Wages #3

Monday, July 7, 2025

“And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages” (Luke 3:14 KJV).

What can we learn from the Bible about “wages?”

Since the ancient Roman army sometimes paid its soldiers in the form of fish (food rations), the Greeks used the word “opsonion” (from “opsarion,” meaning “fish”) to mean “salary.” (“Salary” itself, interestingly enough, is from the Latin [“sal”] for “salt!”) Thus, this was the very term in the Greek New Testament that our King James translators thrice rendered “wages” (Luke 3:14; Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 11:8) and once rendered “charges” (1 Corinthians 9:7).

To best appreciate the sense of “wages,” we should see how it stands in opposition to “gift.” Romans 6:23 again: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Wages” is payment for service rendered or work performed. “Gift,” however, is something unmerited; it cannot be earned, but is simply what one person (out of goodness or kindness) offers another person. “Wages of sin” balances “gift of God.” Sin gives us what we deserve, but God gives us what we do not deserve. In fact, “gift” in Greek is “charisma,” based on “charis” (“grace”).

Romans 6:23 is simple to understand if want to understand it. The Christian life will fall apart—it will die, or cease to function—if we work or try to perform (“for the wages of sin is death”). However, God’s gift to us—what we do not deserve and what we cannot offer work for (or perform enough to merit)—is eternal life (“but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”). Eternal life is God’s very life, and that is the heart of victorious grace Christian living. It is Christ who works at Calvary, not we (Ephesians 2:8-10).

“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:21-23).