One Master

"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." - Luke 16.13

There is always a problem living in two worlds. On the one hand we have to live in the physical world. On the other hand our citizenship is in heaven. On the one hand we have to deal with all the situations here. On the other hand we are to keep our eyes on heavenly things. On the one hand we live in a world that says ‘get all you can get.’ On the other hand we are told to be good stewards of God’s resources.

In our lives the natural inclination is to try and walk a balance between the two choices. There is a strong draw on Christians to live a dual life. On the one hand we want to serve Jesus, but on the other hand we don’t really want to give up our service to the world.

But we have a dilemma - ‘No man can serve two masters.’

Why? ‘Because he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (wealth)’

The specific object here is wealth. That makes sense because ‘the love of money is the source of all kinds of evil.’

The truth is that we really can’t serve God and anything else. Elijah once challenged the people to stop trying to serve God and Baal. It was time to choose the one they would serve. Joshua said ‘as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.’

We really need to wake up. We can’t keep carrying on trying to serve God while keeping one foot following the world. Following Christ is a full time job. We need to get over our part-time Christianity and follow our one Master.