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?  

 

 

 

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  

 

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  

 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

 

- Luke 16:10–17 (18) 

 

Yesterday we read that, after preaching three parables to the Pharisees and scribes about God's desire to save the lost (see the readings from Wednesday and Thursday), He also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."  My study Bible comments that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how one spends one's money.  The money which we consider to be our own, my study Bible notes, is actually another man's.  That is, it belongs to God, or at least to the poor.  In patristic texts, there is a universal view that a person's failure to give money to God's work is stealing.  Theophylact calls it "nothing less than embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study Bible notes that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise. 

 

 "The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."   A tittle is the smallest stroke in certain Hebrew letters.  So, what Christ teaches here is that the whole of the Law is affirmed as the foundation of His new teaching, the gospel of the kingdom of God.   

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Here is a teaching on divorce, which was a highly debated topic in Christ's time, particularly among the Pharisees.  My study Bible comments that in contrast to the easy access to divorce under the Mosaic Law, and because of the misuse of divorce in that time (a topic also important to the Pharisees), Jesus repeatedly condemns divorce in the Gospels (see for example, Matthew 5:31-32; 19:8-9), and He emphasizes the eternal nature of marriage.  The disputes over divorce often centered on the misuse of dowry money and remarriage for that purpose. 

It's important to understand Jesus' mentioning of the teaching regarding divorce in what seems to be an out-of-context mentioning of a different subject.  But, first of all, as noted above, divorce was also a matter of the misuse of marriage for purposes of financial gain, due to concerns about the way dowries could be manipulated through remarriage.  This was an important concern for the Pharisees also, and it distinguished them from the Sadducees.  So Jesus quite knew to whom He was preaching.  But, as is so often true in the Gospels, there is a kind of poetic "rhyming" [if you will] of subjects on a more abstract level.  Jesus is speaking of fidelity to God, to God's purposes, to God's will.  In that context, we can also consider the subject of marriage and divorce as touching upon the meaning of fidelity, of being true to something, upholding something.  This topic can also be extended to Christ's words on the Law:  that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."  As with the subject of divorce, the Pharisees were the ones who endlessly debated the fine points of the Law and believed they zealously upheld its commandments.  So here Jesus preaches about His gospel of the Kingdom, that it is founded upon the Law, in which a violation of one part of the Law meant a violation of all of it.  Fidelity to the commandments of God was the whole foundation of the Pharisees' belief in their traditions that they had built up; but Christ's preaching is always to emphasize that this fidelity must be true to God's purposes in the Law, otherwise it is a failure of fidelity to God.  In other words, the emphasis is on faithfulness.  So, in these perhaps abstract senses, Jesus' preaching here on divorce reminds them all that our loyalty is above all to God and to God's purposes, not to our interpretation of traditions that may hinder the practice of mercy, which is prized above all.  As part of today's daily lectionary readings, we're also given a passage in the Epistle of James (James 2:1-13).  In that passage, James also speaks of fidelity to the Law, but he speaks also of what he calls the "royal law" :  "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well" (James 2:8), and the chapter finishes with the following:  "So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:12-13).   In His conversation here in Luke, addressing both the Pharisees and scribes who complain that He receives and eats with tax collectors and sinners, and in Christ's address of yesterday's parable of the Unjust Steward to His disciples, Jesus has embraced on the whole this topic of mercy and justice.  In His preaching against divorce, He has also brought mercy into the equation.  In Matthew 19, Jesus prefaces the same words He teaches here against divorce with this sentence:  "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (see Matthew 19:8-9).  So in the teachings in this chapter on the use of money, on forgiveness and sin, even on good stewardship in its broad sense, all echo themes of love, mercy, and the practice of God's justice:  fidelity and faithfulness to God's purpose in all things. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

 

 "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.  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 reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught about prayer:   "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.  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.  One becomes a slave to earthly things, rather than free in Christ.  This is also a part of the cultivation of dispassion, detachment.  It notes that the heart of discipleship is in disentangling ourselves from the chains earthly things would place upon us, and attaching ourselves to God, who is the 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 body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  My study Bible explains that the mind (in Greek, nous, the root of words like "noetic" in English; metanoia in Greek) is the spiritual eye of the soul.  It illuminates the inner person, and governs the will.  To keep one's mind wholesome and pure is fundamental to 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."  As a slave who serve two masters, people try to keep an attachment both to earthly and heavenly things (note the keyword "attachment").  But this kind of slavish attachment to both earthly and heavenly things is impossible -- both demand full allegiance, my study Bible tells us.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but because of the control it has over people.  

