A Brutal Master

Matthew 6:24 You cannot serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one and love the other, or you will be loyal to one and not care about the other. You cannot serve God and Money at the same time.

I’m sure there’s not a one of us that wouldn’t agree that money is a good thing. Of course it is!! Well … it’s certainly a great servant. But money and wealth is always such a brutal master.

We each have a choice to make. Who or what in life are we going to serve? Are we going to sacrifice our lives on the altar of wealth and success, or are we going to pour our lives out in our love of God and of other people? That pretty much sums it up.

Whichever way you cut it, it’s a binary choice: to love money, or to love God. To become a slave on the treadmill of work and success, or to sacrifice our lives in following Jesus.

Now, we’d like to kid ourselves into believing that we can have both – that we can love and desire wealth and success on the one hand, and honour and serve God on the other. I used to think that too, but eventually, you get to the point of realising that it’s just not possible to be a dog with two masters. Jesus put it like this:

You cannot serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one and love the other, or you will be loyal to one and not care about the other. You cannot serve God and Money at the same time. (Matthew 6:24)

Can I ask you, honestly, who or what are you serving? Who or what is the master of your life? It’s one or the other. If you’re trying to do both, you’ll realise just how impossible it is.

The desire for wealth calls you in one direction, while Jesus calls you in the other.

Many people sacrifice the three most important things of all – their faith, their family and their friends – to the love of money. (I’m somewhat of an expert on the subject.) But eventually you realise that every choice has a cost. We kind of know that – so many of us are torn, between serving wealth, and something better than wealth.

Remember, you can’t be a dog with two masters. It just doesn’t work. You can’t serve both God and your desire for wealth. Eventually, you have to make a choice. It’s one or the other.

So … which will it be, God or wealth?

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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