Jesus relates the following parable in Matthew 20:1-16 (ESV): "For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.' And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first, and the first last."
No book has been misunderstood or misinterpreted more than the Bible. Passages taken out of context or ignored, illogical conclusions, etc. Just when you think you've heard it all, a new one comes along that blows your mind. That's what happened to me today. A guy I know uses an interesting method to increase his paycheck. He works 4 hours on a weekday and puts down 8 or 10 hours on his timecard. He comes in on Saturday for 5 hours and puts down 12. You get the picture. He told me today that the preceding passage (Matthew 20:1-16) shows that it's OK to get paid a full day's wage for less than a full day's work & that provides Biblical justification for his timecard shenanigans. After mentally shaking my head in disbelief, I pointed out to him that it's a parable so it's not actually about money. It's about God's sovereignty and the fact that he gives the same salvation to all who are faithful Christians, regardless of their years of service or their age when they became a Christian. I'm not really sure that registered with him.
So why is the Bible so misunderstood? The preceding story is a perfect example. People twist the Bible to make it say what they want it to say. You want to live your life any old way you please? Hey, let's find something in the Bible & put our own spin on it, or better yet we'll just ignore the parts that we don't like. What if there's a deeper meaning to a passage like Matthew 20:1-16? Let's not go there, we have to make the Bible match our perspective instead of changing our perspective to match the Bible. Either the Bible is God's word or it isn't. If it isn't, then why read it at all? But since it is, it doesn't matter what men want it to say. It says what it says. Men can wish otherwise all they want but that's irrelevant. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever." (1 Peter 1:24-25, NKJV)