What is mammon exactly?  Some translate this word as "riches."  Others suggest "treasure."   When these Gospels were written in Greek, apparently their authors did not feel there was a sufficient Greek word that captured it exactly and so we're given mammon.  Here and in Luke 16:13, Jesus speaks of mammon in a personified way, and indicating opposition to God, so suggesting an evil force akin to a god or the demonic.  Originally it seems have been a Chaldean word that indicates "what is trusted in."  So taken altogether, it seems that the point of Christ's juxtaposition of God and mammon here is teaching us about valuing the material, or what we "treasure up," as if we rely on it to save us and fulfill all the needs we have.  This is by nature, effectively, something that is opposed to God, as it is God who not only truly saves us, but God who asks for our primary dependence and loyalty.  Elsewhere, in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) -- Christ's foundational parable for His gospel mission -- Jesus speaks of the "deceitfulness of riches" as that which is symbolized in the thorns that choke the word of God in human beings.  That "deceitfulness of riches" gives us another key to Christ's view of the character of mammon, akin to one we think is a friend, but who betrays us.  This is the sum total of the effect of trusting in mammon, and Jesus' warning takes on a greater weight as He speaks of needing to choose whom we serve.  Whether or not we'd like to say we're capable of choosing both or of loving or serving more than one thing at once, Christ's words are true -- this is the way that life works.  It is the foundation of creation itself; we seek Creator first to set all things in order.  To choose to serve the "creature" or even something man-made like material treasure is to be out of balance, confused.  In a sense it is the blind leading the blind; or, in this case, something with no capacity for understanding leading us altogether, like the Israelites using a golden calf to worship God (Exodus 32).  Jesus begins today's reading by speaking about treasure and the heart.  Many interpretations suggest that this is about using one's wealth in an unselfish way, through charity.  But clearly the teaching on mammon asks us what we trust in, and to make a choice what we will serve first (and obviously, we may also serve God through acts of charity; see James 1:27).  The single-mindedness Christ asks us for is embodied in His use of the eye as metaphor.  Our focus must take in the light of God to guide us, leaving out the darkness that would fill us with its own bad effects.  The nature of the mind is one that does not compartmentalize efficiently or well, and certainly not for a lifetime; our own self-contradictions if not resolved will result in a darkness indeed.  Jesus says, " If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"   He warns us about a kind of darkness that is like a black hole; it simply keeps absorbing whatever there is into its darkness.  Christ always portrays human beings as those who are on a path somewhere, and so we must carefully choose what we follow, what ultimate guides us, where our loyalty lies.  A truly materialistically-minded person may choose to believe that we are simply a bag of cells, components of matter, and so a kind of neutral -- even stagnant -- entity which outside forces can't much change.  But this kind of trust in matter alone is deceitful and blinding, for life and the forces around us are persuasive indeed, especially when we're not really paying attention and not making a clear choice.  Christ emphasizes over and over again the importance of our focus, and here indicates the stark choice of what we serve first -- for this choice will come up over and over again in our lives.  Let us consider where our heart is, and where our eye (our mind) is focused. In the Greek text, the word rendered "good" (in if therefore your eye is good) can literally be translated as "single" or "simple," but that word is used in the Gospels to mean "pure" or "unadulterated."  If we take these meanings altogether, we have an admonition regarding how we look out at the world, and what kind of things block not only our vision but the light that illuminates our minds, bodies, and souls.  Jesus speaks of a wholistic life, and the importance of our own clarity and direction. 

You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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." 

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

- Luke 16:10-18 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus also said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

  "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"    My study Bible comments that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how each person spends one's money.  The money which we consider to be our own, my study Bible says, is actually another man's.  That is, all wealth ultimately belongs to God -- or at least to the poor in need.  In patristic commentary, a person's failure to give money to God's work is seen as stealing.  Theophylact comments that such failure is "nothing less than the embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."

