Those who work deserve their pay! 1 Timothy 5:18b

 

Have you ever done work that you didn’t end up getting paid for? You were no doubt unhappy…and so was God.

 

Lars is a gifted craftsman who cares for homes of the rich and famous. He sees to every detail of their homes and beautifully renovates spaces to suit the tastes of his high-net worth clients. When a client referred him to a new customer, he was pleased to get the business. But when that new customer refused to pay him for the work he did, he moved on, disappointed…even disgusted at the way the incredibly wealthy woman cheated the person she had agreed to employ.

 

Of course, this is nothing new. An account in the Old Testament of the Bible tells how a king said, “I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows. I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar and paint it a lovely red” (Jeremiah 22:14-15). But he built his palace by forcing his neighbors to work for nothing: “What sorrow awaits him,” God said, because “He does not pay them for their labor” (22:1).

 

That king was without excuse, because God had already said, “Never take advantage of laborers…You must pay them their wages each day before sunset…If you don’t, they might cry out to the Lord against you and it would be counted against you as sin” (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). The New Testament of the Bible simply says, “Those who work deserve their pay!” (1 Timothy 5:18b)

 

Do you employ people? God cares about how you treat them and pay them. And if you’re a worker who is being mistreated, cry out to the God of justice who cares about you and values your honest labor.