No One Can Serve Two Masters

There’s a special word that Jesus used twice in one verse that we can easily overlook. See if you can spot it:

“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)

It’s the word “serve.” Notice that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He used the same word:

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” (Matthew 4:8-10, emphasis added)

The Greek word for “serve” means “to be a slave to” or “to be devoted to.” In other words, instead of loving God with our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we will love money with that same devotion. It will be our source of joy.

Nightly Ritual 

I’ve been on a restricted diet for about two years. This is because I found that I had an intolerance to wheat. That meant that I couldn’t eat any bread—until my wonderful wife found some Ezekiel flax bread.

“I serve God with all my heart because it’s my reasonable service. I’m an unprofitable servant (see Luke 17:7-10). I owe money nothing, so I’ll not give it my allegiance. I owe God everything, so He has everything I have.”

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If you want to see a nightly ritual, watch me make toast. When the bread is toasted, I let it cool down, put on butter, carefully drizzle honey around the edges, and pile a little portion in the middle for my last bite. I put it on a plate and carefully carry it over to my armchair.

I did this one night recently, and as I sat down, I couldn’t believe what happened. A fly came from nowhere and landed right on my wonderful creation—and it couldn’t leave because it was stuck in the honey.

If we build our sweet little kingdom on money rather than God, we can be sure a fly will eventually land on it. The Bible says,

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 was the case of the rich man of whom Jesus spoke who planned to build bigger barns to store his possessions (see Luke 12:16-21). Then he sat back and made a toast to his wealth. But God called him a fool, and death took him that night. It was also the case with Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5:1-11). They loved money, and they too were swallowed by death because of it.

Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (emphasis added).

There’s that word “serve” again. I serve God with all my heart because it’s my reasonable service. I’m an unprofitable servant (see Luke 17:7-10). I owe money nothing, so I’ll not give it my allegiance. I owe God everything, so He has everything I have.

I hope it’s the same with you.