"No servant 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."   Taken in the context of Christ's comments prior to this (as well as the parable in yesterday's reading -- see above), Jesus puts it plainly.  You cannot serve God and mammon.  Therefore even "unrighteous mammon" (wealth or money) is to be used to serve God and God's purposes.  There is one highest priority that comes first, and all things are subject to that priority.

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study Bible comments here that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.  Again, Jesus is elaborating on the statement that one cannot serve God and mammon, and if we but look closely, all these things which are "highly esteemed among men" also fall into the category of mammon, of material life. 

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it."    In preaching the kingdom of God, Jesus is fulfilling the law and the prophets (see Matthew 5:17).  My study Bible comments that Jesus fulfills the law in Himself, in His words, and in His actions.  First, He performs God's will in all its fullness (Matthew 3:15).  Second, He transgresses none of the precepts of the law (John 8:46; 14:30).  He also declares the perfect fulfillment of the law, the gospel of the Kingdom; and this gospel grants righteousness -- the goal of the law -- to us (Romans 3:31; 8:3-4; 10:4).  He fulfills the prophets by both being and carrying out what they foretold.   

 

"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."  Additionally, righteousness according to the law is seen as a unified whole, and not separate categories one either checks off or does not.  That is, the observance of all the least commandments, my study Bible explains, is to observe the whole law, while the violation of the least commandment is considered a violation of the whole law.  See Matthew 5:19.

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Here Jesus seems to be making note about the law, and in this context here, criticizing the easy divorce that was possible for men at His time.  My study Bible comments that because of the misuse of divorce in that day, Jesus repeatedly condemns divorce (see, for example, Matthew 5:31-32; 19:8-9), and He is emphasizing the eternal nature of marriage, and in this sense relating this to the perspective of the kingdom of God.  

In today's reading, Jesus' preaching emphasizes the supremacy of the kingdom of God before all else.  The Pharisees were lovers of money, our text tells us.  But moreover, we know from Christ's criticisms of their hypocrisy they were also lovers of the "praise of men" -- doing many nominally pious things simply in order to be seen by others.  This is the foundation of their hypocrisy, which Jesus roundly condemns in many ways in Matthew 23.  But in saying that one cannot serve both God and mammon, that we must choose between one and the other, Jesus seems to go a step further, and is including those things which are "highly esteemed among men" and calling them an "abomination in the sight of God."   In modern terms, we might consider that what Jesus is referring to here is a kind of purely transactional viewpoint on life, in which only material good is considered as value -- and as part of that material good would be included those things which give one "currency" (that which is "highly esteemed among men").  As my study Bible says, these things include "money, power, position, and praise."   Whether that is reputation, or publicity, or whatever is done purely with the goal of social currency of some sort, becomes a part of this world of mammon, as it is divorced from putting God and God's kingdom first.  For this is the true righteousness that Christ preaches, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets:  seeking to please God first, to participate in God's kingdom even as we live our earthly lives.  Jesus says, "The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it."  This seems to be a parallel with His statement in Matthew 11:  "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.  For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.  And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come" (Matthew 11:11-14).  This "violence" is a reflection of everyone pressing into the kingdom He has preached, heralded by the spirit of Elijah returned in John the Baptist -- and thus the signal for the fulfillment of the law and prophets in Christ's gospel of the kingdom.  And so we live at this time in which we are invited to participate in this Kingdom, this righteousness He offers to us.  But, of course, mammon is with us still, and in some ways possibly more than ever.  Our faith in technology seems to some to have become a kind of replacement religion, even as technological capabilities have reached extraordinary new levels -- much of which offers yet new uncertainties for our future.  In light of Christ's preaching, let us take this to heart with every new turn of the modern world we see before us.  We are commanded to know that even "unrighteous mammon" has uses which can be defined by the priorities of the kingdom of God, and so we put our faith first in living faithful lives.  This is the one defining thing we know.  Regardless of what we think we see and experience around us, there is still the Kingdom in which we dwell, which we carry with us through how we choose to live, how we pray, how we even go into our secret rooms with God who sees in secret (Matthew 6:6).  Perhaps what is true now is these practices are more important than ever, for it is there we find our true treasure, and the way to carry our cross daily through the world.

