So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
So the last shall be first, and the first last: - q.d., 'Take heed lest by indulging the spirit of these "murmurers" (complainers) at the "penny" given to the last hired, ye miss your own penny, though first in the vineyard; while the consciousness of having come in so late may inspire these last with such a humble frame, and such admiration of the grace that has hired and rewarded them at all, as will put them into the foremost place in the end.'
For many be called, but few chosen. This is another of our Lord's terse and pregnant sayings, more than once uttered in different connections. (See Matthew 19:30; Matthew 22:14.) The "calling" of which the New Testament almost invariably speaks is what divines call effectual calling, carrying with it a supernatural operation on the will to secure its consent. But that cannot be the meaning of it here; the "called" being emphatically distinguished from the "chosen." It can only mean here the 'invited.' And so the sense is, Many receive the invitations of the Gospel whom God has never "chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13). But what, it may be asked, has this to do with the subject of our parable? Probably this-to teach us that men who have worked in Christ's service all their days may, by the spirit which they manifest at the last, make it too evident that, as between God and their own souls, they never were chosen workmen at all.
Taking the parable thus, the difficulties which have divided so many commentators seem to melt away, and its general teaching may be expressed in the following.
Remarks:
(1) True Christianity is a life of active service rendered to Christ, whose love, as soon as one has tasted that the Lord is gracious, constrains him to live not unto himself, but unto Him that died for him and rose again.
(2) Though we might well deem it a privilege to work for Christ without fee or reward, yet is our Father pleased to attach rewards-not of merit, of course, but of pure grace, as all rewards to those who once were sinners must be-to faithful working in His vineyard.
(3) Although the Lord may surely "do what He will with His own," and so His rewards must be regarded as all flowing from His own sovereign will, yet there is a certain equity stamped upon them in relation to each other. That true attachment to Christ, and that fidelity in His service which is common to all chosen labourers in His vineyard-this is acknowledged by a reward common to all alike; and only those services in which Christians differ from each other in self-sacrificing devotedness are distinguished by special rewards corresponding with their character. And thus, while aspiring to those special rewards to distinguished Christians which are promised at the close of Matthew 19:1-30, we are never to forget that there are gracious rewards common to all the true servants of Christ.
(4) How unreasonable and ungrateful are those who, not contented with being called into the service of Christ-itself a high privilege-and graciously rewarded for all they do, envy their fellow-servants, and reflect upon their common Master, for seeming to do to others more than is consistent with justice to themselves. Such was the spirit of the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-32). Those men who appeal to God's justice will find their mouth closed in the day that He deals with them.
(5) Let those who, conscious of having come in late, are afraid lest neither themselves nor their offers of service should be accepted at all, be encouraged by the assurance which this parable holds forth, that as long as the working-day of life and the present state of the kingdom of grace lasts, so long will the great Householder be found looking out for fresh labourers in His vineyard, and so long will He be ready to receive the offers and engage the services of all that are prepared to yield themselves to Him.
(6) What strange revelations will the day of final reckoning make-discovering some that came latest in, and were least accounted of, among the first in the ranks of heaven; and some that were earliest in, and stood the highest in Christian estimation, among the last and lowest in the ranks of heaven; and some not among them at all who were of greatest note in the Church below! "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His; and, Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19).
But that is not all the teaching of this parable; because, as Olshausen finely says, the parables are like many-sided precious stones, cut so as to cast their luster in more than one direction.