Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? Is it not lawful for me - As eternal life is the free gift of God, he has a right to give it in whatever proportions, at whatever times, and on whatever conditions he pleases.
Is thine eye evil - An evil eye among the Jews meant a malicious, covetous, or envious person.
Most commentators have different methods of interpreting this parable. Something was undoubtedly designed by its principal parts, besides the scope and design mentioned at the conclusion of the last chapter. The following, which is taken principally from the very pious Quesnel, may render it as useful to the reader as any thing else that has been written on it.
The Church is a vineyard, because it is a place of labor, where no man should be idle. Each of us is engaged to labor in this vineyard - to work out our salvation through him who worketh in us to will and to perform. Life is but a day, whereof childhood, or the first use of reason, is the day-break or first hour, Matthew 20:1, in which we receive the first Call.
The promise of the kingdom of glory is given to all those who are workers together with him, Matthew 20:2.
The second call is in the time of youth, which is most commonly idle, or only employed in dissipation and worldly cares, Matthew 20:3.
The third call is at the age of manhood.
The fourth, in the decline of life, Matthew 20:5.
The fifth, when sickness and the infirmities of life press upon us. How many are there in the world who are just ready to leave it, before they properly consider for what end they were brought into it! Still idle, still unemployed in the things which concern their souls; though eternal life is offered to them, and hell moving from beneath to meet them! Matthew 20:6.
Others consider the morning the first dawn of the Gospel; and the first call to be the preaching of John Baptist.
The second call, the public preaching of our Lord; and that of the apostles when they got an especial commission to the Jews, Matthew 10:5, Matthew 10:6, together with that of the seventy disciples mentioned Luke 10:1.
The third call, which was at mid-day, represents the preaching of the fullness of the Gospel after the ascension of Christ, which was the meridian of evangelic glory and excellence.
The fourth call represents the mission of the apostles to the various synagogues of the Jews, in every part of the world where they were scattered; the history of which is particularly given in the Acts of the Apostles.
The fifth call, or eleventh hour, represents the general call of the Gentiles into the Church of Christ, when the unbelieving Jews were finally rejected.
What makes this interpretation the more likely is, that the persons who are addressed at Matthew 20:7, say, No man hath hired us, i.e. We never heard the voice of a prophet announcing the true God, nor of an apostle preaching the Lord Jesus, until now. The Jews could not use this as an argument for their carelessness about their eternal interests.