You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

 

- Luke 16:10-18 

 

In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave a fourth parable, which followed that of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, and also of the Lost Son or Prodigal Son.  Those parables were directed to the scribes and Pharisees who criticized that Christ received and ate with tax collectors and sinners.  But yesterday's paralbe was directed to His disciples.  He said:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Given an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'   So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."  My study Bible comments that the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how that person spends money.  The money which we consider our own is actually another man's -- that is, it belongs to God, or at least to the poor.  My study Bible adds that in patristic teaching, a person's failure to give money to God's work is universally seen as stealing.  Theophylact calls it "nothing less than embezzlement of money belonging to someone else."

 

 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study Bible says that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."  We recall that Christ has also said that He Himself did not come to destroy but to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17).  He Himself is the fulfillment of both in His being, words, and actions, and it is He who preaches the kingdom of God.  A tittle is the smallest stroke in certain Hebrew letters.  Therefore, my study Bible says, the whole of the Law is affirmed as the foundation of Christ's new teaching. 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Jesus cites an example which was actually hotly contested in His time, a source of disputes among the Pharisees themselves.  So in this context, it is an example that is meaningful to them.  Divorce and remarriage at that time also could involve abuse of financial practices concerning a wife's dowry.  My study Bible comments that in contrast to the easy access to divorce under the Mosaic Law, and because of the misuse of divorce in that day, Jesus repeatedly condemns divorce (see also Matthew 5:31-32, 19:8-9) and emphasizes the eternal nature of marriage.  Like all sin, there are forms of abuse that destroy community and relationship, including marriage, but this does not take away from Christ's emphasis and teaching.

We might wonder what Jesus' statement about divorce is doing in the middle of this discussion about money and our use of money ("unrighteous mammon").   As mentioned above, we should note that one issue of divorce involved tricky financial aspects such as a woman's dowry, especially if she divorced and remarried and later return to her first husband.  As the Gospel text notes, money was an important issue for the Pharisees.  But in the context of the Law, it's unquestionable for them that adultery is a violation.  Dispute may center around divorce, and the recognized financial concerns that went with it in the context of that period of time, but about adultery there was no question.  Hence, Jesus makes a clear point here.  One can quibble about the meaning of one thing or another, but in the wider framework He notes the man's responsibility in the marriage and in the context of divorce, and thus adds a deeply serious note regarding the nature of marriage itself.  Looking at today's reading from a modern perspective, we might easily see that just as Jesus calls upon us for a charitable use of our financial resources -- especially within the context of community and fellowship -- so He is also calling upon us to take the context of all of our relationships deeply seriously and within the spirit of charity.  As we give to community, so we also understand marriage to be something worth giving for, and involving sacrifice on the part of both parties.  In this sense, the convenience of money and our use of it does not override deeper considerations of God's understanding of the importance of community and relationships, and the extent to which we make sacrifices in order to ensure a righteousness of right-relatedness, to support community and love.  Taking His words on divorce in context, we may understand from His teachings that there is no greater consideration in making our choices in life than community and right-relatedness.  God's kingdom of love and the drive to salvation becomes an overriding goal that hovers over all of our choices in life, including what we do with our resources and even how we treat our spouses.  We nurture in life the things we put our resources toward.  In terms of the care of the poor, we might consider something as simple as the beautification or building of a Church.  Who benefits?  In a secular world, a public good such as a museum or a place to take children and family might have a costly admission that is impossible for many people.  But in a church, there is no admission, and the poor belong and share in the beauty and blessedness of the Kingdom as well as any wealthy patron.  This is Christ's ideal, and He emphasizes over and over again the need for His good stewards to care for the "least" among them, that this is the job the disciples must learn, for they will be the stewards in His Church, the leaders of His flock.  In an ideal sense, this is the way we may see ourselves as believers and servants who follow.  As He has said elsewhere, Christ's emphasis is on seeking the kingdom of God first, and that all things follow that (Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:31).  This would include our resources of wealth, including our time and attention, and the nurturing of community and relationships, even the close relationship of a spouse.  For the kingdom of God is a blessed way of life, embracing all who truly desire it, and Christ asks us to build our communities and lives upon it.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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 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, chapters 5 - 7 of Matthew's Gospel.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught about prayer:  "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.  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 earthly. treasures.  They become slaves to earthly things rather than free in Christ.  It says that the heart of discipleship lies in first disentangling ourselves from the chains of earthly things, and then attaching ourselves to God, the 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 body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  The mind, my study Bible says, (Greek nous), is the spiritual eye of the soul; it illuminates the inner human being and governs the will.  To keep 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."  My study Bible writes that as slaves serving two masters, people attempt to maintain an attachment to both earthly and heavenly things.  But this is impossible, since both demand full allegiance.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not because wealth is evil by nature, but because of the control it has over people.

