No one can serve two masters

 

 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."

 

- Matthew 6:19-24 

 

 We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught:   "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:  "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

 

  "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  My study Bible comments that by attaching themselves to treasures on earth, people cut themselves off from heavenly treasures.  It says that they become slaves to earthly things rather than free in Christ.  If we look at the story of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-30), we find Jesus counseling a person who was extremely attached to his possessions to an extent that they interfered with his spiritual life.  My study Bible adds that the heart of disciples lies in first disentangling ourselves from the chains of earthly things, and secondly attaching ourselves to God, who is the true treasure.  However, our possessions may be used in service to God, if we put the kingdom of God's first and seek God's will for us in prayer (Matthew 6:33).

"The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  The mind (Greek νοῦς/nous) is the spiritual eye of the soul, my study Bible says.  It illuminates the inner person and governs the will.  To keep one's mind wholesome and pure is fundamental to Christian life.  As Jesus' words express here, the loss one suffers through the failure to do so is very great.

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."  As slaves serving two masters, people attempt to maintain an attachment both to earthly and heavenly things, a note in my study Bible tells us.  But this is impossible because both will demand full allegiance.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but rather because of the control it has over people. 

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."  If we break down this last statement by Jesus in today's reading, we see that He is asking us to make a choice regarding what it is we'll put our trust in.   According to Strong's Concordance, mammon is derived from an Aramaic word.  While it is used to indicate money, it also has a more general derivation indicating that it means a treasure in which a person trusts, and therefore a valued currency.  If we understand the word this way, what He is doing, then, is contrasting God and worldly wealth in terms of their absolute natures.   Do we serve material wealth?  Is material wealth like God?  Or is God a reality far beyond something confined to material substance here in this world, and therefore worthy of our worship as God?  This is a question of asking us to make a choice regarding what it is we serve.   In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave us what we understand as the Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father, in which we are taught to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Jesus is asking His disciples to think about the vast difference between that personal God to whom we are to "pray in secret," and who "sees in secret," and who is "in the secret place" (see Monday's reading), and the material things that make up the world.  Do we worship something inanimate, trust in what is always mutable and changeable -- or do we serve God and allow the rest to fall into place behind that service?   Jesus speaks of the lamp of the body, the eye with which we see, indicating the mind and how it perceives and comprehends what it takes in.  We need to clarify and to keep the mind clean and not polluted or toxic so that we can truly perceive what our lives are about, truly understand and make good choices.  As He says, "If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  If our capacity to discern, to know, to think is clouded over with distractions and falsehoods and the darkness of spiritual ignorance, then imagine how great that "pollution" is, as it is our perception which leads our whole body, our whole lives, our capacity for decision-making.  Everything hinges on it.  So we come to the first verses in today's reading, in which Jesus asks us to consider what our treasure is -- and especially where our treasure is.  This is because everything else He speaks of, including our capacity for thinking and perception, and ultimately where we are going to place our true loyalty and what we're going to serve in life, comes from this basic question about "treasure."  It seems that what Jesus is saying is that what we treasure will define who we are, and give us our deepest identity, our heart.  Therefore He gives us His starkest warnings about how we think, what we dwell upon, what we trust in.  As is so often emphasized in this Bible Commentary, the root of the word for faith (πίστις/pistis) is really "trust" in the Greek of the Gospels; it's all about what we put our trust in, what gives something true value and substance.