Bondservants and Masters

^5 (A)Bondservants,^[a] obey your earthly masters^[b] with fear and trembling, ^(B)with a sincere heart, ^(C)as you would Christ, ⁶ not by the way of eye-service, as ^(D)people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, ⁷ rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, ^8 (E)knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, ^(F)whether he is a bondservant or is free. ⁹ Masters, do the same to them, ^(G)and stop your threatening, knowing that ^(H)he who is both their Master^[c] and yours is in heaven, and that ^(I)there is no partiality with him.

4 Masters, treat your bondservants^[a] justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

²⁵ But Jesus called them to him and said, ^(A)“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles ^(B)lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

Laborers in the Vineyard

20 “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. ² After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius^[a] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶ And ^(A)about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸ And ^(B)when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his ^(C)foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ ⁹ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰ Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and ^(D)the scorching heat.’ ¹³ But he replied to one of them, ^(E)‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

^23 (A)Whatever you do, work heartily, ^(B)as for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord ^(C)you will receive the inheritance as your reward. ^(D)You are serving the Lord Christ.