In today's reading, Jesus is really trying to get us to take a look at our relationships to the things that are around us.  He asks us to examine our own attachments, and set them in proper order.  The material life has such a strong hold over us if we allow it to be first in our priorities that it becomes a truly demanding master, making slaves of us.  It is hard to realize when one is in this sort of slavery, because we are clearly dependent upon material things and live a material life.  However, the Incarnation itself is a model for us regarding our lives.  Just as we are not to be slaves to our passions, we cannot put the material first.  As my study Bible comments, it is a demanding master.  If we do not put God first, to remember our capacity for worship and put it in the proper place, we will find ourselves worshiping mammon, the material life.  Everything will be measured in terms of material value, when our true dependence is first on God, and then with this priority firmly in place will we be able to come to terms with a proper use of and relationship to material goods.  It is easy to be deluded about the material life, especially within a prosperous world that puts so much emphasis only on this aspect of life.  It's easy to be "out of order" in terms of what our real needs and relationships are.  But worship only belongs in one place, and that is to God.  The mind, or nous in Greek, to which my study Bible refers, is the part of ourselves capable of real perception, and it is this that Jesus refers to as the "eye."  As the lamp of the body, it gives us light, meaning light by which we can truly see what is what in life.  So we must take good care that this eye is pure and without impediment or obstacle in it.  But if we're not capable of this clear perception, if we can't perceive the things of God, our whole world is going to be darkness.  We're never going to see the right path through life.  Jesus is not saying we don't have material goods; He's telling us how easy it is for material goods to have us!  That is, for us to be slaves to material life, rather than putting ourselves in proper order  by our love and loyalty to God first, Who then places things in proper order and priority for us.  This is where we understand that we have treasure in heaven, and the true light by which we need to be guided in life.  It will give us the values we need and the priorities to live by.  We also need to read today's passage in light of yesterday's, in which we were taught the Lord's prayer, and Jesus' words reminded us twice about the power to forgive.  If we take this in context, we understand Jesus' use of the word "debts" to indicate ways in which we've been hurt or sinned against, and it is clear that an attachment to a materialist perspective will lead us to store up those kind of "debts" as well in a disordered way.  This materialist viewpoint will lend itself to a perspective on the hurts and scores we need to settle that renders us unable to see the priorities God would teach us for our true inner health and well-being, the right way of relatedness and righteousness in the world.  Therefore, Jesus is teaching us about the slavery of mammon, how if we don't "see" properly, this materialist viewpoint will pervade all of our lives and leave us in darkness on a number of levels, creating improper order in our lives.  Our focus instead needs to be rooted in God and the things of God, and only then will we have a truly righteous understanding of how we are to live the rest of our lives, what values we assign to things.  His verdict is categorical, and serves as a great warning:  "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."  There is nothing in this world that it is proper to put first, to worship, to make an idol out of, whether that be a political party or leader, a slogan, a drive for material things, an image we seek before others, another human being, friends or family, even an image we have of ourselves and what "success" means on material terms, and this would certain include the drive for material power and position.  There is only one person deserving of worship who has walked in the world, and that is Jesus Christ, both God and man.  What is your true currency in life?  What is your bottom line?  By what light do you see?  What do you put first before everything?  These are the questions we ask ourselves, if we want to avoid real slavery.  We've got to make a choice.

 

 

 

 

You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant 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."

