Matthew 20:15

Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?

David Brown

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? that is, "You appeal to justice, and by that your mouth is shut; for the sum you agreed for is paid you. Your case being disposed of, with the terms I make with other labourers you have nothing to do; and to grudge the benevolence shown to others, when by your own admission you have been honourably dealt with, is both unworthy envy of your neighbour, and discontent with the goodness that engaged and rewarded you in his service at all."

Matthew Henry

• He had no reason to quarrel with the master; for what he gave was absolutely his own, Mat 20:15. As before he asserted his justice, so here his sovereignty; Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?

Note, [1] God is the Owner of all good; his propriety in it is absolute, sovereign, and unlimited.
[2] He may therefore give or withhold his blessings, as he pleases. What we have, is not our own, and therefore it is not lawful for us to do what we will with it; but what God has, is his own; and this will justify him, First, In all the disposals of his providence; when God takes from us that which was dear to us, and which we could ill spare, we must silence our discontents with this; May he not do what he will with his own? Abstulit, sed et dedit - He hath taken away; but he originally gave. It is not for such depending creatures as we are to quarrel with our Sovereign. Secondly, In all the dispensations of his grace, God gives or withholds the means of grace, and the Spirit of grace, as he pleases. Not but that there is a counsel in every will of God, and what seems to us to be done arbitrarily, will appear at length to have been done wisely, and for holy ends. But this is enough to silence all murmurs and objectors, that God is sovereign Lord of all, and may do what he will with his own. We are in his hand, as clay in the hands of a potter; and it is not for us to prescribe to him, or strive with him.

• He had no reason to envy his fellow servant, or to grudge at him; or to be angry that he came into the vineyard no sooner; for he was not sooner called; he had no reason to be angry that the master had given him wages for the whole day, when he had idled away the greatest part of it; for Is thine eye evil, because I am good? See here,

[1] The nature of envy; It is an evil eye. The eye is often both the inlet and the outlet of this sin. Saul saw that David prospered, and he eyed him, 1Sam 18:9, 15. It is an evil eye, which is displeased at the good of others, and desires their hurt. What can have more evil in it? It is grief to ourselves, anger to God, and ill-will to our neighbour; and it is a sin that has neither pleasure, profit, nor honour, in it; it is an evil, an only evil.
[2] The aggravation of it; “It is because I am good.” Envy is unlikeness to God, who is good, and doeth good, and delighteth in doing good; nay, it is an opposition and contradiction to God; it is a dislike of his proceedings, and a displeasure at what he does, and is pleased with. It is a direct violation of both the two great commandments at once; both that of love to God, in whose will we should acquiesce, and love to our neighbour, in whose welfare we should rejoice. Thus man's badness takes occasion from God's goodness to be more exceedingly sinful.

Albert Barnes

The Hebrews used the word evil, when applied to the eye, to denote one envious and malicious, Dt 15:9; Pro 23:6. The eye is called evil in such cases, because envy and malice show themselves directly in the eye. No passions are so fully expressed by the eye as these. "Does envy show itself in the eye? is thine eye so soon turned to express envy and malice because I have chosen to do good?"