| Employment by the Lord - Watchman Nee |
 |
 |
 |
|
Watchman Nee wrote: “And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?” (Matthew 20:6). This word "idle" in Greek is argos, helps greatly to illumine Paul's doctrine of deliverance from sin, for it forms the root of the word he uses in Romans 6:6 when he writes of the body of sin being "done away," that is to say, 'made ineffective," "put our of operation," by the Cross. Sin, the old master, is still about, but in Christ the slave who served him has been put to death, and so is out of reach and his members are unemployed. The gambler's hand is unemployed, the swearer's tongue is unemployed, and theses members are now available to be used instead as "instruments of righteousness unto God." To be able under these circumstances to say, in reply to the Lord's question, "Because no man hath hired us," is to invite employment by him in the most rewarding service there is. "Go ye also into my vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you." |