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."

 

- Luke 16:10–17 (18) 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus said to His disciples:  "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?  Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'  Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?  For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.  I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'  So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.'  So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?'  So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.'  And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.  For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."

 

 "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.  Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"   This comment comes in the context of the parable of the Unjust Steward which Jesus has immediately given to His disciples (see yesterday's reading, above).  It refers to our use of the things of this world in the service of our faith, including "unrighteous mammon," our wealth.  According to my study Bible, the test as to whether God will bestow heavenly blessings (true riches) on a person is directly related to how that person spends his money.  The money we consider our own is actually another man's, that is, it belongs to God, or possibly to the poor.  It says that the patristic writers universally see a person's failure to give money to Gods work as stealing.  In the words of Theophan, it is "nothing less than the embezzlement of money belonging to someone else." 

 

"No servant 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."  This is a continuation of Christ's discussion about how we use our material resources and how we live our lives.  We are always servants, in all that we do, and we must choose which master we serve in how we use our material wealth and what we do with it.

 

 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."  My study Bible comments that the things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise.

"The law and the prophets were until John.  Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.  And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.  Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery."  Jesus makes a powerful statement to the Pharisees about the New Covenant.  The kingdom of God has been preached by Christ, and He has taught His apostles to do so as well.  When He sent out the Twelve on their first apostolic mission, He sent them to preach the kingdom of God (Luke 9:2).  When He sent out the Seventy on their apostolic mission, He taught them to say to the people in whatever city they entered, "The kingdom of God has come near to you," and if they were rejected there, to say, "Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you" (see Luke 10:8-12).  Within this context, the emphasis here is on the New Covenant's fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, a deep manifestation of the true spirit and aim of the Law.  In His own time, the Pharisees and others hotly disputed the laws and regulation concerning divorce.  Again, in the context of property and wealth, part of those disputes centered upon the monies that a wife brought with her into marriage, and how these could be abused by certain divorce practices.  But in His talks about marriage as a sacred institution, Jesus emphasizes what is given in Genesis as a picture of love which is meant to be eternal (see Matthew 19:2-10).  In each of these cases, the emphasis remains on the choice to serve God or mammon; the kingdom of God is meant to be a deeper manifestation of covenant with God, governing all that we do.

What does it mean that we are part of a covenant with Christ that forms His gospel of the kingdom of God?  Jesus makes a profound statement when He says, "No servant 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."  What this is telling us is that the one master we choose to serve must govern all of our lives.  There is not one pocket of life in which we make an exception, and other compartments where we can honor God.  But the gospel of the kingdom of God teaches us that the presence of the Kingdom is everywhere; there is no place where it should not be, or where we should not live according to its laws and teachings.  Even when it comes to where and how we spend our money or use our possessions, it's our faith that needs to be honored in what we do.  This means a prayerful life, in which we seek to honor God and find God's way for us in the world.  The past few readings have emphasized the powerful mercy of God that governs the laws of heaven.  This is found in the seeking out of the lost sheep and the lost coin (see Tuesday's reading), the rejoicing over a soul lost to God that has been found again (in the parable of the Lost Son, or Prodigal Son, in Wednesday's reading).  In the parable of the Unjust Steward, in yesterday's reading, above, Jesus taught the disciples about their own mission as sinners among other sinners, as "sons of light" who must deal as shrewdly as the "sons of this world" in terms of their work as servants of God who seek the souls for the kingdom of God.  In all things, as disciples of Christ, we're meant to keep in mind the priorities and prerogatives of God, and especially God's love and mercy and longing for all beings to return to God and to covenant.  In this covenant of the Kingdom, Jesus emphasizes in many different ways the reality of its presence, and that we seek to live this Kingdom even here in this world.  In the Lord's Prayer, He has taught us to pray to Our Father, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Luke 11:2).  In our dealings with others, we will either serve that will or the will of mammon which governs the way we deal with material wealth.  But a consciousness of God's mercy and love must permeate the choices we make, a sense of whom it is we serve must always be with us in the reality of the presence of the kingdom of God.  It is our top priority, our covenant.  Jesus says to the Pharisees, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."   Well, He speaks to us as well, for we are each capable of being modern day Pharisees, in this sense of hypocrisy and love of money.  He is not criticizing wealth itself, nor the beautiful, bountiful things of this world.  But He is aiming at how we use what we have, the blessings we're given -- so that we remember the One who sustains and blesses and honor God with how we steward what we're given.  For the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21).  Let us always strive to remember and honor that presence.

