“No one can serve two masters. Either he will
hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” [Mammon KJV] (Matthew 6:24)
This passage points out one of our
Lord’s greatest enemies and one of our biggest hindrances in serving the Lord
wholeheartedly.
A master makes decisions and creates
the circumstances that influence his servant’s life. In New Testament times, a
slave belonged to his master and obeyed his master’s every bidding. Today,
those of us who work for someone else have some understanding of what a master
is. We understand the principle of doing what the employer expects. We have
little choice or input into the system outside the established policies.
Jesus specifically used the term
“master” in this context. We belong to the master we choose to serve. The
master makes demands and manipulates the circumstances that cause us to be
dependent on or controlled by him. In New Testament days, the master controlled
his slave’s circumstances to the point that the slave could not survive on his
own. He depended on the master for both lodging and food.
According to our passage, the
Christian can serve or belong to only one of two masters: God or Mammon. Mammon
is the god of money. A god is a spiritual being with power. A god cannot be
controlled by people but always controls and enslaves them.
There is only one living God, and all
false gods or idols are dead, but we find power behind them. Only two spiritual
powers inhabit the universe: the power of light and the power of darkness.
Satan, God’s enemy, controls the power of darkness. In all his activities, he
attempts to deceive people and draw them away from the Lord. Jesus described
him to his children, the important people of the day (the Pharisees), as follows: “You belong
to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He
was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and
the father of lies,” (John
8:44).
Satan’s strategy of deception is the
creation of rulers, authorities, and powers, (Ephesians 6:12) whose lies
control people and keep them from the love and truth of God that could set them
free. Examples of such gods are Mammon, lust, and power. Satan is the actual
god of darkness who controls lives and the so-called gods are his demons—the
fallen angels, including Mammon.
The motivation and
methods of control that God and Mammon use are also somewhat different.
Whenever the Lord emphasizes something in the Bible, the devil uses every
opportunity within his power to influence people to oppose God in that area. For example, using the
Lord’s name in vain in the movies opposes Exodus 20:7 and pornography opposes Jesus' command in Matthew 5:28.
God’s command
prohibiting the serving of two masters is Mammon’s motivation behind his determination to make people materialistic. Mammon saw this as a challenge to compete with God for our love. He
uses every opportunity to influence people to rely on money rather than the
Lord. Satan even saw an opportunity to try to deceive Jesus to bow to Mammon and therefore to himself. “Again, the
devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow
down and worship me,’”
(Matthew 4:8, 9).
Mammon uses subtle strategies. If the
devil would approach someone and say, “I’m the devil, follow me,” how would
that person react? She would run as fast as she could. Instead, he gradually turns up the heat so you will not notice you are being controlled by money. To be continued.
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