Wages: Why and What For

Laws relating to wages

Payment should be made regularly

Deuteronomy 24:14–15 ESV

“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.

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How much you earn is not how much you are worth.

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A fair day’s work should be done

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A fair wage should be paid

A normal day’s pay for a labourer in NT times was one denarius.

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A fair day’s work should be done

2 Thessalonians 3:10–12 LEB

For even when we were with you, we used to command this to you: that if anyone does not want to work, neither should he eat. For we hear that some among you are living irresponsibly, working at nothing, but being busybodies. Now we command and we exhort such people in the Lord Jesus Christ that, working with quietness, they eat their own bread.

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Be Satisfied with Your Wage

Luke 3:14 LEB

And those who served in the army were also asking him, saying, “What should we also do?” And he said to them, “Extort from no one, and do not blackmail anyone, and be content with your pay.”

Wage earners suffer in times of trouble

Isaiah 19:10 LEB

And her weavers will be crushed; all the hired workers will be grieved of heart.

Jerusalem under judgment

Haggai 1:6 LEB

You have sown much but have harvested little. You have eaten without being satisfied; you have drunk without being satiated; you have worn clothes without being warm; the one who earns wages puts it in a pouch with holes.’

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The world under judgment

Revelation 6:6 LEB

And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not damage the olive oil and the wine!”

The example of Jacob as a wage earner

Jacob brought home the bacon. Well, not exactly bacon, because he didn’t eat pork.

Hosea 12:12 LEB

Jacob fled to the open field of Aram, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he watched over sheep.

See also He agreed his wages beforehand; He was paid in kind; He was cheated by Laban; He makes an arrangement he can turn to advantage; He accuses Laban of dishonesty; He protests his own honesty; He looks back on his experience.

The wages of God’s servants

The Levites

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Temple workers

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Zechariah’s derisory pay

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Labourers in the parable of the workers in the vineyard

Matthew 20:1–16 LEB

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man—the master of the house—who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. And after coming to an agreement with the workers for a denarius per day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to those people he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth and ninth hour he did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing there and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here the whole day unemployed?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go also into the vineyard.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last up to the first.’ And when the ones hired about the eleventh hour came, they received a denarius apiece. And when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, and they also received a denarius apiece. And when they received it, they began to complain against the master of the house, saying, ‘These last people worked one hour and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the burning heat!’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am not doing you wrong. Did you not come to an agreement with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go! But I want to give to this last person the same as I gave to you also. Is it not permitted for me to do whatever I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am generous?’ Thus the last will be first and the first last.”

Ministers of the gospel

1 Timothy 5:17–18 LEB

The elders who lead well must be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor by speaking and teaching. For the scripture says, “You must not muzzle an ox while it is threshing,” and “The worker is worthy of his wages.”

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The apostle Paul

It was Paul’s choice to work freely:

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He expressed gratitude for gifts he received.

Spiritual lessons from wages

Life’s rewards are hard-earned

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The wages of sin

Romans 6:21–23 LEB

Therefore what sort of fruit did you have then, about which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, having been set free from sin and having been enslaved to God, you have your fruit leading to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the compensation due sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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The freeness of God’s grace

Romans 4:4–5 LEB

Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited according to grace, but according to his due. But to the one who does not work, but who believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness,

The generosity of God

Matthew 20:9–16 LEB

And when the ones hired about the eleventh hour came, they received a denarius apiece. And when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, and they also received a denarius apiece. And when they received it, they began to complain against the master of the house, saying, ‘These last people worked one hour and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the burning heat!’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am not doing you wrong. Did you not come to an agreement with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go! But I want to give to this last person the same as I gave to you also. Is it not permitted for me to do whatever I want with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am generous?’ Thus the last will be first and the first last.”

The rewards of righteousness

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