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Matthew 20:13 · World English Bible

Matthew 20:13 Meaning But He Answered One of Them

But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius?

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What does Matthew 20:13 mean?

The householder's answer is love's steady reply to every accusation the mind brings: no wrong has been done. The one who feels cheated has received in full what was agreed; nothing has been taken from him, only given to another as well.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Matthew 20:13 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The householder's answer is love's steady reply to every accusation the mind brings: no wrong has been done. The one who feels cheated has received in full what was agreed; nothing has been taken from him, only given to another as well. His grievance rests on a wrong that is not there, a figure in a dream of scarcity.

This is forgiveness in its simplest form, the gentle correction that shows the injury was imagined. When the mind sees it has lost nothing, the complaint has nowhere left to stand.

Penny: the single peace agreed upon and given in full, proof that nothing was withheld and the sense of being cheated was never real.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Matthew 20:13 today

  1. Take the grievance you were going to carry all day and check it honestly: what was actually taken from you? Often nothing is missing but your version of events.
  2. Before sending the email that lists what you were owed, read it once and ask if any real loss occurred. Then write the shorter, kinder one.
  3. When someone wrongs you in traffic or in line, let it be true that you still have everything you had a minute ago. Your day is untouched unless you hand it over.

What have I been treating as an injury that I cannot actually find?

The same truth in other traditions

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

Take away the judgment that you have been harmed, and the harm itself goes with it. Nothing was done to you but your opinion of it.

Buddhism

You wake from a dream of being robbed and find nothing missing. The fear was real and the theft never was.

Tao Te Ching 8

Water does not argue its case. It stays low, takes no offense, and so nothing can be taken from it.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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