The Wages

"Are you paying me?"

I've heard this phrase a hundred times in my life, and I too, have asked this question.

"Are you going to pay me?"

This question has become a favorite from two of the grandchildren who are temporarily living with us.

This question usually follows this question from me, "Do you wanna help me in the yard?"

The grandkids have learned that their labor is worth something because I've paid them before.  If I need sticks picked up or leaves raked, it's going to cost me.  Their past payment for yard work has been a few dollars, a trip to the thrift store or the best wage of all...a grandma hug.

However, they never pick the hug.  I may be doling those out a bit too freely.

When it comes to yard work, I have one worker who usually works a bit harder than the other.  I won't name names, but it's the girl.  She really has the whole "workman is worthy of his hire" thing all figured out.

If she works for it, she expects to be paid for it.  She is very mindful of the concept; how hard you work should equal how much you are paid.  She may have lived more of her life overseas than in America, but she's a capitalist at heart.

In the Bible, we are reminded of this principle of wages being paid for services.  Nope, I'm not going to tell you the parable of the laborer, but that's a good one.

In Roman 6:23 we read about another promise of wages.  "For the wages of sin is death..."

This is payment that all of us would like to reject, but that's not how the wages of sin works.  You do the sin--you're gonna get paid with death which equals eternal separation from God!

The great news of Roman 6:23 is found in the second part of the verse.  This part gives us a reprieve, a renegotiation of the pervious set wages.

"...but the gift of God is eternal life 
through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Now that's a wage that no one should argue with, yet many still walk away from the negotiation table leaving that gift unopened.