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 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

Yesterday we read that Jesus taught (in the Sermon on the Mount):  "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard by 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.  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.  People becomes slaves, in effect, to earthly things, rather than free in Christ.  The heart of discipleship, a note reads, is to disentangle ourselves from the chains of earthly things and to attach ourselves to God, the 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 body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"   My study bible calls the mind (in Greek, nous/νοῦς) the spiritual eye of the soul.   This capacity for understanding illuminates the inner person and governs the will.  To keep the mind wholesome and pure, it says, 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."  As slaves who serve two masters, my study bible notes, people will attempt to maintain attachments both to earthly and heavenly things.  But this is, in fact, impossible -- both demand full allegiance.  Jesus calls mammon ("riches") a master not as wealth is evil by its nature, but rather because of the control that it has over people.

I find it interesting to read Jesus speaking about treasures to which we cling in the light of our reading from yesterday.  Yesterday, we read the prayer Jesus gives us, called the Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father, in which we're taught to pray:  "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  These debts in the prayer are spiritual, or even debts of the soul.  But Jesus also implies this forgiveness -- or literally "letting go" -- in today's reading regarding material treasure as well.  Taken as a whole it conveys an attitude toward life which Christ calls us to cultivate and maintain.  In today's reading, we're taught to "let go" of our clinging to material treasure as our main goal or central reliance, and turn instead to treasures in heaven.  That is, those things which we acquire when we practice discipleship, especially in the practices of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting which Jesus has just addressed in the Sermon on the Mount (see reading from Monday and yesterday's reading, above).  In the parable Christ gives of Judgment (25:31-46), Jesus emphasizes practices of compassion as those which lend us "credit" in heaven.  Taken all together, our readings give us an emphasis in letting go of our immediate concerns, be they hurts or temptations or passions of any kind -- but doing so in order to give them to God for proper balance and prioritization in life.  Jesus immediately speaks of the eye as the lamp of the body, and therefore emphasizes how we see.  That is how we look at life around us and our immediate concerns and desires.  He encourages us to have a healthy state of perception so that the whole of ourselves may be led in the right direction for life, and so that we live a healthy life in all ways:  spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically.  Once again, it is an emphasis on a healthy integration and balance of body, soul, and spirit.  It reminds us of His earlier words, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell" (5:29).  It is again a warning that "little things" if left uncared for and properly maintained can lead the whole of us into darkness, where we don't want to go.  It will darken our entire worldview.  So, just as in today's reading, Jesus tells us that we can be unwitting slaves to mammon and so must choose what we will serve, so forgiveness of spiritual debts (as in the Lord's Prayer) keeps us from being slaves to old hurts and harmful experience.  So stark is this choice, apparently, that Jesus speaks in terms of slavery and service, and that each master demands full obedience.  This applies on so many levels.  If we are slaves to a worldly perspective, we may spend a lifetime nurturing a grudge and with an inner slavish demand for vengeance or getting our own back.  If our number one priority in life is accumulating possessions above all other considerations in life -- that is, not a healthy understanding of saving and choosing wisely how to use our goods, but rather a love of money (emphasis mine) -- then we are slaves to mammon.  We will not be capable of truly serving God.  I have quite literally experienced this to be true, with the "bottom line" outweighing all considerations of love and even family ties.  In each sense of the material or spiritual, it is Jesus' truth that can set us free of slavishness to something that will not love us back nor guide us in the proper direction for full health and well-being.  As Psalm states, it is far better to be "a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness" (Psalm 84:10).  For in the house of our Father we are loved and cared for, nurtured and given the best medicine and teachings for growth.  Jesus presents us with stark choices, which we perhaps only in rare moments see with such clarity in our normal waking lives.  Let us take His word seriously, for we know of His love for us.  And who wants to be a slave to that which cannot love?

