the same grace as we are.</p>