"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 6:24)
Commentary: "Bob Dylan got it right when he sang, "you're gonna have to serve somebody" Jesus says it is impossible to serve two masters. Now I know that some of you are struggling with this dilemma, trying to serve more than one master and I can truly say that my heart aches to see the pain that that struggle causes. Its nothing new, many coming running like the rich young ruler to ask Christ how to be saved, but then end up sorrowing when they hear that they cannot serve him and the world at the same time. Still many keep trying in vain, as JC Ryle put it:
"Thousands on every side are continually trying to do the thing which Christ pronounces impossible. They are endeavoring to be friends of the world and friends of God at the same time. Their consciences are so far enlightened, that they feel they must have some religion. But their affections are so chained down to earthly things, that they never come up to the mark of being true Christians. And hence they live in a state of constant discomfort. They have too much religion to be happy in the world, and they have too much of the world in their hearts to be happy in their religion. In short, they waste their time in laboring to do that which cannot be done. They are striving to "serve God and mammon."
Friends leave off trying to serve God and the World, it will cause you nothing but pain and frustration.
Also remember the example of those who have gone before us. Paul had to fund his missions via tent-making, and virtually every giant of the Christian faith has either been poor or had just enough to get by, because they understood well that you cannot serve both God and Mammon and that with great wealth there are huge temptations. Dallimore notes in his excellent little biography of Charles Haddon Spurgeon that with the sales of his books and sermons, constant contributions from benefactors and anonymous donors, and even presents from his own congregation that they begged him to keep Spurgeon could have been quite rich, and yet again and again he and his wife gave all their money away and plowed it back into various ministries and benevolent organizations. So that the Spurgeons often had to economize themselves. They were willing to do this because they had chosen to follow one master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they knew that their real treasure was in heaven. Do you?
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