They hated Me without a cause

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

- John 15:12-27

In our current readings, Jesus and the disciples are at the Passover Supper known as the Last Supper.  He is giving to them His Farewell Discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  These things I command you, that you love one another."  Jesus repeats and emphasizes His new and final commandment, first given at 13:34 (see this reading).  He is emphasizing what it means to be a branch in this vine that He calls Himself (in yesterday's reading, above).  My study bible comments here that friendship is higher than servanthood.  It notes that servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty.  But friends obey out of love and in internal desire to do what is good and right.  This is a most important distinction for our faith and its understanding of relationship and hierarchy.  Abraham was called a "friend of God" (James 2:23), which my study bible says was because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart, a true faith or trust.  The disciples -- and all the saints -- are honored as friends of Christ for they freely obey His commandments out of love.  My study bible adds that those who have this spirit of loving obedience are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father.   So important is this new and final command to love one another that Jesus repeats it four times during the Last Supper.

 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  He who hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.  But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"   My study bible comments that the term world is used in several distinct ways in Scripture.  In certain cases, it refers to everything that is glorious, beautiful, and redeemable in God's creation (3:16).  At other times, it is used to refer to that which is finite rather than to that which is eternal (11:9; 18:36).  In still other places, as here, it is used to indicate all that is in rebellion against God (see also 8:23).   My study bible adds that the rebellion of the world against God reveals several things.  First of all, while union with Christ brings love, truth, and peace, it also will bring persecution, because the world hates love and truth.  Secondly, the world hated Christ; therefore, it will hate all those who try to be Christlike.  In addition, the world hates Christ because it neither knows nor desires to know the Father.  Finally, hatred for Jesus Christ is irrational and unreasonable.  Christ brings love and mercy -- and He is therefore hated without a cause. 

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."    My study bible says that with respect to God's working salvation in the world, the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father.  With respect to the divine nature, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father.  While the Son is begotten of the Father alone, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; the Source, the Fountainhead, of both Persons is the Father. 

What is it that causes hatred in the world toward Christ, its Creator?  In the most objective sense, this hatred is not rational.  This is not merely because Christ is Creator, but rather because Christ brings into the world what is nominally good, and true, and beautiful.  He brings love.  He brings what is good and orderly to our lives, and helps us make sense of what is not sensible that surrounds us.  He brings order out of chaos, and this is part of salvation for all those who have experienced Christ's healing love and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  But the spirit of rebellion against God lives in our world.  There is still the struggle between God and mammon, between what is merciful and kind and what is merely expeditious and absent all compassion.  We still struggle, as human beings, with our own greed and selfishness.  But most of all the struggle -- and the picture Christ presents here of the contrast or conflict between Himself and the world -- seems to be the contrast between a purely materialistic outlook on life, and one that respects life as something so much more than material, something requiring respect for its potentials, and its Source, and the capabilities of love inherent in that Source of all life for each of us.  Where there is an absence of this understanding, there is a hatred of the possibilities that Christ -- and the Helper, the Holy Spirit -- brings to every situation.  There is a hatred of love, a hatred of compassion, and a will only to the purely material which of course justifies a selfish or self-centered attitude toward all of life.  But Christ emphasizes hatred here.  This is an active contempt for the things of God, and of course for God, and its effects and presence should not be underestimated nor overlooked; and neither should its response to love.  In this midst of this persecution, Jesus emphasizes witnessing, testimony.  The Helper is called the Spirit of truth, and He it is who will testify to the things of Christ for us.  We in turn will witness to the world, and be prepared for its response.  This is a clear-eyed and level-headed call for the love of truth -- right to its absolute depths in spiritual truth, in the reality of the love of God, and the proclamations of the God of love to the world through Christ.  It does not hesitate to say that the world's response will be hatred, but neither does it hesitate to call us to obedience to its commands out of our own capacity for love and response to that love.  In John's First Epistle, he writes of Christ, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).  This is where we are, the existential condition of the follower and friend of Christ.  Do we respond to that love?  Or does that love and mercy only bring us a sense of entitlement, of selfishness?  It is up to us.  It is our choice.  His call to us -- and His command -- is clear.  His mission is always ready for us to take up.