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

 

 "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 were 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 boy 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).  On Monday, our readings focused on Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount regarding three basic practices of our faith: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.  Embedded in those teachings were Jesus' specific gift to us of the prayer we know as The Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father.  Yesterday we read that section of the sermon.  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 were thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  My study Bible comments here that by attaching themselves to treasures on earth, people cut themselves off from heavenly treasures.  It says they become slaves to earthly things rather than free in Christ.  The heart of discipleship is found first of all disentangling ourselves from the chains of earthly things, and secondly by attaching ourselves to God, who is our true treasure.  

 

 "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 boy will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  According to my study Bible, the mind (νοῦς/nous in Greek) is the spiritual eye of the soul.  It illuminates the inner person, and governs our will.  It adds that keeping the mind wholesome and pure is fundamental to the Christian life. 

 

"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 are slaves serving two masters, then we attempt to maintain an attachment to both earthly and heavenly things.  My study Bible comments that this is impossible, as both demand full allegiance.   Here, it says, Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but because of the control it has over people.  

 

 Jesus' teaching regarding the inability to serve two masters bears more scrutiny to understand Him better.  In today's age of multi-tasking we might find it a little hard to understand.  But Christ's understanding is of the working of the heart and the soul, not simply the intellectual processes that distract us.  Moreover, we might further take a look at this word "mammon," which has a deeper meaning than simply material riches.   According to Strong's definitions, it comes from a Chaldee/Aramaic word that implies wealth as personified, the wealth in which one places confidence or trust.  This should recall to readers in the United States a motto which is printed on all U.S. currency:  "In God We Trust."  While this is, in fact, the official motto of the country, printed on our currency it implies a familiarity with this teaching by Christ.  It suggests to us in our contemporary period that while we enjoy incredible prosperity and wealth in our country as a whole, our confidence belongs somewhere else.  Our real confidence rests in real power, and there is no greater power nor authority than God.  To trust in riches in the context of Christ's teaching implies this confidence and faith placed in material things, without regard for a higher power or spiritual reality.  It's a reminder of St. Paul's teaching, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:10).  This teaching is popularly misquoted, failing to distinguish between money as subject and the actual subject of this statement, which is "the love of money."  This love implies a kind of loyalty, a depth of trust; in effect, at is to make an idol of money.  (The word in Greek translated as "love of money" - φιλαργυρία/philargyria -- literally means "friend of silver," as the most common forms of currency were in weights of silver.)  We can look at the story of the rich young ruler to take another look at this problem of the love of wealth (Matthew 19:16-22).  A young man comes to Christ, asking what he must do to attain eternal life.  He tells Christ that he has followed all the commandments from his youth.  He likely comes from one of the wealthy ruling families in the temple, perhaps from what was considered a type of aristocracy of Jerusalem.  In this sense, then, his wealth would be connected to family identity and inherited position.  But St. Mark tells us that Jesus loved him (Mark 10:21), and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."  The young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  Jesus does not tell this man to sell his possessions and give to the poor simply out of a sense of social justice, conscience, or other politically or socially compelling reason.  He doesn't say that his wealth is evil.  He does not tell this man to do so because he is in some sense "bad."  But it was his attachment to that wealth that was a hindrance to his following Christ, to fully loving God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength (Matthew 22:37-39).  We do not know exactly what type of stumbling block it provided; perhaps through family obligation.  St. John Chrysostom teaches that the command to sell all of his wealth was the first and easiest; and that it is far more difficult to follow all of Christ's commands for one's life.  But nonetheless the sacrifices any of us would be called to make in discipleship are different and specific for each person, and this was necessary for that particular young man.  Jesus encourages us all to detachment, to the understanding that our love of God must come first before all things, for we cannot serve two masters.  Let us understand ourselves as we are created to be.  We will always have such a choice, for this question of serving one master or another is a fitting and pertinent description of our nature, whether or not we want to accept it.  We will always have to choose one first, and cultivate detachment from the other.  Of course "mammon" or "riches" can come in all kinds of forms.  But it's always a question of what our ultimate love is, and where we are headed.  What do we treasure most?  Where is our true good in life?  Everything depends upon how we see -- with eyes guided by the light of Christ, or the darkness of idolatry?