Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 20:10

"And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received every man a shilling." — Matthew 20:10 (ASV)

Possibly the first felt their vanity wounded by being paid after the others. They used their waiting time to consider their own superiority to the late-comers. Filled with legal principles, they kicked at the sovereignty of grace and, in this matter, effectively rebelled against justice also.

Those who are not friends with any one attribute of God are not in love with the others. Sooner or later, those who rage against sovereignty also resist justice.

They had what was promised them. What more could they want—a fair wage was given; they received every man a penny. What more could they expect? But they supposed—that was the difficulty. They had a theory to support, a supposition to justify, and so they were aggrieved because their supposition did not develop into a fact.

God will not be bound by our assumptions, and we only deceive ourselves if we think He will.

But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.

Why, there are some of us who have now been in Christ's vineyard ever since we were boys, but we must not think that we will receive, or can have, more than those who have just come in.

I have heard people say, "Why, here are these people just recently converted, and they are singing and rejoicing. And there are some of the old people who have been following the Lord for years and do not seem to have half the joy."

No, no; that is true. It is the old story of the elder brother and the prodigal, over again. But do not—do not let us repeat that forever and ever.

Do not let us get off the lines of free, rich, sovereign grace, and begin to think that there is some desert in us, some merit in us. Oh, my brothers, I will be glad enough to sit at the feet of the humblest child of God, if I am only to be accepted into the family—glad enough to have the same salvation which the dying thief obtained, though only at the last moment he looked to Christ. Yet this spirit will grow up—that some who have been longer in the work ought certainly to have more joy, more of everything, than those who have just come in. See the answer to it.